Free citizenhack download

The Holy Grail of the online world is the paid content business model. But, how do you get news consumers to pay for information they’ve had free for years?

The hybrid model: The Financial Times supplies free news stories but asks for payment when users want access to specific information.

Pay-as-you-go model: Every story you choose to read you should pay for individually.

News tracker email alerts:  The New York Times had limited success with this model as  Google began supplying the system for free.

Reader concentrated: The Guardian came up with a number of pay-for options which included: a no ads edition, and  an edition which included news bites from the next day.

Texts: The Sun sells news by sending news text messages to readers who pay a subscription fee.

Apps: Bizarre, the celebrity section of The Sun sells an App which delivers celebrity gossip straight to your phone for a one off fee.

These modes cater to mobile and busy readers. These consumers are paying for information they can source for free; they’re paying for convenience and specific presentation.

Problem: the product is general news. Papers are charging what can be read by other news sites which don’t have a pay wall. For pay walls to work all news outlets have to decide on a pay wall, or a model which generates revenue, and implement them at the same time.  Newspapers face a problem between keeping the public informed and hiding information behind pay walls.

More ways to generate money:

Aggregators: Charging news aggregators such as Google for supplying links to stories, (this is highly unlikely as search engines drive a lot of traffic to news sites).

Search Engine Optimization, (SEO): Using key words to make sure your article is the first to appear at the top of a search. Exposure to traffic increases page views and those views generate ad revenue.

Hyperlocal: reporting in the local community builds new audiences and creates new markets which attracts advertisers.

Dayparting: target distinct web audiences, (who have different online times). Try to cater to specific audiences. Aggregation stopped this as less people come through the homepage but rather through links to stories on Google.

Classifieds: buyers and sellers are a massive commercial driving point.

Sponsorship model: Ads subsidizes news gathering, but what if advertising revenue could be replaced by foundations and donors? Papers target wealthy donors who want quality journalism to survive. A problem could be their influence; they might have vested interests. It’s likely to work for small scale funding projects but unlikely for major publications. Relying on donors may also wipe out the tabloid market, as donors are likely only to support elitist papers.

Crowd-funding model: investors pay for the production of a piece of jourmalism and make money from the sales or can reinvest in another journo project. But,  will it keep public interest and support?

Micro-payments: similar to the pay-as-you-go model. It’s a ‘you click, you buy’ idea. This way bloggers/cooks/ amateur musicians, etc. can profit from sharing their work.

Problems: People who regularly go online to source news know how easy it is to gather news without having to pay. A site which constantly asks for money, no matter how small the charge, will face a backlash because of the inconvenience. We’re living in a digitally revolutionized world; we want what we want as fast as we can get it.

*Business models and ideas taken from Funding Journalism in the Digital Age