New Skills for the Next Generation of Journalists
2017-1-HU01-KA203-036038
New ways of financing journalism projects are one of the hottest topics in the contemporary media field. However, it is tough to find innovative business models that work successfully in the long run. Most of the media outlets try to combine traditional financial models with new ones. Some best-practices worldwide range from different advertising models, paid content, sponsorship and membership, to selling non-media products. The audience has a more significant role than ever, because they are not just consumers anymore, but can also appear as financers, for example in the case of crowdfunding. During Phase 1 of our project, we analysed new business models in the media field and the university curricula of Romania, Hungary, Germany and Portugal.
Business models in the media
Difficulties in Romania and Hungary
In Romania, due to oligarchic influences, new business models become more and more prominent. In the Romanian market, newsrooms set up as NfPOs (non-for-profit-organisations) became very valuable - like RISE project and the Romanian Centre for Investigative Journalism. NfPOs produce professional reporting, and are financed on a non-profit basis, and are usually part of international networks. These organisations can also attract more support through crowdfunding.
Hungary also suffers from oligarchic interferences connected to state influence. Furthermore, there are no paywalls, metered or freemium contents on the media market. However, the independent investigative teams like Átlátszó - that played a pioneering role in crowdfunding, and Direkt36 have successful crowdfunding campaigns. One of the biggest news portals, 444 also uses crowdfunding just like a small local portal Szabad Pécs (Free Pécs).
The huge problem is that neither the Romanian nor the Hungarian mentality does favour these new kinds of models: people are usually reluctant to pay for online journalistic contents. It is tough to change this attitude, but Anita Vorák (Direkt36) would prefer to have full crowdfunding because then they could be more independent. Augustin Roman (Digital Antena Group) said that most of the new innovative business models in Romania have somehow failed to produce the expected outcome for mainstream media.
Innovative experimentations in Germany and Portugal
In Germany, there are various forms of paid-content models. About one-third of daily newspapers had set a paywall on their webpages in 2017. However, it is not so common to hide all of the content behind paywalls; therefore, the majority of the mediums still offer their online content free. Media outlets are also experimenting with freemium models (where people have to pay only for exclusive contents) or metered models (where users can read a certain amount of text for free). Crowdfunding is not so popular, but some media organisations have tried this innovative way, such as Krautreporter. Although the non-profit investigative newsroom Correctivhas foundations and philanthropic funding, these are not the only pillar of their business model. They steadily develop further streams of income in the form of memberships fees or donations. Curiously, most of the German interviewees thought that even Germany is an "underdeveloped country" regarding paid content. According to journalism professor Tanjev Schultz, one of the reasons can be that digital pay models were introduced too late in Germany.
In Portugal, both the legacy and new media are experimenting with innovative revenue streams from native advertising and branded content to metered paywalls. In 2015, on behalf of the Portuguese media regulatory body Entidade Reguladora para a Comunicação Socia(ERC), ISCTE-IUL conducted some academic research. None of the interviewed Portuguese journalists felt comfortable talking about this aspect of journalism, but they agreed that it is vital to find new business models. The journalism project É Apenas Fumaça (It is just smoke) that has just won funding from the Open Society Foundation was mentioned as a good example.
Innovative business models in higher education
All of the Romanian, Hungarian, German and Portuguese institutions in the research sample have integrated elements of media economics; however, only a few academic, journalistic programmes put new business models into the focus.
Basics and some particular aspects in Romania
In Romania, the University of Bucharest prepares journalism students to think about financial constraints, challenges and possibilities. At Master's level, they also offer a unique programme in Media Management. At the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University,students can learn about basic economics in the framework of the ‘Theoretical Introduction to Economics' course. Other higher educational institutions offer students the opportunity to discuss new business models, and other courses deal with media economics and current developments.
Personal branding is important in Hungary
In most Hungarian universities, new business models are not in focus. Nevertheless, there are a few courses, which contain some aspects of these new business models. The Budapest Metropolitan Universityoffers a course on personal branding for journalists. András Murai believes this is very important as nowadays the chance of becoming a full-time journalist has diminished, and therefore students have to learn how to move in several directions as freelance journalists. A general PR communication course at the Eötvös Loránd University e.g. covers the topic of personal branding; moreover, they offer a course where students learn about the social media stars’ business models.
In Germany, students can develop innovative business plans
In Germany, five of the six curricula observed, tackle questions of how to finance journalism in the future and teach and discuss new business models. The program in Hamburg is the only one that does not operate a course on business models. According to the head of the department, Michael Brüggemann, they believe “[..] journalists should not have to worry about how to finance journalism. Developing business models should be in the hands of media managers.”
General courses are also available in most faculties of the sample like ‘Introduction to journalism’, ‘Media economics’ or ‘Current developments in journalism’. However, some put a strong focus on this topic, like the programmes at Cologne, Dortmund and Stuttgart. They all offer specialised courses on business models, but only Stuttgart has a great emphasis on innovations. Journalism students at Cologne have the opportunity to attend different courses on business planning and management; furthermore, they have to develop their business plan. At Dortmund, there are specialised courses where ‘editorial analytics’ and ‘consequences of algorithms’ are also covered. At Stuttgart, in the framework of the ‘Innovation management’ module, students develop business prototypes for specific cases from the field. It is an excellent opportunity because media practitioners rate the student's ideas and sometimes implement them in their media outlets.
In Portugal, specific courses should have much more attention
In Portugal, only two of the investigated programmes offer specific courses on business models, and both are in the capital city. At ISCTE-IUL, students can learn about‘Entrepreneurial Journalism and Media Economics and Business’ and at the University Autónoma of Lisbon about‘Media, Economics and Business'. In other programmes, more general courses contain these questions. On the other hand, business models are considered to be very important, because according to lecturer Luís António Santos “business models allow the students to have an idea on how the business works and understand the potential for future use”. Journalist Elisabete Rodrigues also argued that these issues should be part of the journalism and media programmes.
Consumers’ attitude needs change
Nevertheless, there are promising developments mostly in the German media and education, whereas newsrooms and universities in Romania and Hungary have to face economic and political constraints. However, some new collaborative journalism networks have evolved recently, which have set up new business models to finance their projects. Hungarian journalist Gergely Dudás is currently working on the launch of a crowdfunded news portal Politis.hu and struggling with consumers' attitude who do not want to pay for online news – this is not a unique Hungarian phenomenon, the Romanian, German and Portuguese journalists also struggle with this mentality. Sometimes even journalists and journalism educators do not see the need for transforming the business model of a medium, and this attitude can become very problematic in the long run.
You can find the full sample of the universities in our research report(page 40-43). If you would like to read more about the role of new business models in the partner countries, check our report as well.
Featured image by Marco Verch (flickr)
Other pictures: Pixabay
