Revenue Roadmap

The Innovation and Revenue Roadmap is a tool for leaders in journalism to future-proof their media’s editorial strategies, technology and business models.

It utilizes tools to question, discover, test and deliver relevant innovations and revenue diversification strategies for the media in varied markets.

Independent media face multiple challenges

Low public trust, unstable revenue streams, digital disruption, plummeting ad revenues, limited public desire to pay for quality journalism and vulnerability to political and technological changes.

This roadmap is based on the experiences of media managers and owners of news organizations. It offers a comprehensive overview of potential strategies and tools best suited to varied needs.

PHASE 1
PHASE 2
PHASE 3

Defining your value proposition

Your value proposition answers the following questions:

What benefit do we sell?
Who are our target customers?
Why should customers choose us?

Audience centricity: Adressing the needs of your target audience.

Is your audience engaging with your content, on social media or in comments? What audience revenue opportunities are you missing? How can you better focus on your audience in a competitive media landscape?

Invite input from your audience to uncover new perspectives and make your product more useful.

Audience research methods: surveys, 1-on-1 meetings, A/B testing, focus groups, community conversations, audience/social listening and feedback loops for ongoing engagement.

How will you pay for your journalism?

When you have a product that meets a demand and is feasible to make for your organization, the final step is to turn your attention to the business. How will your product influence your bottom line, or your profit margin? This could be revenue, but it could also be audience engagement, increased visibility, or anything else that you believe will positively influence your business.

The primer lists the methods through which media properties can make money through various products and services that complement what they are already doing as publishers.

Successful media often diversify their revenue, mixing commercial revenues like consulting, sponsored content, events and technology licensing with reader revenues like subscriptions or donations.

Audience-centricity is predicated on two-way communication.

When engaging in audience research, you are not only asking about your audience’s behavior and interests, but you are also creating opportunities for them to raise questions and provide input. In this instance it is essential to inform your audience of developments in your editorial, product and user-experience strategy in response to their inputs – for example by producing an article that answers a question posed by the audience, or adapting UX based on audience feedback.

Market analysis

It is important to have knowledge of the market your media operates in, whether it is a topical niche with a global audience or a specific geographic community. This requires collecting data and analyzing customer behavior and market trends in this region or theme in which you operate. This helps you understand why a user or client may need this news product or content service. For example, are educated, middle-income consumers in your region increasing the quantity of subscriptions they receive, or are fewer users in your region navigating to websites to access news? We analyze impact related to individual stories and beats to explore ways of integrating successful methods into newsrooms’ editorial planning.

Successful media often diversify their revenue, mixing commercial revenues like consulting, sponsored content, events and technology licensing with reader revenues like subscriptions or donations.

Descriptions of a selection of income types:

Native Advertising

Native advertising is paid content, in print or video, that blends seamlessly with the user experience, resembling the editorial material of the platform. Publishers monetize it by selling both the advertising space and the creation of the content, which appears across their own and external platforms.

Content Syndication

Content syndication involves republishing original content to other news outlets while retaining ownership and copyright. This non-exclusive arrangement expands the content’s reach and enhances brand recognition. However, ad-based organizations must balance revenue from their own platforms versus partner sites to mitigate risks.

Content Agency Services

Content agency services refer to publications that offer their writing, editing, and design expertise to external clients, functioning as content vendors. These clients often include local businesses, other publications, and nonprofits. The agencies produce various content types, including website copy, blog posts, press releases, social media updates, newsletters, white papers, ebooks, and multimedia elements like illustrations and videos.

Meetups/events

Meetups and events organized by a news organization involve curating the agenda, providing the venue, and inviting the audience, focusing on topics related to the organization’s specialty. These events allow the organization to gather newsworthy content and connect experts, audiences, and advertisers. Publishers monetize events either through advertising and sponsorship models, charging attendees, or a combination of the two

Education and Training

Media training, journalism institutes, focusing on technical aspects of the industry such as video production, social media management or SEO, to media training for executives and activities on understanding deadlines and responding to media queries; understanding when someone is or is not off the record, for background or for attribution, etc.

Case Studies

Click here to read the full report

> Meet the authors

He is the International Press Institute’s Head of Innovation and Media Business, leading and designing a portfolio of training and funding programmes supporting innovation in independent media revenue models, audience engagement and editorial formats worldwide.

He also leads and designs the programme for IPI’s annual Media Innovation Festival. Before joining IPI, he was head of an Austrian magazine’s product and publishing divisions, and advised independent media outlets in Europe and Africa on revenue diversification and product strategy.

He published in and reported for the Center for International Media Assistance, World Bank, CNN International, Huffington Post and others from Dar es Salaam, Berlin, Istanbul, Accra and Vienna.

He holds an MPhil from the University of Oxford and a BA from Suffolk University.

Adjunct Professor of Business in the marketing division at Columbia Business School, Professor Seave is a Principal of Quantum Media, the New York City based consulting firm focused on marketing and strategic planning for media and entertainment companies as well as nonprofits.

As a Quantum Media principal, she has led numerous consulting engagements since 1998 and has provided senior-level management consulting services to many companies in a broad range of assignments.

Before founding Quantum Media with four others in 1998, she was a general manager at three media companies: Scholastic Inc., The Village Voice and at TVSM (the USA’s largest cable listings magazine.)

She started her career at Dell Publishing (a division of Doubleday) and as a photography editor for two horticulture magazines.

Revenue Roadmap

Independent media face multiple challenges