The changing media ecosystem: implications for journalism Guy Berger, Media24 conference 31 July 2008, Johannesburg

Take a test… who are: Larry Page and Sergey Brin? Stafford Masie? Mark Zuckerberg? Jimmy Wales? Craig Newmark?

On the agenda 1.First world trends – a yawning international digital divide: but no time to feel sleepy! 2.Changing industry, audiences in First World. 3.Media’s business model is breaking up. 4.New architecture of Information Society. 5.Web 2.0 = competition … and an opportunity. 6.New news production 7.Mobile – Africa’s answer?

1. First World Trends

At a conference in May in LV: Selling Online Using Market-Specific Research E-Commerce Revenue Solutions Great Interactive Ideas Social Networking - How to Build it, Grow it and Bring in the Bucks Serving Readers & Advertisers thru Search Marketing Managing Citizen Commentary and Contributions 5 Things You Should Do in 2008 to Immediately Improve Your Web Site

Who convened it? SUBURBAN NEWSPAPERS OF AMERICA

So why that online focus? Cf report: State of the News Media 2008: Newspapers in USA ended 2007 with 8.4% less circulation daily, 11.4% less Sunday than Plus, print newspaper ad revenues experienced their worst drop in more than 50 years. experienced their worst drop Network news programs averaged 23.1 million viewers a night, a drop of 5%, on 2006.

Here’s one response to the pressure:

"This week's toll of the dead” Mark Potts, 26 June 2008 The Boston Herald is laying off employees.laying off Daytona Beach News-Journal is cutting 99 jobs.cutting In Detroit, the joint operating partnership that prints and distributes both papers wants 7 percent of the workforce–150 employees–to take buyouts.wants

The Hartford Courant is cutting 57 newsroom positions.cutting The Palm Beach Post is eliminating 300 jobs across all departments (130 in the newsroom).eliminating The Baltimore Sun will cut 100 jobs in all departments by August.cut The San Jose Mercury News is cutting 17 more employees, nine of them editorial …cutting The Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram cut 31 jobs. cut Total: Roughly 900 jobs eliminated just this week (and the week ain't over).

During the past 7 months, 4,500 posts have been cut at U.S. papers: 47y\ 47y

For some: a shift in resources…

Survey of 259 editors

2. More on changing industry, audiences in First World.

Audience patterns In 2000, 60% of people said they had got news online ever; 22% said they did it “yesterday” In late 2007, the number who got online news ever was up to 71% and 37% said they were online for news “yesterday.” Many people, especially the young, are just shifting to the same branded news content online produced by old media newsrooms.

Here’s the paradox: “More people in more places are reading the content produced by newspapers than ever before … But revenues are tumbling” (Pew) It is a race between them – whether that content will increasingly be produced on the cheap (a slippery slide to collapse)… OR whether the expanded readership outside the physical paper can be monetised.

Convergence trends Web was first seen by newspapers as a Stranger. Then as a Source… Subsequently as Subversive (a threat). Now it is seen as a Strategic ally… Could it become a Saviour? And what about mobile?

3. Existing business model is breaking up.

Where it all began: Media content untied from physical formats. = it’s all data – with scores of possible platforms to play out on. And: EXPLODING of traditional horizontal integration of processes formerly under the control of one media house. IT WAS: Info gathering – editing – packaging – dissemination – loyal audience.

1.Info gathering: DISTRIBUTED UGC; “import” via embedded links 2.Editing: DISTRIBUTED Global outsourcing, User editing and ranking 3.Packaging: DISTRIBUTED Multi-purposed platforms, 3 rd party aggregators 4.Distribution: DISTRIBUTED RSS, others’ platforms, get users to circulate 5.Consumption: DISTRIBUTED Links, Search engine based; Recommendation Unbundled, Disarticulated, Dispersed

Dissolution of BUSINESS MODEL! As audiences shift, ad revenue doesn’t parallel. “The crisis in journalism may not strictly be loss of audience. It may, more fundamentally, be the decoupling of news and advertising.” News Web sites not growing in advertising revenue as quickly as other kinds of Internet destinations. And these figures do not include the most important revenue source, search, where news is a relatively small player.

Why?

4. New architecture of Information Society.

There is a fundamentally new structure to media – Jeff Jarvis, buzzmachine

Internet-isation Media-tisation

Eyeballs and economics Content devalued by supply of online content including user-generated content, a bunch of which includes content created by people who don't care if they get paid for its creation. Web: Ease, ad supported content, free culture. = Information is not a scarce commodity; we’re drowning in it. What is scarce is the human attention needed to make sense of it. We live in an attention economy. (21 st century PR.)

5. Web 2.0 = competition … and an opportunity.

Social networks & semantic web About networks surfacing content, rather than isolated surfing and searching. “if the news is important, it will find me” “Free up content to FOLLOW audiences…” People return to places that send them away! From internet of documents to database: metadata becomes critical. Read-write web: user contributions, not just “old suspect” content producers. Test: today ?????????? is king?

Us

PEJ assessment: There is no single or finished news product anymore. As news consumption becomes continual, more new effort is put into producing incremental updates… News is shifting from being a product — today’s newspaper, Web site or newscast — to becoming a service — how can you help me, even empower me? Conversation, not a lecture…

Us & Them

6. New news production

Test 3:

News agency model: Associated Press Step 1: news alert headline for breaking news, and possibly then: Step 2: short present-tense story mainly for web & broadcast, and then: Step 3: details and format the content for different news platforms – eg. possibly as a textual news analysis, multi-media …

Looking ahead: News Diamond SPEED Alert (mobile, ) Draft (blog) Article/package (print, audio, video forms) DEPTH Context (hyperlinks, embedded content - widgets) Analysis/reflection (article/package in various formats) Interactivity (flash, chats, forums, wikis) Customisation (rss, ratings, social networking)

CMS is king… New York Observer: “90% of the functionality of the NYT … at less than 10% of the cost”

sky (50 points), bird (60 points), soaring (120 points), or frigate bird (150 points).

Some automation possible…

New newsroom role at Telegraph: head of comment and community Mojo’s filing video…

Time in a Web 2.0 world 1-5 Hours per Week = Participant (UGC) 5-10 Hours per Week = Content Provider Hours per Week = Community Director

7. Mobile – Africa’s answer?

Mobile Africa Reuters last year: world wide mobile phone subscriptions reached 3.3-billion users or half the world’s population. Compare this to television usage (about 1,5- billion users) … or to desktop internet usage (about 1,1- billion users).

8. Looking ahead

Our future… Hardware: Form factor hurdles overrated. Software: Android = an open source, Linux- based operating system for mobile devices. Habits: DVB-H & 2010 will drive conversion of cellphones from interpersonal comms to an interactive media device. Mobile opens whole new market for location- based services. Business model: mix of subs, ads, free, UGC.

Want more? “There is a very big disconnection between optimistic thinking about the future newsroom and the preparation, training and resources that editorial organisations seem to be giving to it.” George Brock (WAN) 12 th Highway Africa, 7 to 10 September Citizen journalism or Journalism for Citizens? Contact:

Yawning digital divide, but: No time for sleeping. No time for digital dreams. Time for digital action….