Larry Kilman sent today this press release about the INNOVATION Global Report and presentation at the next WAN-IFRA CNewspaper Congress:
Freemium: A New Revenue Model for Newspapers
A radical transformation of the newspaper editorial and business models is
underway, and it goes far beyond the current “pay wall” debate about
charging for on-line content.These strategies call for reorganising editorial and business departments,
focusing on premium content, and above all, good storytelling, according to
the Innovation International Media Consulting Group, which will make a major
presentation around these ideas at the World Newspaper Congress, World
Editors Forum and Info Services Expo 2009, to be held in Hyderabad, India,
from 30 November to 3 December next.Full details of the events can be found at http://www.wanindia2009.com
The 2009 Global Report on Innovations in Newspapers is always a major
attraction of the Congress, Forum and Expo, the global summit meetings of
the world¹s press, but never more so than this year. “We outline the content
propositions that can make you a lot of money”, said Juan Senor, a Partner
in Innovation.Innovations is not an advocate of building ³pay walls² for current content.
“All this talk about pay walls, we’ve been here before, we should ban the
words,” said Mr Senor. “You must create new spaces with new content
propositions.²“The newspaper formula that we¹re still following is the formula that was
developed by William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer at the turn of the
century. We need to reinvent that,” he said. “You need to offer different
content propositions and different structures.”The presentation, to a combined Congress and Forum audience of publishers,
CEOs, chief editors, managing directors and other senior newspaper
executives from around the world, will focus on actual cases of newspapers
that are succeeding with a “freemium” model combining free content with
premium content that people are willing to pay for. “What people want in the
morning now is not the news from the day before,” said Senor.In print, newspapers should open with “really clever news summaries”
followed by exceptional, compelling storytelling.Online, news and opinion will likely remain free, Mr Senor contends,
supported by advertising. But archives and other premium content can be
created and exploited in new ways. For example, because newspapers remain a
credible information source, customers would be willing to pay for
specialized reports street reports for house hunters, cosmetic surgery
reports for people considering plastic surgery, consumer reports, school
guides, and so on.But this will require a complete reorganisation of the newspaper company,
what Senor calls “integration from the newsroom to the boardroom.”In the Congress and Forum presentation, Innovation will show how to
transform news organisations from being product-driven to audience-driven.
Even traditional newsroom titles must change Editors-in-chief become
“Chief Content Coordinators”, while section editors transform into “Macro
Editors’ focused on specific audiences business people, parents, etc.“The future of newspapers is premium like haute couture rather than
ready-to-wear.”The 2009 Global Report on Innovations in Newspapers is one of dozens of
Congress and Forum presentations on cutting edge business and editorial
strategies. Full details, including the programmes for business sessions and
social events, registration and other information can be found at
http://www.wanindia2009.com
In the next weeks I will tell you more details also about our INNOVATION’s News Matrix™ Prototype to be presented at the WAN-IFRA Newspaper Congress.
An international INNOVATION consultants team is working in this projectlead by Juan Señor, our UK director.
More later…
(Juan Señor by Luis Grañena)
Tags: Freemium
