{"id":42,"date":"2005-10-07T15:32:03","date_gmt":"2005-10-07T23:32:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/kalamazoo\/?p=42"},"modified":"2016-06-07T16:01:49","modified_gmt":"2016-06-08T00:01:49","slug":"what-are-commons-models-how-they-can-be-built-and-sustained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/kalamazoo\/2005\/10\/07\/what-are-commons-models-how-they-can-be-built-and-sustained\/","title":{"rendered":"What Are Commons Models? How they can be built and sustained?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exploring economic models capable of sustaining and growing relevant journalism?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Convened by:<\/strong>
\nLew Friedland Friday 9:30am<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/strong>
\nSarah Stuteville<\/p>\n

Participants<\/strong>
\nKaren Toering
\nJean Min
\nKen Berents
\nJan Schaffer
\nLisa Cohen
\nJonathon Lawson
\nJarah Euston
\nSarah Stuteville
\nStacy Lynch
\nSue Ellen Christian
\nBill Krasean
\nLew Friedland
\nMelinda Wittstock
\nCindy Zehnder
\nStephen Silha
\nPeggy Holman<\/p>\n

Discussion \"Models-1-pg<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jan-
\nJimmy Wales of Wikipedia commented he\u2019s organized as a non-profit but now has revenues, though it\u2019s all citizen content. Someone like him Entered the arena with no aspirations for an economic model, but one has emerged.<\/p>\n

Lisa-
\nMaybe we should take a vote and see if people want to keep these two topics together?<\/p>\n

Melinda-
\nCommons models are a subset of larger economic issue.<\/p>\n

If you have an idea do you throw it on the wall and see if it sticks, or figure out the economic stuff first?<\/p>\n

Linda-
\nWhat eco models are people familiar with?<\/p>\n

Jean-
\nWhat is the real value of journalism? What are people willing to pay for? How do we figure that out? How do you put a price on this stuff?<\/p>\n

Ken-
\nPsychic income<\/p>\n

Jean-
\nIsn\u2019t journalism rewarding enough? Or is it? What about fame?<\/p>\n

Lew-
\nThere is the economy of time and attention that readers\/citizens can invest in your media. They give you time and attention which is something.<\/p>\n

(Someone asks how Jean how OhmyNews supports itself)<\/p>\n

Jean-
\nOhmyNews is 40% ad supported, 20% wire service type sales<\/p>\n

\"Models<\/strong>Stacy-
\nI spent a lot of time on profit and loss statements, on all this stuff. I can do the nitty gritty of this stuff. I think that finding a sustainable model for commons sites is an easier question than how we can do that for more traditional journalism. Commons models are so much less expensive. The single biggest cost for papers is newsprint (20%), than payroll(20%) (and 20% of that payroll is for the newsroom). The cost of subscriptions only pays for the print paper, we spend 20% selling it. There\u2019s a lot of mechanics that goes with it.<\/p>\n

80% is advertising. Within that a lot is classifieds. This is why the commons models are killing old papers. They can\u2019t charge for listings anymore. How can we think of cheap less expensive ways to do the basic nitty ritty fact finding that every community needs?<\/p>\n

You need 30 reporters on local politics. Citizen journalists can\u2019t be counted on to do the less glamorous stuff like school districts, and local politics–the hard, time intensive stuff.<\/p>\n

Ken-
\nCitizen journalists may not have the same access, lawsuits, ability to make requests for information. Citizen journalists can\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n

Jarah-
\nNews orgs should wean their readers off of print<\/p>\n

Ken-
\nThis is a generational issue. Newspapers should be more expensive.<\/p>\n

Stacy-
\nIf we could just get rid of print, it would be easier. But the number one hurdle is that print is a more effective ad medium. Ad inserts are big. It is not as attractive on web.<\/p>\n

Somebody-
\nAdvertisers can direct mail.<\/p>\n

Stacy\u2014too expensive<\/p>\n

Melinda\u2014What drives circulation? How much does it have to do with journalistic content and quality? How much can journalists do to increase circulations of their papers?<\/p>\n

Stacy\u2014In the research we do about our readers 70% want good content. The people that really make this work are the subscribers.<\/p>\n

Lew\u2014Young people don\u2019t read papers anymore, they read on-line. They may have the habit of reading a paper but just don\u2019t want it in print. I think this will continue to happen– exponentially.<\/p>\n

(Stacy)\u2014Advertisers don\u2019t get results with ads on the web because they just don\u2019t work, people have learned how to ignore them<\/p>\n

(Lew)\u2014Part of the heart of this discussion is the cost of the daily report (20% for payroll 20% of that which goes to the newsroom). For those that care about journalism, the daily report is the heart of what makes journalism work. Sustaining that report economically is so important. If we lose that daily report the commons models can\u2019t fill in the need.<\/p>\n

(Somebody)–Can they?<\/p>\n

(Lew)–For me the argument about economic sustainability is essentially about economically sustaining the daily report.<\/p>\n

Commons models alone (I\u2019m building one in Madison) cannot sustain the daily report. They will never pay for the level of professionalism that we have come to expect.<\/p>\n

(Linda)\u2014What about broadcast the new requirements to have this stuff on 24 hrs a day? The owners expect huge profit margins from us. What we see is that the quality has decreased and we\u2019re using fewer people with less experience. Now you have to cover on LMA plus your regular station. You\u2019re covering for too many entities at once. We need full time experienced journalists that are trained.<\/p>\n

(Ken– you need an editor, citizen journalists don\u2019t have that.<\/p>\n

(Melinda)\u2014one of the reasons public trust has eroding in part is because nobody knows who to trust because there are so many sources and so much information out there. Truth has gotten lost in that. The more we get cut back economically the more we have to count on Citizen Journalists. It\u2019s a flowering of democracy to a point. But how good is it?<\/p>\n

(Ken)–I have a solution, I follow these companies closely. The margins are going down and will get worse. These companies should go private. When you are a public company you have to compete with everyone.<\/p>\n

(Jonathan)\u2014What is the big picture? What is the role of media in our society? How does it help make our civic society work? Having a business model where the primary driving of the news organization is to maximize shareholder value may be able to coexist with good journalism, but it may not, and actually it probably won\u2019t.<\/p>\n

(Jean)\u2014What about BBC?<\/p>\n

(Everyone Talking)\u2014Different culture! Different eco model!<\/p>\n

(Melinda)\u2014BBC is a non-profit, if you buy T.V. that money goes to a common fund and some gets directed to them. Capitol New Connection has found a way to get around this. Public radio would all have correspondents on Capitol Hill if they could afford it. CNC works by being hard nosed and productive, its reporters think about how they can maximize a story. It is affordable to public radio, they get their own correspond on Capitol Hill. It is an economy of scale. Reporters are paid between 45-55 thousand a year. As we grow their pay grows.<\/p>\n

Non-profit news. This is a trend.<\/p>\n

(Ken)\u2014BBC tax model v. revenue model<\/p>\n

(Melinda)\u2014Everyone in public radio is trying to diversify revenue models.<\/p>\n

(Karen)\u2014The difference between non-profit and revenue is the difference between re-investment in the company vs. divvying it out to shareholders.<\/p>\n

(Bill)\u2014Has anybody looked at bottom line between public and private models?<\/p>\n

(Cindy)\u2014One thing to be careful about is trying to define \u201cA Model\u201d that works. One of the good things coming out of all of this is finding a number of models that work. There are many ways to get at all of this. Listening to the different possible models may help find something new. Maybe there isn\u2019t one new model that we can find that will offer us the security we want. Maybe we should bundle models.<\/p>\n

(Jonathan)\u2014Multiplicity of models. Public media has a pressure to diversify fund sources. This is an opportunity to think about moving the other way. We should increase and celebrate public subsidies for media. Every broadcast company is hugely subsidized. Postage used to be subsidized. Why can\u2019t news be so too (print)?<\/p>\n

(Stacy)\u2014I want to counter argue that. In Latin America they don\u2019t have the advertising base. In many ways they all started off in highly subsidized situation. But they are highly controlled by the government. Their number one advertiser is the government. and if they pull their ad because they don\u2019t like what is being printed they can destroy papers.<\/p>\n

(Cindy)\u2014I am government. subsidized. 80% of our operational funds come from state funds. We are also governed by an independent board of directors. I am acutely aware that what we do is not the kind of investigative journalism that would be too challenging to local government. You would not see us suing local legislature for information. We want to be wholesaler and retailer for other organizationss (getting out good info).<\/p>\n

(Linda)\u2014The critical thing to me is that there are many ways we can get our national and international news. We can\u2019t outsource local though. As I watch and read our news, it seems to me we have gotten off track, as far as content. It\u2019s like a crow looking at the shiniest thing and following it around. Is there a desire for a new thoughtful newscast? The market share is decreasing and all of the stations are going for a tiny piece of the pie.<\/p>\n

(Jan)\u2014You build your model on trust in the community. How do you leverage your trust in the community with other things that are of value. (target info, target ads)<\/p>\n

(Ken)\u2014target ads that\u2019s were everyone is going.<\/p>\n

(Jarah)\u2014Wouldn\u2019t it be great if your news source targeted ads to you as well?<\/p>\n

(Jan)\u2014Can you monetize an affinity group (the way blogs are affinity groups)<\/p>\n

(Lew)\u2014There is no way that you can monetize trust around something like the local school board. No one will pay me to cover the local school board. Here\u2019s the problem, what broadcasters are doing, they used to have State Capitol correspondents now they\u2019ve dropped them. Now papers are dropping them so they can rely on state spans, but everyone here is talking about how state spans are limited in what they cover (see Cindy\u2019s comment from earlier).<\/p>\n

(Lew)\u2014small local papers are being set up to cover their communities. That\u2019s what is happening.<\/p>\n

(Stacy)\u2014Advertisers aren\u2019t the only problem here, there are many ways that advertiser can continue to be the primary funders. Advertising is not the root of the direction journalism is going.<\/p>\n

(Lisa)\u2014Maybe we can set something up so that advertisers understand or see how supporting high quality reporting is in their interest.<\/p>\n

(Cindy)\u2014People need and want to info, (even if trust is low). I want to throw out another model, KEXP, Paul Allen supported radio station. They want to create a tribe around the music experience that they show and create. The music is just stream, there is concerts and all kinds of things they do. They are building an affinity group around the music experience.<\/p>\n

(Lew)\u2014translate that to journalism<\/p>\n

(Cindy)\u2014people that are tied to certain concept journalism might be willing to pay for it. I want to organize people so that if they want to look for quality reporting. Starbucks model, people that pull together around the Starbucks experience, music, etc.<\/p>\n

(Jarah)\u2014Starbucks hasn\u2019t been that successful with that<\/p>\n

(Stacy)\u2014People would have to pay like $600 a year to subscribe to a good paper is we get to the point where readers pay for all this themselves.<\/p>\n

(Melinda)\u2014Local coverage with NPR. Morning edition audience nationally is huge. And it\u2019s a huge audience that advertisers want to reach.<\/p>\n

(Lew)\u2014There is only a very small niche of people that want NPR. What about wi-fi? I\u2019 in S.C. and it\u2019s a wi-fi as soon as you turn your computer on the first thing you see is the website of the local paper. Google announced that they are giving out wi-fi free. Basic level will be free and then you pay up for the other levels (like cable). What about Times Select? They only restrict 2% of their content. (Columnists Friedman) and archives, but people will pay for that stuff and you can increase revenue. Broadcast could do this too.<\/p>\n

(Cindy)\u2014The distinction between all of these mediums is beginning to go away. Think about convergence (not just print, broadcast, radio, etc)<\/p>\n

Point of clarification on the Goodgle Wi-Fi deal<\/p>\n

(Lew) the way this works. A company just signed up to put wi-fi all up<\/p>\n

Supporting media without advertising?<\/p>\n

(Karen)\u2014We need a low barrier for participation in this information. I am concerned with levels and qualities of information for the haves and the have nots. I really can\u2019t see this<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Exploring economic models capable of sustaining and growing relevant journalism? Convened by: Lew Friedland Friday 9:30am Notes: Sarah Stuteville Participants Karen Toering Jean Min Ken Berents Jan Schaffer Lisa Cohen Jonathon Lawson Jarah Euston Sarah Stuteville Stacy Lynch Sue Ellen … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-session-notes"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/kalamazoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/kalamazoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/kalamazoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/kalamazoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/kalamazoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/kalamazoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/kalamazoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions\/46"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/kalamazoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/kalamazoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/kalamazoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}