Genre: Information/Explanation

Who is going to pay for journalism? Hunting the elusive business model Abstract: Advertisers won't subsidise it; readers, viewers and listeners don't want to pay for it, and subscribers aren't committing to it -- so what business model will support journalism? Thousands of jobs in journalism are disappearing as the vehicles which traditionally carried journalists' work close down, or decide that protecting their brand is more important than acting as the Fourth Estate. What many see as a crisis for journalism is also stimulating new models and experiments. Some are based on the redeployment of traditional journalists, and others are do-it-yourself projects initiated and maintained by citizens at large. This presentation argues that journalists have fallen short in 'imagining and creating the future'and have stood by while media companies have tried to restructure and re-engineer out of it (Hamel and Prahalad 1994, 5). On the other hand, purely dystopian views of the future of journalism are likely to be misplaced. If journalism is to survive it will do so within configurations which embrace both 'new' and old media; existing and  innovative support systems, and established and altered practices. These arrangements will be driven by social demand which is more readily made apparent through the mobilization of technologies which facilitate civic expression and public assembly. Journalism's orientation will shift away from centralised institutional power towards the marginalised, disorganized and powerless. If you missed this seminar on Thursday 15 October 2009, don't be disappointed you can view the PowerPoint with presenter notes here