KUALA LUMPUR: THE global newspaper industry, which is worth some US$179 billion (RM784 billion), is facing tremendous changes in terms of content generation and distribution.
Innovation that created new markets and disrupted the existing business models of newspaper companies has also changed the way
print companies operate their businesses.
“A lot of media companies all over the world are in the midst of a transformation. They are trying to find the right business model and the right way to monetise their content on various digital media platforms, such as social media, apps and online video,” World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) chief operating officer, Thomas Jacob, told Business Times recently.
He said most media companies in mature and developing markets had adapted to the changes and were becoming innovative in looking for ways to monetise their content.
This included adopting the paywall model (charges are done on online content) and metered model (readers are able to access a limited number of online articles for free before having to subscribe to read more articles), said Jacob.
There are also some newspaper companies that have opted for a more creative way to generate higher revenue, such as offering membership subscription.
According to Jacob, the United Kingdom’s The Guardian, for example, offered club membership, whereby its members were able to read its news contents and receive free concert tickets.
“I think newspapers have to start thinking as a news media company; not as newspapers first but newspapers as one of their platforms.
“I think there needs to be a change in mindset because the business model has changed dramatically in the last 10 years,” Jacob said.
In today's rapidly changing business environment, newspaper companies also need to have credibility by offering high quality journalism and content.
The biggest asset of a newspaper company was its credibility as it differentiated the print journalism from citizen journalism and other noise on the Internet, he added.
“In a lot of mature markets, newspaper companies such as New York Times and The Guardian have the trust of their readers, which is why their readership is growing.
“What is attractive is the brand of the media company and the content quality is extremely important. I think its important for Malaysian newspaper companies to have high quality content and the trust of readers,” Jacob said.
He disagreed with the popular belief that print was a dying industry; saying it was still strong and the audience numbers were increasing all over the world.
Due to the high number of readers, media companies need to put their audiences first and understand their needs so that they are able to offer contents based on their preferences.
“The audience trend is changing around the world. This means that media firms need to react fast to match the changes. More people are using social media to get news content and that means media companies have to react much faster.”
In order to fully adapt to the changing business model, he added that news organisations needed to train its workforce, particularly journalists, to embrace the new ways of doing work.
“Most journalists are used to the traditional way of writing news for print. When they are required to write in a different way for various platforms such as online and social media, that could add more stress,” said Jacob.
“The news organisation has to change in a way, in that it needs to have a group of specialised writers with different skills set in the newsroom, so that everyone could adapt to the new style of presenting the news content.
“At the same time, I think journalists and newsroom editors and executives need to understand the change in technology so that they can embrace these changes, too.”