If you're confused about how newspapers can turn a profit on line, don't feel bad. An international group of experts couldn't figure it out either.
A panel discussion on new media was perhaps the most lively session during the second joint NAA/IFRA conference, Newspaper Operations Around the World--Solving Common Problems, held Feb. 6-8 in Granada, Spain. Newspaper executives from 20 countries attended.
The panel's participants were: Bill Bass of Boston Globe Electronic Publishing, Julio Miravalls of El Mundo del Siglo 21, Bernie Niemeier of Media General Inc., John Williams of Gannett Co. Inc. and Sergio Puoti of the Initiative for Newspaper Electronic Supplements. Moderating the discussion was Gary L. Watson of Gannett.
The question was posed, "Will on-line services ever make money?" The consensus answer: It's too early to tell. The World Wide Web didn't exist until just two or three years ago. Subscription models aren't yet working, and it is tough to sell advertisers on the value of ads because "hits" come from widely scattered areas and are not a reliable audience measurement.
The business model for on-line newspapers will be different from the typical newspaper model, said the panelists-it may be more like the broadcast model with only one revenue stream coming from advertising. Additional revenues might come from other areas, such as charging readers to access archives.
More questions were raised and few answers given. How well do we know the on-line audience? How much will the audience pay to receive different content? How deep into the content will the audience go? Panelists agreed that we don't know very much about the on-line audience yet. We do know, however, that its male/female ratio is rapidly changing and is now about 60/40. Also, this market is still very small in relation to the overall news-and-information marketplace.
The main reason for newspapers to pursue on-line projects now, the panelists agreed, is as a hedging strategy to protect the franchise. Someday, certain content will probably be more effective going through this channel versus the traditional printed products. Meanwhile, activity in the new media is moving too fast to wait for definitive market research.
Other tidbits from the conference:
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