SpectatorBytes

In our recent company portfolio summit, Nova Spivack, CEO of Twine, crystallized a concept about the dynamics of content on the Web, which I shared and have been trying to succinctly outline for some time. Spivack stated: “Individuals are becoming the primary way that content gets distributed and discovered [on the Web] – rather than portals, aggregations sites, content networks, media companies etc.” This concept is particularly relevant to the future of journalism.

The traditional newspaper model has become the latest victim of the digital disruption. Like with music, digital technologies have uncovered the inefficiencies and limitations of the current newspaper model. The content production cycle is slow, printing costs are high, and distribution is subject to geographic constraints. As a result, consumers are increasingly relying on the Web to consume news and cancelling their newspaper subscriptions. The news cycle takes place in real-time, content offering is much more comprehensive, there are no geographic constraints, and more importantly the pricing model is free.

Today, the majority of news efforts fall into two camps. Those from traditional newspaper organizations which primarily rely on a mix of subsidies from their offline operations and advertising (e.g., New York Times, Washington Post), and Web-only news publications (e.g., Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo) which rely solely on advertising. While some of these news efforts are seeing success, they represent a transitional step to a more sustainable model for news production and distribution. The main issues that they still need to address are scalability and monetization.

The next-generation digital news model is likely to evolve around individual journalists (as opposed to newspaper brands). In this model, individual journalists will get compensated for the size of the community/audience they gather and the level of activity among their communities. This model will reflect the Darwinistic nature of the Web.

This view of the world suggests that consumers will increasingly rely on individual journalists as their main prism through which they will consume news on the Web. These individual journalists will not only produce original content but will also curate relevant content for consumers. They are likely designed to be the “starting point” for many consumers in key news areas.

This model will require several elements to succeed:
- Emphasis on brand building around individual journalists. Developing a unique voice is a critical factor in establishing a journalist’s brand.
- Robust technology content management systems to enable highly efficient news production, cataloging and distribution. Technology will prove critical to maximize the distribution of a journalist’s content.
- Editorial support focused on helping journalists grow their audiences and manage their communities. They will constantly monitor audiences’ reactions to specific news content and community opinions. In addition, they will program/merchandise the content as effectively as possible via strong “network homepages.” The Huffington Post exemplifies the value of focusing on this capability.
- Deep integration of aggregation and syndication tools (e.g., Twitter, Publish2) in the content creation workflow, and adoption of distribution best practices (e.g., SEO). The more adept journalists are with these tools, the greater their ability to reach audiences.
- Low cost, highly scalable infrastructure leveraging back-end web services and publishing tools (e.g., video, community management, content aggregation, wiki/database tools)
- Monetize journalist brands via multiple revenue streams (brand advertising, sponsorships, book deals, etc.). This is an area that needs further development which I will discuss in a later post. Hence, a low-cost model remains essential.

The recent momentum of Twitter and Publish2 (one of Velocity’s portfolio companies) suggests the individual journalist model has begun to gain momentum.

Like in other areas of the Web, great journalists will see disproportionate returns while most other may struggle to find sizable audiences. Nevertheless, high quality journalism is likely to thrive on the Web rather than wither away.

So, even though the bad news about newspaper companies will continue to come, the future for journalism remains bright and offers great potential.

Note: In addition to Publish2, we have made an investment in another news organization called True/Slant that looks to exploit these trends and execute this vision of journalism. I will share the news when they come out of stealth mode.