means re-envisioning their business beyond advertising: extend alternatives for charging for news -and to sustain the journalism-, as has already occurred in the U.S.

The future of the press

There is a news story is fundamental to the press dedicated equipment and resources. In a thorough research work that little or nothing is published, the media will be interested in their own future, which starts with the survival. The sector moves, as I noted recently A. G. Sulzberger: “The advertising will never be enough to pay for quality journalism”. The editor, with 38 years of age and less than 12 months at the head of The New York Times, embodies the fifth generation of a family that controls the newspaper from the end of the NINETEENTH century and, after a long journey, has come to the same conclusion that their ancestors: the journalism has a price.

in order To afford it, this header relies on a system of digital subscriptions in the summer already came to 2.9 million. The differences with the past, however, exist: the child with a hat that shouts out ¡extra, extra! to the connected screen: “there Will come a day in which [The New York Times] is a news organization only digital”, a forecast was made of Sulzberger in the forum New Establishment Summit.

In a changing environment, the media re-envisioning the business model and diversify its sources of revenue beyond advertising; so what do The Washington Post, The Economist, Wired, Vanity Fair, Le Monde, The Telegraph, Le Figaro, Financial Times, La Stampa, Corriere della Sera, Bild, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal or Correspondent, that without resorting to ads and in a market as in such as the Dutch have surpassed the 60,000 subscribers in just five years.

The so-called paywall, which prevents access to those who have not subscribed to the online publication of shift (for example, Financial Times), has inspired constructions less hard, more porous. These take the measure of the metered paywall (such as The New York Times), which sets a cap of news free and cobra since it has fulfilled that quota. In addition, there has been a freemium model that allows the free consultation of some of the content, but not of others (La Stampa is in this group). Others prefer to weave a mesh of partners or members, as The Guardian, that has already collected contributions of more than 800,000 users and has gone on to enter more of the readers than from advertisers.

What justifies this trend? For those who still do not know, of the income by advertising online, the major search engines and networks take the largest slice; Google more than anyone else. As exemplified weeks ago The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, in 2012 the major search engine started to take in more money than all the print media of the USA together. “The publishers only take a small part [of the advertising] and lack of bargaining power compared to the tech giants”, summed up this analysis on the internet.

that’s why, to this day the 78% of american newspapers charged for online access: 80% of these combines a metered paywall and online advertising, while a small 4% opted for the option of the paywall. Some walls metered or porous, have demonstrated its functioning, such as The New York Times, have decided to strengthen the so-called Lady Grey has past to allow the consultation of 10 monthly articles to leave open only five. In Europe, the mode freemium has found a favourable terrain.

those Who have believed his luck to Google and company, with a waiver of the blunt to the payment model, have not prospered as expected. The report Digital News Project, developed by Reuters to 2018 covered in this sense, the example of BuzzFeed or Mashable, which is now a year ago closed its sales below expectations. By his penetration and ability, search engines and social networks are currently dominating the advertising revenue from the advertisers, that when you allocate your money to the publishers pay a much lower price. According to Adweek, give Facebook a 800% more than an online medium. Now, the contents of such platforms rely on third-party. There is only that type google.com and you start looking.

The publishers aim to charge for their content are busy improving its offer, with products ranging from newsletters to podcasts, but usually they are focused on a same goal, their historical priority: the journalism. If the reader does not pay, you may at least register. At this time the data have been shown to pure gold. In fact, Google and Facebook have been able to deploy real empires thanks to their knowledge of the user. The consulting firm eMarketer estimates that this year both companies amasarán 56.8% of the investments in digital advertising in the US. In 2017, GroupM was spending injected in both in 84% of the data overall, excluding the chinese market. Thus, there arise voices that cry out against what they come to cross of a duopoly, a feast big big for two guests in which all media must comply with the crumbs. And Amazon knocking on the door of the feast, hungry, late, and the anticipation of entering more on advertising than Twitter and Snapchat.

To this day the 78% of american newspapers charged for online access

62% of the perpetrators of means asked in the Digital News Project exposes that the advertising will lose importance as a source of funding and, in the same line, one out of every 10 of those managers supported to prepare a business project without ads, or with very few. Also, 44% of the respondents manifested more concerned than a year before by the new platforms. The same proportion, 44%, considered to be the subscriptions to a source of digital revenues very important. Before that story, it would seem clear the way to go, but another survey of the team of Reuters, the latter of 2017, exposed that 79% of readers looked unlikely to pay for information online.

The editors are wary of Google, Twitter, Snapchat and Facebook, in order of increasing suspicion. This last company, indicated by leakage of data as in the case of the Cambridge Analytica, has lost some support among the media: first, because of the huge number of fake news which has given shelter; most recently, for putting in the newsfeed of each user the content that have been generated by interactions between its contacts, to the detriment of media reports, which have lost presence on that social network for more than 2,200 million people.

needless to say that Facebook will interestmore supply advertising to its platform that the third party, to those who prefer to collect as a client, whether it be a online journal or any other company. In parallel, the publishers have had the opportunity to verify that the traffic you receive proceeds in a greater extent of Google than Facebook (42% vs. 15% in Spain, Germany and the Uk, according to figures from the consulting firm Sistrix end of 2016).

unlike Facebook, Google has collected endorsements in the press sector, thanks to the financing of different journalistic projects. To give an example -and bizarre-: the above-mentioned Digital News Report, in which precisely it warns of the rise of the model of subscriptions, is funded by the company from Mountain View.

Indirectly, Google has given wings to the model of subscriptions. When disposing of a year ago, his policy of First Click Free, the diaries do not have to offer items for free on that browser. With the rollover, the payment information has gained visibility. The editors have taken note. The collection is not ostracized.

in The end, the sympathies of the media respond more to values to emotions: the analysts Chartbeat highlighted this month, from January 2017, the mobile traffic that comes from Facebook to the media has dropped to around 40%, while doubling the from Google. In Spain, this search engine captures the overwhelming 96,94% of searches, according to the tool StatCounter.

it Is necessary to check once more that Spain is different. The Map of the internet sites, marked out by the teachers: Ramón Salaverría, María del Pilar Martínez-Costa and James Breiner, reflects that, by 2018, there are already more than 3,000 digital media assets in Spain, where 2.498 (to 81.5%) resort to the ads. However, “the financing of the digital media in this country no longer depends only on advertising”, a line of business that begins to be combined with other sponsorship public (574 media and an 18.7%) and the model of subscriptions (363 and an 11.8%). For the less with a good memory, “just a decade ago reigned the idea that anyone would pay for news in digital, especially in Spain,” says the study. Regional titles such as the Vocento group since you have dared to collect.

The citizen reads and is informed, for peace of mind of the journalists. The survey Navigators in the Network of AIMC highlights the consultation of news as the most common activity among the Spanish users, with 84.6% of penetration. There are ever more smartphones and confidence in the online payment; also a rejection of ad: 74.6% of the respondents stop visiting a website if it presents excessive advertising and 69.9% is bothering him especially on the internet, more than in other media. That is why, has popularized the use of ad blockers or ad-blockers, another invitation to the newspapers online to put a distance with a model based solely on advertising.

There is at whom to look for. One has only to watch the audio-visual field, with Netflix, or the music, with Spotify. According to the predictions of Deloitte, in 2018 there will be in developed countries 20 million subscriptions adult news platform. The millennials are not far behind: mobile at the ready, await at the station to which it is addressed, this train, with A. G. Sulzberger in the wagon of The New York Times. In Europe and in Spain, as it has picked up this week, the Pew Research Center, young people report by the internet and not through the television, such as the elderly. In addition, the new reader trust in the networks but also in the pages of the traditional media.

Less than a year after the election as president of Donald Trump, north american publications such as The New Yorker and The Atlantic had doubled their subscriber bases young people. Perhaps in Spain it is not necessary to reach those ends.

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