The Changing Conditions of Journalism in Japan and Finland - Case SuBmoJour -project

1. The Changing Conditionsof Journalism in Japan and Finland- Case SuBmoJour -project Mikihito Tanaka, Waseda University Esa Sirkkunen, COMET, University of Tampere Finnish-Japanese seminar: Research in Ubiquitous Communication and Services 16.12.2011 Embassy of Finland, Tokyo

2. The Context • Rapidly changing environment of journalism, changes in the media consumption, media markets, media technology, media ethics • The highly profitable newspaper business is becoming mortal • Slow crisis of the ”public good” –model of media already from early 1990s • A tipping point? => social media and the 2008 crisis

3. Japan 94->92% 2002-2008 Finland 82->79 % 2005 -2008 Japan and Finland have had very high newspaper reach nationally but it has started to decline USA 55 -> 45/48 2001 - 2008 OECD: News & Internet 2010

4. Finland USA Japan OECD: News & Internet 2010

5. Finland -7% Japan -15% USA -30% Estimated newspaper publishing market decline 2007-2009 OECD: News & Internet 2010

6. The change in advertising sales of newspapers in Finland and in the U.S. from 2000 -2010 Finland Things started to get really bad in the US. after 2006

7. Registered users of social media (Facebook, Twitter etc.) in Finland, year 2010, % share of the population The challenge of social media: the young are all there Statistics Finland 2011 women, men, togheter

8. In Finland printed media is very dominant, altogether 64 % of the whole media market (electronic media 29 %, recorded media 7 %) • Printed media – especially newspapers - have considered to be culturally important; general VAT-exemption untill 2011 • Finland has more journalists per capita than any other country in the world, most of them working in printed media

9. Specific Tendency in Japan • ”Galake” vs. Smartphone? :potential digital divide*Galake: Galapagos-Keitai (Cellphone)Smartphone share = only 6 % (2011/11, cf. 50% in UK)-> Gakake : Sm.phone = Low : High income = Local : Central =Old : Youth • Slanted SNS ecosystemTwitter, Facebook: user= (rather) high income groupGREE, Mobage, Mixi: user= low income group (ex. GREE: 130+ billion yen/y?) • Collapsing OJT system in Legacy media-”Journalism school” dissapeared in 1960s -> 21c: revival of Journalism education • After 3.11: “complemental” view betweein New/Legacy Media • Portal Site Market share: Yahoo! >> Google, others

10. The media market is changing – from a scarcity of content to an abundance of it • the newspapers are facing new challenges – how to make money in the age of Internet • if the media companies are not providing steady jobs in the future – are journalist becoming as outsourced workforce?

11. allthisaffects to journalism as an institution – how to maintain the social accountability of journalism ? • Whatare the new skillsthatjournalistsshouldmaster in this new situation?

12. What SuBmoJour is? an attempt to create an inventory of what kind of new start-ups are around that look like “sustainable” => an attempt to identify new elements (revenue sources) and new combinations of old ones a search for the ”next model”: old elements, new elements, new combinations, new organisational structures etc. a collaboration project of three universities, USC Annenberg, J-School of Waseda University and COMET Centre at Tampere University the part of the project made in the U.S. and Finland is funded by Helsingin Sanomat Foundation

13. The database SuBmoJour project will be realized in two phases. The first phase consists of planning and building the Jbusinessmodels101.com database. The database will present business models that are profitable, or are soon becoming profitable. http://www.submojour.net/

14. Case Studies In the second phase, we will study with in-depth case studies the economical and social conditions of journalism in order to understand what the context of these business models is.

15. Preliminary Results: Finland • Although the legacy media has the most successful media sites, there are newcomers which have become successful and profitable • Small businesses, revenue 200 – 400 000 euros per year, 1-2 employees • Targeted often to niche contents: travelling and holidays, health and wellbeing, digital gadgets and programs, pop gossip and celebrities etc.

16. Preliminary Results: Finland • Some startups have chosen to grow slowly, not taking too many risks, doing all by themselves, avoiding big fixed costs • Many startups see journalism only as one part of their services • Although the startups have been successful in getting the users/readers, the real problem is how to monetize the traffic • Still highly concentrated on selling banner-ads, more revenue sources should be developed

17. Preliminary results: Japan • Overall tendencies of interviewees’ comments: -Optimistic views: ”Situation in Japan follows 10 years behind U.S.” -> strongly depends of legacy news business structure (especially about investigative reporting) (only ”Alternative” (skeptic) media standing alone)-Tabloid/Pulp web media were more confident about their “Journalistic” norm than Legacy-based web media.-Legacy-based web media staff are expecting for ePub. (Hindrance: universal Japanese format)-Still struggling for monetize their services.

18. comments? • Thankyou! esa.sirkkunen@uta.fi m-tanaka.@aoni.waseda.jp