CCT 300: Critical Analysis of Media Class 6: Economic Factors, cont.

Administrivia Comic creation and proposal due Nov. 5 – tips for both

Economic Models and their Effects Private Individual/Family Held (rarer now – blogs perhaps?) Private, traded on exchange (most media companies, even those that started out individual – e.g., Rogers) Public/Government ownership (e.g., CBC, BBC) Advertiser supported (e.g., most common mass media) Subscriber-supported (e.g., some magazines, blogs) Voluntary membership (e.g., TVO/PBS, other blogs) Pay-per use vs. licensing (e.g., software as a service ) Open source ownership (e.g., many open source development /free software efforts) Micropayments (e.g., McCloud’s potential solution for rewarding content creators) Mixed models

Ownership Challenge Example Steinem’s struggles with Ms. Magazine Initially ad-supported, moved to subscriber- funded model in why?

Advertiser bias Women’s magazines = women’s products (e.g., beauty products and food, but not cars or technology) Activist magazine “not our audience” Position held even in presence of contrary evidence that women hold real power and influence on purchases, and not just on “women’s products”

Product Placement Double standard in women’s vs. “real” publications Product placement linked to copy (e.g., recipes linked directly to food ads) deliberately part of contract - without such manipulation, no ads Does this happen in other publications? Somewhat, but not as blatant as this

Horizontal Integration Ownership of most/all players in media field Cost savings, cost control and manipulation of barriers to entry can be managed in monopoly/oligopoly Mass mediascape - rationalization of industry to few major players - a trend that continues. Examples?

Vertical Integration Ownership of all nodes within supply and distribution chain Control and profit potential at every stop - “sum is greater than the parts” Also good for branding and cross-promotion - examples?

Alliances Often not a question of outright purchase but adhoc alliances (examples?) Enabled by common interests, interlocking boards of directors, social class

Limits to Integration Synergy helps - some mergers don’t make much conceptual sense (examples?) Not absolute control - still independent operators on the fringe, especially in high-risk, low-profit endeavours Size and power not absolute - changes in interest or technology can compromise even the big brands (examples?)

A return to Mass and New Emerging media - public forums and dialogue, community driven and built content Great idea, but where’s the money? Google/YouTube example - is it a wise investment?

“Massification” of New Media AOL/TimeWarner merger - creation of a massive media corporation - Does this compromise “new” media? Audience defined explicitly as consumers - even one-to-one communication can be packaged and sold (e.g., online ads) Digital basis of new media - increased potential for tracking and control (although still not taken to full profit maximization - new models still required)

“Newification” of Mass Media Public communities of Internet have been resilient (people like their chat rooms, and IM) Ability to cheaply create and share content redefines relationship between producer and consumer (e.g., YouTube Presidential Debates, Twitter everywhere)

Example: Newspapers Major medium of the modern era Early roots in community and political activism – activist elements squeezed out to appeal to mainstream audiences Newspapers as a threatened or dying breed – why? Coping with change, or not? What replaces this void?

Rise and Fall of the Hit Mass media having trouble maintaining mass market domination NSYNC as last “hit”? Recent 50 Cent vs. Kanye West proved still some value in “hit” model, as does products spun off Michael Jackson’s death.

The Long Tail New media - digital distribution is no longer a zero- sum game Potential for equal access to all sorts of media product Niches and word of mouth drive content sales and production Result - a lot of potential niche success stories, but less “hits”

Adaptation Mass media has already begun to adopt to this - e.g., creating content aimed at specific audiences, going for quality vs. quantity Examples? Mass “hit” model not dead - American/Canadian Idol example

Next week McCloud on the economics of comics