This is a hot topic right now.
Mr Murdoch has created more than a bit of a stir with his comments about Google and the ownership of content. This interview with Sky News in Australia is worth watching. It’s 37 minutes long but well worth finding the time for.
It [monetising content] became a hotter topic for me as a result of a conversation with a content provider.
And hotter still as a result of the confluence of a couple of blog posts that I read subsequent to that conversation.
The content provider is The Daily Mash, the UK’s biggest satirical website.
I met up with Paul Stokes, one of the founders of the site and ex Business a.m. client, for a couple of drinks and a chat.
And it was interesting to hear him talk about the monetisation of his content. His site publishes a steady stream of high quality, highly amusing, unique content to a large, loyal, high quality and growing audience.
He also has an open-minded and creative attitude to generating opportunities for brands to engage with that audience. But it appears that getting traditional media agencies to think beyond variations on the display advertising theme isn’t as easy as it should be.
That really chimed with me. Blonde has picked up a couple of really interesting clients recently, based purely on their desire to explore more innovative approaches to achieving online objectives than clickable rectangles (banners). A desire to explore that clearly wasn’t being serviced by existing suppliers.
There is a structural obstacle at play here for any agency whose business model is based on taking a cut of money spent on paid for media. For more and more clients the emphasis is shifting away from bought media to owned and earned. Paying for space is becoming a last resort in digital channels.
Enter this post by Norwegian planner Helge Tennø.
He talks about a book called Business Model Generation, which contends that there are three basic models for business : customer relationship businesses, product innovation businesses, and infrastructure businesses.
Helge argues that “media” has allowed itself to become an infrastructure business in a world that requires it to be developing customer relationships.
“I would suggest media position itself to the relationship business, and be selling completely different, more scarce and more valuable products to brands. What I would like to see is a change of business model focus. From infrastructure destruction, to creating valuable relationships – providing new and interesting products for brands to sponsor in order to increase the value being created between media and the participant.”
That quote from Helge is a pretty good description of the direction in which Paul would like to take The Mash.
We also talked about the potential opportunities afforded by mobile applications.
The Guardian’s iPhone app sold nearly 70,000 downloads at £2.39 each in its first month and is being touted as a potential £2million annual revenue stream.
The Viz Roger’s Profanisaurus application is also apparently doing well at £2.99.
Then on the way home I read this post from Bud Caddell, which contains an idea for an interesting alternative model for monetising content.
Bud suggests a model that is based on rewarding subscribers for sharing your content. The greater the degree and reach of sharing, the greater the level of subscription discount. So loyal subscribers are happy, accessing great content at a reduced price. And you’re happy because you’ve recruited a highly engaged and cost effective sales force to recruit new subscribers on your behalf.
Sorted!
Or maybe not based on this final post by Andy Sernovitz – “Nobody wants to talk about something if everyone is talking about it”.
It’s all about maintaining the perceived value of your content. In Bud’s sharing model the subscribers are very important to business growth. But they also need to feel important, and that means restricting the supply. Think Spotify or Google Wave invitations.
To be continued…