Perhaps the most surprising statistic in the report was that “more than 99% of the stories linked to [by Bloggers] came from legacy media outlets like newspapers and broadcast networks”.
Which means the new media (i.e. the web) constituted less than 1% of the content links for Bloggers.
What’s more an astonishing 49% of those links are to articles published online by US Newspapers and Magazines. So what does this mean for the much maligned Newspaper Industry?
It means a couple of things. Firstly it is pretty obvious from the statistics provided in the report that the old media still sets the information agenda – both online and offline. Secondly it still means that, if the old media can get their business model right, they can thrive and profit online.
The question is what would the right business model look like?
As I have said before it is all about owning or at least profiting from the platform.
At the moment old media doesn’t own the platform. It is merely providing the content engine that allows others to profit from the platform and, as I have said before, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise there is more money in owning the platform than generating content for the platform. So what can they do to change this dynamic?
Let’s take a look at what a new media platform for the magazine, newspaper, radio and TV industries could look like.
The first clue is in the Pew Research Center Report. At the moment 99% of the stories in the Blogosphere are link to mainstream media reports. However the mainstream media (e.g. The New York Times) have no way of profiting from those links except when a reader clicks on the link and reads the original article on the newspaper’s web site.
The solution the newspapers and magazines have come up with to introduce a pay wall. This means that when the reader follows the link they can’t read the article unless they are willing to subscribe.
The problem with this model is only a small percentage of readers follow the link and those that do probably are not interested in paying to read more at the source. So the pay wall becomes a regressive or Lose:Lose scenario for all players.
So what happens if we turn the model on its head and start paying the bloggers to drive traffic to the news sites?
Imagine if the New York Times – and the other newspapers – created a revolutionary new blogging platform that allowed the newspaper industry to control rather than contribute to the blogosphere’s ecosystem?
What if the newspaper and magazine industry created a platform that provided bloggers with the content they obviously want, the authoring tools to create a significantly better product, access to editorial expertise, a share of the advertising revenues (along the lines of the App Store model with a 70:30) and the opportunity for the best blogger’s content to be published under the flagship banners of the world’s leading newspaper and magazine brands?
Here then is a win:win scenario.
The newspapers attract a significantly larger audience (plus it is much stickier) plus there are millions of contributing authors, photographers and illustrators (not just 10-100’s). All the platform has to do is to ensure the best talent receives the visibility, recognition and the rewards it deserves (and perhaps craves).
At the moment there an estimated 130 Million Blogs in the Blogosphere. If each one of those blogs averages just 10 hits a day then the aggregated advertising revenues (@CPM of $0.50) of the Blogosphere are in excess of $235 Million per year. Mainstream media can either continue to feed this DIY media advertising platform or it can own it, operate it and profit from it.
The same principle applies to TV and Radio. Here to the old broadcast media could profit from providing the platform that allows the online avant-garde to explore the new.
Clearly the mobile device is the media platform of the future and no doubt mobile blogging or moblogging will be an important part of that future. It all depends if the mainstream media think they are still in the business of “reporting all the news that’s fit to print” or if they are now in the business of “helping their audience to discover who is talking about what today”.
The future of media is inclusive not exclusive. It’s about sharing the experience, not just distributing the content. It’s also about being mobile and in the moment. Clearly the Pew Research Center Report indicates people want to interact with mainstream media. It’s now up to the mainstream media to discover new ways of profiting from that interaction.
Posted on May 25, 2010
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