1. NEWSPAPERS AND THE DIGITAL
DILEMMA
MA – DigitalContent Landscape
@_johnmills

2. The ‘Plan’
 Outline newspaper heritage
 How newspaper income streams functioned in later 20th
century
 The emergence of the ‘digital dilemma’
 How newspapers have responded
 The Future????

3. History
 Newspapers published in some form since
17th Century
 19th Century sees current format:
standardised content and revenue directed
from advertising model
 20th Century sees development and demise
of editorial ‘truth’ and expansion of
newspaper publishers.
 Audience is ‘captive’ and editorial agendas
increasingly follow political line
Recent History
 Emergence of internet at ‘platform’ and
‘writing for the web’
 Publication of ‘free-sheets’ to combat
changing environment with analogue form

4. Why do we need newspapers, the media and the fourth estate?
 Inform (and entertain) the public
 Hold to hold powerful to account on behalf of the public
 To reflect the public’s mood and views and foster debate
 Separation of the press from government

5. Traditional income streams: how to fund a
newspaper?
• cover price
• advertising
• subscriptions
70 to 80 per cent of Newspaper income is generated through advertising
Donica Mensing, Newspaper Research Journal

6. …and then, in 1981, digital arrives (kind of)
 Problems highlighted:
 How do we access news online?
 How is the process paid for?
 What do the consumers
expect/require from the
‘product’?
 The industry is still wrestling
with much of this

7. Digital emergence and economic challenges

8. The Digital Dilemma(s) beyond the world
of 1981
 Advertising pounds/dollars depart
 Readers shift to online and ‘free’ model:
fundamental change in behaviour
 Niche publications become increasingly
popular
 Newspaper publishers move beyond
communities
 Multi-media output challenges traditional
assumptions
Ultimately, consumers wanted more content,
for less money – or for even no money at all.
“2009 saw newspaper advertising revenue fall by 38.1%”
Newspaper Association of America

9. Some diagrammatical illustrations
UK newspaper circulation falling
Advertising revenue moving away from newspapers
Driven by multiple advertising options – a factor
fuelled by multi-platform age

10. DIGITAL = THREAT…?!?
Why is add revenue and readership falling….?

11. Platforms: Digital first…
 Guardian announces ‘digital first’ strategy. Hopes to double digital
revenue (currently £37 million) in five years
 The primary platform no longer made from trees
 Convergence: video, audio, live streaming, live collaboration,
crowdsourcing. Newspaper groups become multimedia publishers

12. Diversification
of online
revenue streams
A bit of a boring table

13. The Device, Apps and Apple
 New revenue streams
 Content subscriptions
 Apps
 HTML 5 web apps
 Users engage with content in
new ways, at different times
and in different locations
 Content can be produced that
is dedicated to the device
 Users can generate content
and access peer networks of
publication

14. Another graph!

15. Analytics…
 Why is online so appealing to advertisers? It’s not just about
numbers, it’s about data.
 A nice example: FT’s reader DNA concept

16. Recap:Reading trends
 (Almost ) infinite choice
 High speed access
 Paywalls vs ‘free ‘
 Peer to peer publishing

17. Rethinking assets: Show me the value

18. A publishers asset-base: a short diagram by Ross Dawson

19. The device – multimedia
in your pocket
 A technological and
consumption paradigm
shift in what users can
consume and generate.
 Content goes out as well
as in
 Communication and
publication options
expand
 Ability to connect and
converse on a local,
national and global level

20. The
device

21. Mark Deuze and the ‘device’
 Suggests media forms part of individual
and sociological make-up to the extent we
live in media rather than with it.
 Viewed ontologically, the media around us
shapes our understanding the world,
ourselves and our perception of what is
‘real’. Replicates some of Baudrillard
thinking -The GulfWar Did NotTake Place
 The device is the portal through which we
consume this media, and we’re
increasingly forming multi-level
relationships with the devices we own.
This creates opportunities and difficulties
for publishers of all kinds

22. Device design: the skeuomorph

23. Skeuomorphism

24. The Future…
• Multi-platform and convergence
• Paywalls, premium content and the free model
•Tablets and smartphones offer new media opportunities and
app-based transactions
•Tailored content to specific audiences
• Disruptive technologies will impact on established publication
practice
• Digital platforms and hardware (tablets/smartphones) offer a
different user experience and methods of streaming news and
information. New consumption methods will continue to
emerge
•Analytic data will help publishers meet future demands
• Diversification of non-traditional income streams
• Developing mobile networks: 4G currently being rolled out
• Less invasive landscapes: Ambient and incidental publication

25. Flickr credits…
campra
Peagreengirl
zarko drincic
wokka
@superamit
Pauli Antero
Jesslee Cuizon
Don Solo
vermin inc
B Tal
Canis Major
GF Peck
...-Wink-...
Leondel
Jivedanson
Mbiebusch
Wooly Matt
Lori Greig