A New Business Model for Media in a Digital Age

2013 by Samir Mr. Magazine Husni and Deb Wenger The University of Mississippi Meek School of Journalism and New Media University, MS 38677 U.S.A. An Outline: The proposed new business model for media in a digital age is based on the 4-Cs: Content Customer Commerce Community Content: There are two important elements where content is concerned: 1. Experience 2. Platforms The Experience must go beyond good content. The Experience must go beyond the 5 Ws and the H. The Experience has to focus more on the What Is In It For Me WIIIFM factor. The Platforms are where you divide your content between the Know and the Flow. The Know is in-depth analysis, opinion, and investigative information any facet that provides the "What Is In It For Me" factor. The Flow is mainly geared toward whats happening now in the present. The first choice for the platform must depend upon whether your content is The Know or The Flow. Whether Know or Flow, you must make a decision on the cost of the content: free, paid, or freemium where you give a little free and then collect for the rest.

Customer: The traditional matchmaking rule of content and customer is still valid, however customers now go beyond the traditional definition of what a customer used to be referred to. The customer can be divided in to two categories: 1. Audience 2. Advertiser The Audience is your reader, viewer, listener, and user. The Advertiser is changing from the page, square-inch, or column-inch buyer, to a client or a partner. As a client, media outlets are becoming more of Marketing Agencies, Creative Agencies or even at some cases Advertising Agencies. The media outlet now prepares an entire campaign that goes beyond the page or space utilized for an ad, to include all kinds of creative, design, social events, social media, etc. for the client. Media companies are now hiring marketing executives in addition to the ad executives and sales people. The Partner, on the other hand, can be a long-term or short-term relationship. So in short the new model is more of the relationship business than just the matchmaking business. Building and acting upon those relationships in a way that we are no longer erecting walls (think separation between church and state) but rather destroying that wall and start building bridges between media and advertisers to better meet the needs, wants and desires of both the media and the advertiser. The overall role of media is based on a triangular relationship between Content, and both Customer and Advertiser. In fact, the media is the matchmaker. So, I think this needs refinement -- this is really the OLD business model, right? Media gathers audience and sells that audience to advertisers. Today we are still sometimes operating as a matchmaker, but at other times, we are in direct sales to the audience with no advertising intermediary and at times were creating content specifically for advertisers to communicate directly with our audience. Do you agree? I think it flows into the commerce section. Commerce: The third C commerce in media is a new concept for the business model and can be described in two ways: 1. Promote products 2. Engage customers with products

The ultimate goal is to sell and move products. This has the industry coming full-circle, moving from: product brand back to product. There is nothing new with the idea, except the new relationship between media and different businesses and now being described as clients and partners, instead of advertisers. We are no longer just in the business of promoting a product or a brand, but also actively involved in selling and sharing profits. Technically, we have moved from that wall that separated church and state, to building bridges between church and state. Or doing what some people may describe as Outing ourselves, and doing in public what we may have been doing in secret for years. As the old adage tells us: dont bite the hand that feeds you. Community: The combination of content, customer and commerce is the creation of this new type of community, which we refer to as a Fluid Community and it can be divided up two ways: 1. Mass Community 2. Cluster Community The Mass Community is increasingly difficult for one medium to capture long term everyone might be watching American Idol one season or downloading Justin Bieber music, but mass community is capricious and elusive sometimes we dont even know why the mass community becomes enamored with one product and not another MySpace vs. Facebook. The Cluster Community is rapidly increasing and spreading. In most cases, depending on the events and the news, many cluster communities will come together to create this fluid mass community for a brief short of time, before the clusters go back to their own little areas of interest. Thus the ultimate focus-goal is the creation of Cluster Communities that share the same psychographic areas of interest more than demographics. Therefore, in an age of increasingly targeted media and analytics, identifying these clusters will allow us to make both non-sponsored content and advertising more valuable for all involved. The two key runners for these Cluster Communities are based on the interaction of the Cluster Community and the relationship. And in this age of Isolated Connectivity, where everyone feels more connected than ever, yet can be more isolated, those interactive relationships are expected to be long-lasting and will build and benefit that Cluster. Or at the very least, become a love affair so we

can avoid the one-night stand. In short, the new Business Model we are calling for is one that puts the customer first, platforms second and engages in both content and commerce interaction with specific Fluid Community Clusters that are as fast changing as the media that serves them. Media and their audiences are no longer a melting pot, but rather a wide spread cafeteriastyle buffet for any and every one to pick and choose their own.