David Westphal: November 2008 archive
Brian Lamb: C-SPAN not immune to the digital threat
November 20, 2008
C-SPAN would seem to have as secure a future as any news operation could have. Thirty years after Brian Lamb began shopping around his off-the-wall idea for a public affairs network funded by the cable industry, it's hard to imagine a media landscape without C-SPAN's rich offerings on TV, radio and the Web.But Lamb says C-SPAN will be buffeted by the digital revolution just like everyone else. Despite successful work in recent months on a new long-term plan that helps ensure the network's future, Lamb told an audience at the University of Southern California that C-SPAN's core business could be affected.
"I see the handwriting on the wall at our network," Lamb said. "You gotta' be a little more agile … a little more nimble, to survive."
Lamb delivered the James L. Loper Lecture in Public Service Broadcasting on Thursday at USC's Annenberg School for Communication.
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The case for independent news sites as profit-makers: 'I think there's a great business model here'
November 17, 2008
After my recent stories on the state of independent news sites, several folks called or e-mailed to say I was barking up the wrong tree by focusing on nonprofits like MinnPost and the Voice of San Diego. The real future, they said, is with sites that are in it to make money. They may be right."I think there's a great business model here," said Merrill Brown, a media management and strategy consultant. "If you can get a quality product out there, local advertisers are looking for alternatives… I think there's plenty of evidence of that."
So far, of course, there's little evidence that profitability will reliably follow. Even many operations that talk about being in the black do so with asterisks – the key players aren't drawing a salary, or the site is subsidized with other lines of business, for example. Others argue nonprofits will be the winning models for robust public-service news sites. Only today, a seemingly promising startup in Seattle, Crosscut, announced it was transitioning from a for-profit site to nonprofit status.
But many people say it's not surprising that profits are not there at this point in the innovation cycle, and point to the rapid growth of businesses trying to tease out local advertising dollars. The day of online profits is coming, they say, and for-profit news sites will be best positioned to thrive. More...
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The state of independent local online news: Start-ups look for foundation support
November 3, 2008
[Editor's note: This the final article in OJR's week-long look at the state of independent local online news start-ups.If you missed the first five installments, here they are:Part 1: Sites on the rise; business models remain elusive
Part 2: Experience makes MinnPost a top online new startup
Part 3: No paper? No problem! News companies use the Web to enter new markets
Part 4: Seeking consistency from grassroots reporting
Part 5: Outsourcing as a path to profitability?]
Can the nation's network of private local foundations be rallied to the cause of nonprofit news on the Web? Even if they can, is there enough money there to make a difference in the developing world of local-news Internet startups?
The Knight Foundation, which has given $400 million in journalism grants over the last six decades, is trying to find out. And there are a few early signals that there's at least some money to be had by journalists trying to make a local news splash on the Web.
The Voice of San Diego, the three-and-a-half-year-old community news site, recently won two grants from the San Diego Foundation – $25,000 to support the site's own fundraising efforts and $40,000 to tell the stories of San Diego residents who overcame particular challenges to succeed in the community.
MinnPost, a Minneapolis site that celebrates its first birthday Nov. 9, recently won a $225,000 grant from the Minnesota-based Blandin Foundation to produce reporting on rural issues in Minnesota.
These are smallish examples against a backdrop of huge potential needs, as strapped mainstream media scale back reporting resources in their communities. Nevertheless, some Web startups are making the argument that local foundations ought to consider news and information as critical community needs along with traditional territory like the arts and health care.
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