New Business Models for News
City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism
Goals
Specific

Sustainable

Open
Assumptions
Top-25 market
Post-paper
Photo: Flickr/Sleeping Sun
Ecosystem
Hyperlocal
New news organization
Framework
Publicly supported . . .
In the beginning was the word.
And the word was....
Hyperlocal
New News 
Organization
Framework
State of hyperlocal
Town blog revenue: up to $200k
Market: 50k seems optimal (range 5k-150k-millions)
10K hyperlocal blogs in U.S. 1K blogs in Brooklyn alone
Pageviews: 70k small, 250k medium, 410k large NOT SURE ABT THIS 1; ANY OTHER FACT?

Optimizing hyperlocal
Improve ad products & services sold
Metro network
Local networks
E-commerce 
Reducing costs 
Hyperlocal business
Staff (yr 1-3): Edit: 26-47; total: 46-90
Audience (yr 1-3): 1m-3m 
PPV/month/user: 12
CPM: $12 base
Ad revenue: 59% of gross
Assumptions
Reporting: metro-wide, beat, investigative
Sell metro-wide advertising into network
Curation of network
Collaboration with network
Journalistic training
NNO Tasks
  Lines of business:
Local targeted web services
Business listings
Events 
Themed issues
Training
Marketplace
Coupons
Newsletters
Optimizing: NNO
NNO business
Tasks
Framework business
Enable metro network
Enable local networks
Coordinate national advertising
Enable e-commerce
Train local sites: the cookbook
Technology platforms
Collaboration platforms
Lines of business
Serving fee: 15% of local ads
Local network fee: 20%
Metro-wide serving fee: 15%
National ad enablement fee: 20%
Citizen sales training fees
Revenue opportunities
Paid content: partial or full
Subscription
Micropayment
Memberships
Ecommerce (see: Telegraph's hangers)
Ad networks (see: Glam)
Advertiser services (news org as agency)
Events
Lists & databases
Education (see: RosenblumTV)
Mobile (advertising, apps)
Print products (see: Bakersfield, MyHeimat)
Niche sites
Donations (See: Spot.US)
Deals (see: AnnArbor.com)
Gift card exchanges (see: HalfOffAmerica)
Premium products (see: gambling)
Cafe (see: AnnArbor.com, Futuroom)




Publicly supported journalism
Potential structure
NPR/PBS David Fanning Aspen Ideas proposal
NFP news org (a la San Diego, MinnPost, New Haven)
NFP adjunct to news org (a la Huffington Post)
Independent efforts (Spot.US)
Investigative news network
What would you do with $3 million?
Investigative
Statehouse
Collaborative, crowdsourced project
Organization, training
Potential uses
NPR/PBS news
SanDiego, et al experience
Spot.US experience
Local foundations
Total: $3m
Potential dollars
Also 
Transparency
Volunteerism
National networks
Vertical interest networks
B-to-B's role
Comparative scale
Total ecosystem rev, year 3: $TKm
Audience comparison
Cost comparison
Revenue comparison

Next
At Aspen
Specific experience
Questions
New ideas
Needs
Priorities
Investment & experimentation
Best practices

After Aspen: CUNY
Polish models & continues discussion
Share best practices
Hold events
  
Next: CUNY
Needs
Investment
Experimentation
Technolgy
Standards
Research/analysis
Means to share best practices
More models
Private, public, nonprofit initiatives
Education (& reeducation)
Advertiser research, discussion, education
What else?....

And...
 
CUNY survey
5 million metro market
130 blogs (45 large, 52 med, 33 small) 
12 PPV/user
12 avails/page; 55% STR
CPM: $12 overall; $7.50 local network; $5 national
Assumptions
 
   Network benefits 
Metro-wide network sales
New network distribution: 
     > reverse syndication 
     > API 
     > embeddable paper 
     > network promotion
Collaboration on news
Creation of verticals
Optimizing: NNO
 
Link economy framework and content marketplaces
Hyperlocal business laboratory and incubator
Advertiser research & models
Publicly supported journalism models & best practices
Transparency: means & impact
International best practices: meeting & sharing
International coverage (the Baghdad problem)
New distribution means: API, embeddable paper, networks
Tools, technology, equipment
Training: need & impact
Large blog, owner-op, yr 3:
Local Ad revenue: $127,122
Network revenue: $189,398
Edit staff: $60,300
Sales staff: $45,900
Other expenses: $28,500
Income to owner-op: $242,041
Base case, yr 3:
Ad revenue: $12.66m
Other B-C revenue: $5.13m
Other B-B revenue: $3.50m
Expenses: $10.49m
EBITDA: $10.81m

Also: paid & blow-out models
Base case, 1 market, yr 3:
Ad fees & commissions: $2.96m
Salaries: $1.53m
Other expenses: $198k
EBIDTA: $1.23m
Mignon Media