NEWSPAPERS AND THE DIGITAL DILEMMA

MA – Digital Content Landscape

@_johnmills

The ‘Plan’ Outline newspaper heritage

How newspaper income streams functioned in later 20th century

The emergence of the ‘digital dilemma’

How newspapers have responded

The Future????

History Newspapers published in some form

since 17th Century

19th Century sees current format: standardised content and revenue directed from advertising model

20th Century sees development and demise of editorial ‘truth’ and expansion of newspaper publishers.

Audience is ‘captive’ and editorial agendas increasingly follow political line

Recent History

Emergence of internet at ‘platform’ and ‘writing for the web’

Publication of ‘free-sheets’ to combat changing environment with analogue form

Why do we need newspapers, the media and the fourth estate?

Inform (and entertain) the public

Hold to hold powerful to account on behalf of the public

To reflect the public’s mood and views and foster debate

Separation of the press from government

Traditional income streams: how to fund a newspaper?

• cover price

• advertising

• subscriptions

70 to 80 per cent of Newspaper income is generated through advertising

Donica Mensing, Newspaper Research Journal

…and then, in 1981, digital arrives (kind of)

Problems highlighted:

How do we access news online?

How is the process paid for?

What do the consumers expect/require from the ‘product’?

The industry is still wrestling with much of this

Digital emergence and economic

challenges

The Digital Dilemma(s) beyond the world of 1981

Advertising pounds/dollars depart

Readers shift to online and ‘free’ model: fundamental change in behaviour

Niche publications become increasingly popular

Newspaper publishers move beyond communities

Multi-media output challenges traditional assumptions

Ultimately, consumers wanted more content, for less money – or for even no money at all.

“2009 saw newspaper advertising revenue fall by 38.1%”

Newspaper Association of America

Some diagrammatical illustrations

UK newspaper circulation falling

Advertising revenue moving away from newspapers

Driven by multiple advertising options – a factor fuelled by multi-platform age

DIGITAL = THREAT…?!?

Why is add revenue and readership falling….?

Platforms: Digital first… Guardian announces ‘digital first’ strategy. Hopes to double digital

revenue (currently £37 million) in five years

The primary platform no longer made from trees

Convergence: video, audio, live streaming, live collaboration, crowdsourcing. Newspaper groups become multimedia publishers

Diversification of online revenue streams

A bit of a boring table

The Device, Apps and Apple New revenue streams

Content subscriptions Apps HTML 5 web apps

Users engage with content in new ways, at different times and in different locations

Content can be produced that is dedicated to the device

Users can generate content and access peer networks of publication

Another graph!

Analytics… Why is online so appealing to advertisers? It’s not

just about numbers, it’s about data.

A nice example: FT’s reader DNA concept

Recap:Reading trends

(Almost ) infinite choice

High speed access

Paywalls vs ‘free ‘

Peer to peer publishing

Rethinking assets: Show me the value

A publishers asset-base: a short diagram by Ross Dawson

The device – multimedia in your pocket

A technological and consumption paradigm shift in what users can consume and generate.

Content goes out as well as in

Communication and publication options expand

Ability to connect and converse on a local, national and global level

The device

Mark Deuze and the ‘device’

Suggests media forms part of individual and sociological make-up to the extent we live in media rather than with it.

Viewed ontologically, the media around us shapes our understanding the world, ourselves and our perception of what is ‘real’. Replicates some of Baudrillard thinking - The Gulf War Did Not Take Place

The device is the portal through which we consume this media, and we’re increasingly forming multi-level relationships with the devices we own. This creates opportunities and difficulties for publishers of all kinds

Device design: the skeuomorph

Skeuomorphism

The Future…• Multi-platform and convergence

• Paywalls, premium content and the free model

• Tablets and smartphones offer new media opportunities and app-based transactions

• Tailored content to specific audiences

• Disruptive technologies will impact on established publication practice

• Digital platforms and hardware (tablets/smartphones) offer a different user experience and methods of streaming news and information. New consumption methods will continue to emerge

• Analytic data will help publishers meet future demands

• Diversification of non-traditional income streams

• Developing mobile networks: 4G currently being rolled out

• Less invasive landscapes: Ambient and incidental publication

Flickr credits…

campra Peagreengirl zarko drincic wokka @superamit

Pauli Antero

Jesslee Cuizon Don Solo vermin inc

B Tal

Canis Major

GF Peck

...-Wink-...Leondel

Jivedanson

Mbiebusch

Wooly Matt

Lori Greig