Updates on news innovation research, funding and projects

It’s been a hectic few months. And, it seems, there’s more to come in 2012.

• Today, it was announced that I’ve been selected from amongst more than 300 entries as one of three winners of the inaugural International Press Institute’s News Innovation Contest, funded from a grant by Google. (More about the Media And Digital Enterprise or  MADE project here. Also, please add your contact details here, if you want to be kept in the loop or work with me on this one. Follow the Twitter conversation at #MADEproject ).


• I've also recently learned that the research paper, “The 4Cs of Mobile News”, which my research partner Oscar Westlund and I presented at the (always excellent) Future of Journalism conference in Cardiff in September, has been selected for a special issue of the prestigious Journalism Practice journal due out in 2012.


• Earlier this month, Martha Stone and I also wrapped up the data collection for World Newsmedia Innovation Study (formerly the World News Future & Change Study) and plan to issue our third annual report early in the new year.


• Also coming soon (I hope) is the final report of the #journopay study into how UK journalists are rewarded, which was launched with the help of Sarah Bould and the team at Hold the Front Page . Roy Greenslade previewed the interim results in the Guardian.

• Haven't finalised my conference schedule for next year, but looking forward to speaking more about how UK regional news publishers are mobilising (or not) at News: Rewired in London on February 3rd. Also hope to be able to share more details about the #MADEproject by that stage, too.

Then there's also my continuing work with the inspiring editors on the Journalism Leaders Programme, helping Nick Turner out with the Digital Editors Network (diary note: next meetup on 23 Feb), a new Fundamentals of Business for Media Entrepreneurs module for MA magazine and publishing students at UCLAN, planning for the journalism division's 50th anniversary (yes, we're not only one of the best journalism programmes in the UK, we're also the oldest), two book chapters and the final stretch of my doctoral thesis at City University with Prof Howard Tumber.  No doubt, 2012 is going to be a busy one.


Updates along the way on Twitter @francoisnel and academia.edu.

And, of course, always keen to meet up  with kindred spirits f2f. So be in touch if you think our paths might cross in (or near) one of the following cities in 2012 - Manchester, Preston, London, Winchester, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Istanbul.

#ukjournopay New study: How are journalists being rewarded?

There's been a lot of talk about the financial health of the journalism industry (Summary: diagnosis - poor; prognosis -mixed). And there's been quite a bit of discussion (and some research ) about the experiences of journalists who have left or been forced out of their jobs.

But what about those staying behind? Just how are UK journalists, who face increasing demands, being rewarded?

After Jim Oldfied, the striking editor of the South Yorkshire Times, revealed in an NUJ meeting reported on by Jon Slattery & HTFP, that his annual pay after 37 years in journalism is £25,500, I figured it's time to take a closer look.

To that end, I'm conducting an online survey of the pay of UK journalists. If you're a fulltime, part-time, contract or freelance journalist working for a UK newspaper, magazine, broadcaster or online news site, please take 10 minutes to complete this survey.

While all answers will remain anonymous, I will be happy to send you a copy of the report if you add contact details, which will be held separately and never passed on.

Of course, if you have any questions or suggestions for this study, please don't hesitate to be in touch. And any efforts to spread the word about the #ukjournopay research would be very much appreciated.

Related: In case you're interested, my 2010 report, Laidoff: What do UK journalists do next?, is available here.

Top 3 findings from the World News Future & Change Study 2010

The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers this month published our annual survey of senior news executives  - and the findings show there's some reason to be festive this Season.

The study, which I conduct in collaboration with Martha Stone of the Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project and Erik Wilberg of the Norwegian Management School, is the largest of its kind and in 2010 had responses from nearly 500 newspaper owners, publishers, editors and senior commercial managers from 78 countries on all five continents.

Not surprisingly, the 128-page report is packed with great information and selecting my top 3 findings wasn't straightforward. But here's what I think and why I think there's some reason for cheer as we wrap up the first decade of this Millennium and gear up for 2011:

1. The impact of the global economy recession is easing. No, we're not out of the woods yet. Far from it. But a third fewer publishers (18.5 % in 2010 vs 28% in 2009) reported severe revenue declines – that is more 20 per cent. Declining print advertising revenue was the biggest driver of overall revenue decline, with more than 80% of the respondents saying they lost between 1% and more than 20% of their print ad revenue, with the most pronounced declines happening in Northern Europe and North America regions. Meanwhile online advertising revenue and content revenue did not take the same hit as print revenues, with half of the respondents reporting growth, many reporting no change, and a handful, less than one-­quarter, reporting a decline in the last fiscal year.
   
   
2. Advertising-supported print products are no longer enough. The vast the vast majority of the world's news publishers recognise their traditional revenue sources of print advertising and newspaper subscriptions will no longer provide the financial returns of years past and, in response, the publishers are making it a top priority to diversify their revenue streams and to development new products and new channels.
   

   
   

   

   Publishers are bullish about mobile.

   
   

3. Innovation - and mobile - are keys to future success. One question summed up the publishers’ collective desire for the future of their business, and that is, new business growth. Respondents in both 2009 and 2010 spoke loudly and clearly: the way forward is through investment in new product development for new revenues. We consider this to be one of the most important findings of the study. . Other clear investments for newspaper companies were marketing and branding for newspapers, increased audience research and investment in customer relationship management. In 2009, investment in new product development was followed by marketing and branding for the newspaper, increased audience research, investment in customer relationship management and investment in editorial technologies. This year, investment in new product development was followed by marketing and branding for the newspaper, and then "mobile platforms."  When asked, “Please consider which of the following platforms could be opportunities for your organisation over the next three years,” the top choices were mobile phones (58%), followed by Websites (54%) and e-readers, such as Kindle and iPad (53%.). Clearly the emerging importance of mobile is an important take-away from this year’s study and, of course, we’ll be investigating this in some greater depth in 2011.

A  free summary of the study is available for download on the WAN-IFRA site. And, of course, I'd be happy to answer any questions [Twitter @francoisnel / FPNel @ uclan . ac . uk ] .

We’re already working on the 2011 survey and planning to expand the study to 10 languages by including Arabic, along with (in alphabetical order) Chinese, English, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

For academic citations of the report, please use: STONE, Martha, NEL, François and WILBERG, Erik. (2010) World News Future and Change Study 2010. Paris, France: World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

Still no industry consensus: To integrate your print and online newsrooms, or not to....

That has been one of the hottest questions in news organisation for more than a decade. And, despite much, much discussion - and many examples from the UK and elsewhere - there's still no industry consensus.

Just this week, Robert Andrews of PaidContentUK reported that Trinity Mirror chief Sly Bailey, whose Regionals division's integration efforts have been held up as best practice examples internationally, said operations at the national Daily Mirror, for one, would remain separate:

Bailey said Trinity Mirror’s recent national digital executive-level digital reshuffle was about creating a digital division “separate” from print, allowing each to focus on their respective areas.

“It was just too difficult to ask the editor of the Daily Mirror, who has six newspapers to get out every week, (to run the website as well),” Bailey said.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, there are also divergent operational strategies aimed at achieving a similar result: maximising online opportunities [read: revenue].

Five years after America's second largest paper, USA Today, announced that a merger print and online operations "will improve our report to readers both in print and online", the company has had a "radical" rethink.

By contrast, The Cutline reports that a recent reorganisation at the New York Times, that country's largest paper, is aimed at bringing online and print operations even closer together.

What ever else this means (and I look forward to discussing this further), it suggests how you answer the integration questions depends in no small part on how you answer the key question that every business should answer:

What's the most efficient way to sustainably deliver customer value?

Why Rupert Murdoch's 'paywall' strategy might indeed be adding up

[Update: Many thanks for all the feedback on the calculations, which have now been revised]

Next week, I’m slated to speak at WAN-IFRA’s 9th International Newsroom Summit in London about my research into how publishers can boost their online revenues, so after reading today’s piece in The Independent by Ian Burrell, I thought I’d do some back-of-the envelope calculations to see if Rupert Murdoch’s paywall strategy might indeed be adding up.

Warning: I’m not privy to the online traffic figures of The Times or The Sunday Times, which are no longer ABCe registered, nor do I know their ARPU or Average Revenue Per User rates, so this is just conjecture using figures I have discussed before.

Times' 20,406,420 monthly unique users in May 2009, according to ABCe figures quoted in Press Gazette. Say they were making £0.20p £0.10p per user per month, mostly from advertising.

That would be 20,406,420 X £0.10p = £2,040,642 per month.

So, say they lost 90 per cent of their users and, say, 50 per cent of their advertisers got cold feet, too:

20,040,642 X 0.10 = 2,040,642 users x (£0.10/ 2) £0.05 = £102,032.10 per month, mostly from advertising.

And say half those users cross the TimesPlus ‘paywall’ by through the £1 daily access fee and the other half opt for the £2 weekly access.

Income from daily access users: 1,020,321 X £1 x 30 days per month = £33,060, 963£1,020,32 per month.

Income from weekly access users: 1,020,321 X £2 X 4 weeks per month= £8,165, 136£2,040,642 per month

Total income would be £102,032.10 + £1,020,321.00 + £2,040,642.00 would be : £3,162,995.10, which is still be up 55% on what the income may have been before the paywall.

And say I’m only half right?

Well, then The Times' online income would be down about a quarter.

So, if you’re looking at Rupert Murdoch’s paywall model from a financial perspective, the strategy looks like it may just be adding up. But, of course, one would have to be privy to the actual numbers to really know for sure.

[Addendum: Robert Andrews alerted me to the uncanny similarity between my calculations and those he did earlier for PaidContentUK ]

How does your Annual Revenue Per User (ARPU) compare with the Guardian and Media Norge?

Recently Schibsted‘s Norwegian publisher Media Norge outlined to investors the key challenge they face in building their digital business: “Overall traffic levels may be reaching saturation and online ad prices are stagnating.”

As PaidContent reported, the company also disclosed its average revenue per user (ARPU) rate, giving us a rare look under the bonnet of one of the world’s most successful digital publisher. The company , acknowledged that average income per monthly unique visitor of two Norwegian krona (that’s $0.32 or £0.21) is now less than it was back in 2006.

That’s still more than double the Guardian Media Group’s 2007 rate of 10p (that’s $0.16 or 0.97 Norwegian krona), if my back-of-the-envelope calculations based on figures in their 2008 Annual Report are correct.

To double check, take a look at these slides which I used for a presentation for the Digital Editors' Network earlier this year.

Compare you digital revenues with The Guardian's?

View more presentations from Francois Nel.

How much is each of your users worth? And how do those figures compare?

Building a Tip Sheet for Laid Off Journalists (and others)

As part of the report on the #laidoff study, we’re compiling a list of online resources where you can find guides and advice about how to get back into the work force, re-tool your career and shift directions, or keep your current journalism jobs.

If you have suggestions for other sites or links we should include, please add those below or send them to me a FPNel @ uclan.ac.uk . Thanks.

Job Search Engines, Articles & Guides:

• Journalism.co.uk – tips on CV writing, preparing for an interview and more – as well as daily updates on jobs across the broader communications sector
• HoldtheFrontPage – jobs listings in the local and regional press.
• Jobs4journalists.co.uk – journalism jobs across the sector, across the UK
• Guardian Media Jobs - national and even international jobs
• How-Do – creative industry jobs in the Northwest
• UCLAN’s Andy Dickinson’s guide to digital job hunting.

What support is on offer for graduates of the University of Central Lancashire, home to the UK's oldest journalism programme?

• Careers advice and guidance by email, telephone or face-to-face
• Search for job opportunities and internships at 'myfutures'
• Careers resources to download
• Help with gaining relevant work-experience
• Events & workshops to help develop your skills
• Business start-up, freelance and self-employment advice , including office space

Training Sessions:

• Vision + Media - provide a range of activities to support media professionals in the Northwest.
• News University - training and courses for journalists, many of them free (project by the Poynter Institute)

How to Keep Your Job if You Still Have One:

• Keeping your Job in Journalism (from the Knight Digital Media Center)
• Tips on Keeping Your Print Journalism Job – some sober advice from a politically-incorrect hack.