The Problem with New News Models
Scott Rosenberg puts his finger on the problem with news organizations’ current approaches to finding a sustainable business model:
Journalists who set out on the Great Business Model Hunt are trying to figure out how to support a newsroom. This is entirely understandable. If you have a great newsroom — and as a lifelong reader I certainly feel that the Times does — then of course you’re going to worry about that around the clock once you realize that your old business model is doomed.
But it’s the wrong question. It’s backwards. The newsrooms of today acquired their size and shape and structure thanks to the business model that supported institutions of their size. The world has changed; that model is vanishing. We shouldn’t be asking “What sort of business can support a newsroom online?” The question is, “What’s the best kind of newsroom that the online business can support?”
