With the collapse of advertising and print circulation, and the battle for audiences in the attention economy, media companies need to transition and diversify their revenue sources. This training will explore how news outlets might generate new revenue streams in line with their journalism mission and products, and strategies for readers to pay for news in the digital environment.
Part I
Part II
HELD ON: Tuesday, March 29 (Part 1) and Wednesday, March 30 (Part 2)
RECORDING: Video recording will be available soon.
AUDIENCE: Journalists (including freelancers), editors, and media managers with minority-language media in Europe.
Topics we covered:
- New media business models and strategies
- Diversifying news revenue streams
- Designing products with revenue goals
- Donations, digital subscriptions and membership programs
Speakers & Presentations:
Lecture:
• Styli Charalambous, Daily Maverick, South Africa
⇓ Presentation available here (pdf file)
Guest speakers:
• Tomas Bella, co-founder and head of digital at Denník N, Slovakia
⇓ Presentation available here (pdf file)
• Virginia Alonso, Editor-in-Chief; Público.es, Spain
⇓ Presentation available here (pdf file)
Training facilitator:
• Jacqui Park, Head of Network Strategy and Innovation, IPI
(Trainers’ short bios are available below)
Resources and Recommended Read:
Additional readings and resources, best practices and cases to learn from:
Reading:
- Membership Puzzle’s Guide to Audience Revenue and Engagement
- DM Marketing a membership plan – lessons from the frontlines (Part 1 & Part 2)
Videos:
- Modelling the business under repression (IPI World Congress 2021 Session)
- IPI Newsroom visit to Publico
- Local discussion on Co-op business model – When your readers are also your publisher
Optional reflection exercise:
List the ways your news organization currently makes money. Do they align with your mission and your audience needs? What is your relationship with your audience when it comes to revenue? If you have reader revenues, what does your funnel look like and how can you improve your numbers?
Meet the Trainers:
Styli Charalambous
Co-founder & CEO
Daily Maverick
South Africa
Styli Charalambous co-founded the Daily Maverick, in 2009, with editor-in-chief, Branko Brkic. Over the last decade he has helped launch new products and the organisation’s membership plan while navigating industry disruption and the country’s politics. His official role at Daily Maverick is that of publisher and CEO which translates into “he who constantly fights fires – sometimes successfully but always only after morning coffee.” Daily Maverick has grown to from a 5 person start-up to 100 full-time staff, reaching 5m monthly unique visitors, sending out 15m newsletters per month and generates a 1/3rd of revenue from its 17k members. In 2020, Styli also helped launch Daily Maverick’s weekly newspaper with innovative distribution model. He is passionate about solving the disruption of media industry and focuses most efforts on new revenue models, product, technology and membership.
Tomáš Bella
Co-founder and Head of Digital
Denník N
Slovakia
Tomáš Bella is co-founder and web director of Denník N (dennikn.sk), independent Slovak daily paper focused on long-form high-quality journalism and online subscriptions that also develops open-source software for publishers (remp2020.com). Before, he was editor-in-chief of the most popular Slovak news site sme.sk and CEO of Piano, world’s biggest paywall software provider.
Virginia Pérez Alonso
Editor-in-Chief
Público.es
Spain
Virginia Pérez Alonso is a Spanish journalist and editor-in-chief at Público. Before that, she served as deputy editor-in-chief at El Mundo. Previously, she was the deputy editor-in-chief at Grupo 20 Minutos, where she led the digital transformation of the group in the area of publishing. Her integration of the newsrooms has become a successful example to follow in the sector. She also worked at other media, such as La Voz de Galicia, EFE, Radiovoz and Cinco Días. She received the iRedes Prize in 2012 “for her understanding of the cultural transformation required in newsrooms”. Pérez Alonso has also chaired the Platform for the Defence of Freedom of Information (PDLI) since 2014, which is the leading voice in Spain on the rights of freedom of expression and information. She also frequently speaks at conferences, colloquiums and seminars on journalism, transformation of newsrooms, freedom of expression and information.
Questions?
Contact Milica Miletic at [email protected]
NewsSpectrum’s Digital News Accelerator
This special workshop is part of NewsSpectrum’s Digital News Accelerator, a series of expert online workshops on digital transition and business needs for minority-language media in Europe. The accelerator is open both to NewsSpectrum grantees and to other representatives of minority-language media in Europe.