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A news business-models primer (+ Denver: ground zero)
By Steve Outing on Sep 17, 2009 in Business models
Yesterday in Denver felt like ground zero of the Future of Journalism and the News Crisis. Not only did HuffingtonPost launch its Denver edition (with 22-year-old Ethan Axelrod as editor and sole employee), but last night SavetheNews.org held a well-attended community forum at the Colorado History Museum; the event drew a mixture of working and laid-off journalists, interested citizens, and a few community activists.
Before a traditional panel discussion (including ex-editor of the now-expired Rocky Mountain News, John Temple), the forum included a bunch of small roundtable discussions on various save-journalism topics, each with a facilitator.
I facilitated the “Commercial News Models: How should we pay for news?” table discussion. My table mates each received a 2-page handout quickly scoping the news industry’s problems and the evolving news landscape for a metro area like Denver, plus a list of potential revenue sources and ideas for new and old news entities. In case it’s worthwhile to anyone else not at the event last night, I’m sharing the handout here:
Possible Solutions for Commercial News Media (PDF)
On Sep 17, 2009, Crosbie Fitch
said:
You could add 1p2U.com to your list as a ‘pay for intellectual work’ model, i.e. ‘neither pay for copies’, nor ‘pay for warm feeling’.
It’s probably too early in its development to warrant significant attention as a going concern, but it’s another approach to think about.