News Media Monetization and available Currencies
I am sure we all understand by now, that parts of the News Media industry are in utter disarray, and that this is primarily due to the fact that monetization of their products has changed drastically.
In my opinion and as we examine Online News Media, it very much seems like there is a mixed understanding of the actually currency in which the newsreader can pay for the product. If we focus on the statement, that it is always the actual newsreader who pays, something which I very much believe to be true, we should conclude on the currency in which he pays, before we even debate the actual monetization strategy.
As I was talking to an executive of a major Newspaper the other day, I presented a theory that the newsreader can only pay in the following three currencies:
- Time
- Data
- Money
Even though the above newsreader currencies are almost self-explanatory, let me just elaborate a bit.
Time spent on a given News Media destination or reading a specific article is Attention and Engagement that can be sold to an Advertiser. Data is something that the reader hands over unintentionally as he navigates the news media property, but also something which he can hand over voluntarily. Data can be used to enhance the quality of what’s already sold the to the advertiser, of course, but it is certainly also something that can be sold as a separate product in a number of ways. Finally there is the opportunity to actually just charge the reader directly for the product, such as setting up a paywall, metered consumption system and so on and so forth.
I am not going to add any suggestions on where I believe we could or should optimize, as I am quite eager to see if we can at least agree on the above currencies first. Because, as see it, for us to have a meaningful conversation around monetization, we need to look at the above on an individual level.
Do we agree ?
Cheers :-)
/ Dennis (@dennismortensen)
March 31st, 2010 at 14:17
I am sure this is a subset of one of your three, but what about a reader’s role in promotion? Sharing articles, recommending people become subscribers, etc? I suppose this is somewhere inbetween time and data, but it’s not necessarily engaged time. It’s more like… effort? Or activity? I am not one of those people who wants to cram a social aspect into every little thing, by any means, but the news in particular is a very socially-oriented thing. People share articles and stories all the time. My parents get the paper and we all read different sections when I am home – the idea of offering something for everyone is (used to be?) key.
March 31st, 2010 at 14:47
Hey Jen,
I’ve spent so much time around this subject that I’ve come to expect, that the definition of a newsreader includes participation. So a newsreader spends time engaging with the content in a number of ways beyond passively reading it. Some of the activities (time spent) is more or less valuable than others. AND some of those activities will definitely enhance the data attributes and likely the overall data quality, potentially increasing the value of that particularly currency.
So in conclusion and as I am trying to get to an atomic level, I agree with you, that once one start to flesh out the above three currencies; sharing an article and other social activities will most certainly be represented under TIME and under DATA.
Cheers
d. :-)
April 21st, 2010 at 16:06
[...] The above offline publishing metrics are fairly easy to understand, even though you probably, like me, spend most your day around online specific metrics. Please note that the concept of paying for, does not necessarily equal a payment in money. I identified earlier, that a newsreader is likely to pay in one of three currencies. [...]