- Image by sciondriver via Flickr
This week, the editor or the Los Angeles Times, Russ Stanton, announced that revenue from online advertising is now able to cover the paper’s wage bill for print and online. A momentous time for a print media company and signs of encouragement to all other established media companies around the world.
However, like other papers, it still faces the ongoing challenge of managing the shift from print to online and growing digital revenues.
Whilst everyone seems to focus on the challenges, what’s the market opportunity?
A smaller player
In a recent article by Jeff Jarvis, he predicts that it won’t necessarily be a “legacy player” who cracks the digital conundrum (making money from online publishing).
Interestingly he believes: “a newcomer unencumbered by the costs, expectations, processes, traditions, and culture of a print newsroom and business could build a profitable online news franchise at low cost. It could operate more efficiently by working in collaborative networks with the community, extending journalism’s reach there. It could serve a vast new population of very small advertisers who never could afford print.“
In the UK, one is yet to emerge but Jarvis’ vision is spot on. And the media company which cracks this for the UK business media market will be on to a winner. The main challenge they face is building a trusted brand. Brown talks about it here following a post by Conley, Doom and Gloom and Rebirth.
But given the right investment and delivery, we believe that this, at some stage, will be overcome because of the new talent coming through in UK business media. When it is, the UK business media industry will finally move away from reliance on dead wood CPM advertising – unlocking the door to sustainable digital revenues.
