New Media Models #DLD
Live blogged session from DLD Conference (Munich, Germany)
Jeff Jarvis (Buzzmachine)
Carolyn McCall (Guardian)
Michael Arrington (TechCrunch)
Tyler Brulé (Monocle)
Moderation: Jochen Wegner (FOCUS)
If you would start over again, what would you do?
Michael Arrington (TechCrunch): II would never go back to print media. Most people like pares to read them, but that volume dons’t work anymore, they are stopping printing. I would start a company that does news like Techcrunch.
Jeff Jarvis (Buzzmachine): We should focus on building platforms to succsed in what we are doing.
Carolyn McCall (Guardian): The sustainable business model for news papers has changed. We have to keep thinking about how to not become unsustainable. It still is difficult to reach people online, if I would start a new business it would be an airline in Europe.
Tyler Brulé (Monocle): Target on Europe. The most robust model we have at the moment is classified, it is a high margin business. Advertising is difficult to segment, it is not a great model at the moment which is why one has to look at a whole range of new models
What is wrong with the online ad market?
Mike Arrington: People are spending less. If he was old media, he would be looking at the cost created and look at everything and ask if it really is necessary. Think about the army of bloggers who work out of their own houses and network with others.
Somebody contacted the city and told them that Mike Arrington was running a business out of his living room which is why he has to move now.
Techcrunch is done like million other bloggers
Mike Arrington: Journalist still fall back on the notions that they fall back on a certain notion of integrity, but he thinks all journalist have the same feelings. Users don’t have a problem unless they feel they are being tricked.
How do we see the future of journalism?
Jeff Jarvis: It is not about how to fund journalism in 10 years, it is about how to fund it now. We are good on the content side, but not enough on the business side. It is time to flush out the old models and bring in new models form other areas. He would like to study for example German market of output, how much from this is original, how much is repeated etc.
Michael Arrington: There’s a new class of people that they don’t publish nothing but they read everything and then they crosspost everywhere.
Jeff Jarvis: The question is how to support the entire system.
Carolyn McCall: It’s about new business models. Rethinking distribution and the business itself.
Jeff Jarvis: It’s having the courage to ‘force’ the readers to go online.
Tyler Brulé: We have to look at investments and respond to the needs of customers that want to pay for quality.
Carolyn McCall: Another important thing it’s diversify. For example The Guardian has a big audience from the US because it offers a different perspective on news.
Michael Arrington: In tech it’s probably more difficult to diversify because we are moving in an environment that is more global.
How do we finance the future of journalism?
Jeff Jarvis: Don’t finance new media, finance the future of journalism. Drive money online and focus on how to mange the business online. When we shift to the online world our cost structure changes.
Carolyn McCall: Keep in mind the different age groups and their needs/difficulties they face to interact with a totally new and different environment. In the next 10 years we’ll have very difficult and diversified business models.
Questions from the audience
What’s wrong with the old media approach? Why the old-models seem to fail if people keep buying traditional news papers?
The point is, why not to explore new ways!
Dr. Hubert Burda: Google has changed things but the revenue from online media is still far from the print media.
About scarcity of online advertising:
Jeff Jarvis:There’s a new population of advertisers growing.
Opportunities and tactics of media across mobile.
Michael Arrington: I don’t do nothing because the devices do everything for me.
How do you reinvent what you are doing keeping in mind the fact that it goes in the opposite direction of traditional advertisement models?
Carolyn McCall: We aim at having a closer relationship with our audience and get better and evolve on what we are doing. Advertisement is doing the same, it’s changing and evolving too.
Jeff Jarvis: This is an opportunity we have to create new and better advertisement, to reinvent advertisement. This has to be done by us and not by traditional agency.
Author: Andrea Vascellari
Andrea Vascellari is the CEO of itive.net. All thoughts and opinions on this blog are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of his employer or clients; neither past or present. If you liked this post feel free to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, or subscribe to this blog.
