I will be discussing my Complete Community Connection business model Thursday at the Iowa High School Press Association in Iowa City. This is the one-page handout. For more, read the full C3 Blueprint (38 pages as a pdf). Here are the slides for my presentation.
The business models that have supported newspapers (and broadcasting) for decades are breaking down. Some critical elements of the economic crisis facing media:
- Newspaper circulation was 31% of U.S. population in 1940, 13% today.
- Newspaper advertising has dropped 13 straight quarters (7 straight over 10%).
- The problem is not giving content away free online (we never supported content operations with circulation revenue; that pays for production & distribution).
- To remain relevant for the future, we need to master digital & social media and develop new revenue streams.
My Blueprint for the Complete Community Connection proposes a new business model for community media companies (let’s stop calling them newspapers). The core goals:
- Like people turn to Google for multiple needs, people will turn to C3 for whatever they need in and about their community.
- Businesses will turn to C3 to connect with their customers and where possible, C3 will conduct the transactions with customers.
- We have to move beyond advertising. Advertising is still a service we offer businesses, but only one of many.
- C3 will handle direct sales for business customers (tickets to entertainment and sports events, reservations, gift registries, sports paraphernalia).
- Where we can’t make the sale, we will help connect businesses with customers who most need or want their products or services through lead generation.
- C3 will help advertising reach the customers businesses most want, through targeted advertising.
- We will pursue other revenue opportunities such as sponsorships, events and mobile apps.
Aspects of C3
- Community content (driving, home, conversation, calendar, knowledge)
- Personal content (births, graduations, weddings, schools, etc.)
- Entertainment (fun stuff, entertainment news, user content, games)
- Business services (local search, direct sales, communication services)
- Enriched news (what’s happening now, community engagement, multimedia)
your advice and knowledge about twitter really helped me understand it better than before. i never knew how to, i only had it for only a couple months. so learninig all the new tricks and tips about it. got me to use it more than i did before. i only thought twitter was use for giving off statuses to other people thank you :]
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Glad it helped, Autumn.
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