Profit Seeking
May 13, 2007 by Dave Earley
Filed under Media, Online
According to the State of the News Media report,
Its goal is to gather in one place as much data as possible about all the major sectors of journalism, to identify trends, mark key indicators, note areas for further inquiry and provide a resource for citizens, journalists, and researchers.
This article about the report focuses on profit seeking and the difficulties faced by old and new media alike. Nobody yet seems to know how to come up with a business model that’s actually going to make them money.
The solution economically could be niche news, with the media focusing more on what they cover, instead of how they cover it. Before this new problem with profit came up, you would appeal to as broad an audience as possible. Now it seems you appeal to as narrow an audience as possible, because every niche has a loyal following – if you can capture it then they may just be willing to pay.
The problem from a journalism viewpoint, according to the article, is that these ‘shrinking ambitions’ of journalism have resulted, and will further result, in a decline of basic monitoring of local and regional government.
