Successful ‘New Media’ Business Models Case studies of independent commercial print media in SA By Kevin Bloom & Johanna Mavhungu Adiel Ismail, PDMM 2011

The Study The aim of this research is to identify a successful ‘new media’ business model in SA. The crux of this study is about understanding how three independent commercial newspapers are responding to the online revolution The newspapers studied are: The Times The Daily Dispatch & The Mail & Guardian

The Times The Times was launched in 2007 Is the sister publication to the Sunday Times Its approach is to blur the line between print & electronic media Carries news on politics, business & sport - 20 minutes Times website - blogs, podcasts & videos

Daily Dispatch Daily Dispatch was founded in 1872 as East London Dispatch Biggest selling daily newspaper in Eastern Cape Publishes a supplement in Xhosa Focus on local news, sports & business Daily Dispatch Online and an e-Edition (mobile)

Mail & Guardian Formerly the Weekly Mail was established in 1985 Focus on politics, government & business Investigative news 1st newspaper to launch a website in SA & Africa in 1994 M&G Online publishes local, international and African hard news

The Online Super Highway Countless global studies have documented that as a result of new technologies, several hundreds of thousands of readers are opting to consume news on the WWW. The implication of digital migration of traditional mass media has placed the business of print media in a precarious situation because of a decline in advertising revenue. As a result, Ad-spend has moved online because it is cheaper, jobs have been cut and newspapers have closed shop.

The Online Super Highway The Times - Avusa recorded a 6%+ in revenue - ABC figures showed a 3.3%+ in circulation Daily Dispatch - Reported a 5.5%- in circulation - Annual revenue remained steady at around R110 million Mail & Guardian - Online budget for capital, training & staff increased - ABC figures showed the biggest growth in the weekly newspaper category

The Walled Garden In August 2009, media mogul Rupert Murdock announced that his news empire intended to place its online entities behind payment gateways. South African news websites also decided to follow this trend.

Emergent Business Model at The Times TT has no plans to set up an online payment gateway Advertising would remain its primary source of income Ray Hartley - hypothetically, they would charge for content that is aggregated

Emergent Business Model at M&G Nic Dawes - 'New models around old advertising' 1. Enabling advertisers to brand whole sections 2. 'Clever' rich media advertising Charging users for content Increase multi-media content It must increase original content on a daily basis Platform for interaction Charges should be shifted from the user to the service provider

Emergent Business Model at Daily Dispatch Charge for content as a revenue stream Andrew Trench - monthly fee direct to the users 90% of its content is local and not available elsewhere 70% of its readers indicated that they are willing to pay between R38-40 monthly

The Times Daily Dispatch Mail & Guardian Frequency Daily Weekly Format Tabloid Broadsheet Ownership Avusa M&G Media Type National Regional Website x Revenue Model Advertising Walled Garden - end users - service providers e-Edition Mobi-site Kindle Newsroom Convergence Integrated Independent

What Can We Learn? SA newsrooms are under the same pressure as their international counterparts It is vital to distribute content on various platforms New business models need to be formulated Walled garden - 'paid-for' content is popular Original vs commoditised content Reporters need to be platform-agnostic

Thank You Adiel Ismail PDMM 2011