Participants in API's Newsmedia Economic Action Plan Conference (Sept. 13-15) worked in small discussion groups to tackle a number of topics related to monetizing content. Two groups discussed New Business Models. Here are their recommendations:
GROUP 1
The first group considered the challenge in two parts:
• How to develop new business opportunities
• What new products or services appear promising
How to develop new businesses
1. The news industry needs a strategic-planning process to set priorities, then it can buy, build or partner for the solutions. There seems to be no shortage of ideas; the key is to create a strategy where the top priorities are tackled.
2. The enterprise structure must change to be less focused on function and more matrix-like, pooling people with complementary skills to take projects from idea to completion.
3. Especially when resources are tight, news organizations must find a way to develop funding for new competencies through hiring, retraining, partnering or technology.
4. Whoever develops new businesses must have P&L authority and responsibility. People too often think of launching a new product or service as the end rather than the beginning. There are great lessons in "we media" world where blogger/ entrepreneurs are successful only if they drive traffic and then revenue.
5. To optimize success, don't just look at the size of an audience in evaluating its potential. Look at the product of audience size plus engagement. It is important to target the greatest number of readers/users who are highly engaged.
Promising business ideas
1. Lead generation and fulfillment
2. Selling metadata that has been merged and organized:
a) User data - garnered from subscriptions and registrations
b) Behavioral data - tracked around Web usage
c) Public data -- real estate, licenses, etc.
d) Purchased data -- from aggregators
3. Acting as the agent or broker of transactional commerce.
4. Being a principal in transactional commerce.
5. Learning to make money providing users with information from anywhere -- even information from outside sources with whom you share revenue.
Group members: Jim Berry of Dallas Morning News, Kelly Bolyard of Paddock Publications Inc., Ryan Davis of Philadelphia Media Holdings , Bill Densmore of Media Giraffe Project and CircLabs Inc., Jim Lenahan of Gannett Co. Inc., Dale Peskin of We Media Group, and Sharon Prill of Journal Interactive/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
GROUP 2
"Ain't gonna find no miracles here"
Assumptions
• No one model solves all our problems.
• Content alone, or adjacency to content alone, should not be our only value proposition.
Related to content
1. Information bundles
• Data plus articles plus visualizations plus mashups
• Consumers might pay, or adjacencies might be attractive
2. Cross-site micropayments: An Amazon model for content providers
3. Aggregation: Of heads/teasers, Of classified ads
4. Books, special publications, custom content services. Our own stuff. Write, edit, design for others
Related to audience
1. Premium membership for interactivity, not content
More than X comments per day? Pay up.
Round out a membership bundle.
2. Online panel research
Focus on buying power segments.
Round out databases with behavior data.
Marketing services
1. Ad messages treated as data
•Create a "permanent" home for paid advertisers.
• Deals database sorted by:
• Expiring
• LIFO (last in, first out)
• "Editorial" picks
2. Local fulfillment for small and medium-size businesses:
• Online or in-store
• Surpluses/excess
• An 'OpenTable' for local retail
3. Auction events
4. Truck wraps
5. Multi-level marketing with advertising
6. Event promotions:
• Concerts
• Fairs, trade shows
Group members: Mike Albin of Evening Post Publishing Newspaper Group, Virginia Edwards of Editorial Projects in Education, Jana Jones of the St. Petersburg Times, Jason Kissell of Boston Globe Media, Augustin Meizoso of El Nuevo Dia, and Jay Small of E. W. Scripps Co.
