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Chasing Sustainability on the Net. Esa Sirkkunen Research Centre COMET, University Of Tampere, Finland ECREA 26.10.2012 Istanbul. SuBMoJour-project. International project : USA, Japan, European countries : UK, France, Italy , Spain, Finland. Goals
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ChasingSustainability on the Net Esa Sirkkunen Research Centre COMET, University Of Tampere, Finland ECREA 26.10.2012 Istanbul
SuBMoJour-project • International project: USA, Japan, Europeancountries: UK, France, Italy, Spain, Finland. • Goals • To studyempiricallyhowit is possible to dojournalismprofitably on the net • To help studentsorjournalists to starttheirownventuresbased on the experience of others • To start to imaginewhathappens to professionaljournalism in the age of fragmentingaudiences and disappearing business models
Researchquestions: • howthesestartupshavestarted, howtheyhavesurvivedover the firstfewyears, howtheyfundtheiroperations, whataretheir products, main revenuesources, howtheyseetheirfuture • Material: semi-structuredinterviews with ”pure players” , non-profitsnotincluded • sustainability = profitability in this case • ResearchConsortium: USC Annenberg, USA, WasedaUniversity, Japan and University of Tampere, Finland
Submojour.net 69 semi-structuredinterviewsfrom 9 countriespublished on a database http://submojour.net
The reportwillbepublishedonline 31.10.2012Writers: Pekka Pekkala (USA), MikihitoTanaka (Japan), Johanna Vehkoo and Clare Cook (UK), Clare Cook (France), Nicola Bruno (Italy), LuchinoSivori (Spain) ,Esa Sirkkunen (Finland)
Findings • Two main categories in the cases: • Storytellingoriented business models: producingoriginalcontent, news and stories for audiences, making revenues mainly from advertisements • Service oriented business models: don’tmonetize the journalisticcontent as such, eg. curate and moderatecitizenorientedcontent, aggregate news fromotheroutlets etc.
Findings • Revenuesources: • Advertising;displayads, cost per view, cost per click, cost per action, weeklyrates • Charging for content: paywalls, memberships, subscriptions and freemiummodels • Affiliatemarketing • Donations • Selling data and services • Arrangingevents, training, consulting • Merchandise
itappearedthat business modelsare in manycasesrelated to the audiencetype, contenttype and revenuesources • how to connect the business models, audienceconcepts, type of content (orservice), and revenuesources
Conclusions • Different media environmentscreatedifferentsets of circumstances for journalisticstartups • The national media systemby Hallin & Manchinistillhassomerelevancealso on the grassrootslevel • However the national featuresmaybeevaporating – globalweb-basedplayers FB, Google, Amazon arerivals in the advertisingmarket
Conclusions • Journalists as business persons: moststartupswereeitherone-man-bandoperationsorsmallteams • Sellingyourwork to the nicheaudience and to the advertisershasbecomemore and moreimportantpart of journalisticwork • Flexibleoratypicalwork is becoming common – oftenbadlypaid, relying on shorttermcontracts
Conclusions • the serviceoriented business modelsseem to berisingalthough the selling of journalisticcontent is still the core in the majority of the cases
Future • Ifjournalismshouldmake a livingsolely out of the net: • smallnewsrooms, outsourcedwork, flexibleorliquidprofessionalidentities, goingback to 1800s? • Thishasmanyimplications • to journalism as an institution • for the selfunderstanding of journalists • nextstep is to continue with collectingmorecases – open invitation for collaboration to allintrested • start to contextualise the results with moretheoreticalthinking: theories of media convergence, politicaleconomy of the net, journalismstudies etc.