Making Revenue Streams out of In-Depth Special News Reports
By Roger Fidler, Program Director for Digital Publishing
Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute
Missouri School of Journalism
In-depth special reports could be much more than loss leaders for newspapers; they could emerge as a profitable new business in the form of “Digital Newsbooks.”
The Digital Newsbook model and business strategy are now being developed at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) in Columbia, MO, in collaboration with The New York Times and other members of RJI’s Digital Publishing Alliance.
Digital Newsbooks are downloadable eBooks designed specifically for reading newspaper special reports on notebook computers, tablet PCs and electronic book readers, such as the iLiad Reader and the Sony Reader.
With the RJI Digital Newsbook model, newspapers would be able to repackage their special reports with photos and graphics at a minimal cost and sell them through online stores over an extended period of time. The model, which requires no special software other than a basic PDF viewer, provides an on-screen reading experience similar to a printed book or magazine while incorporating Web-like navigation.
RJI is field-testing the concept in Missouri and expects to publish its findings this summer.
The RJI Digital Newsbook Project grew out of concerns for the future of enterprise and investigative journalism and a recognized need to find new ways of supporting this important work that are not dependent upon advertising.
From the 1970s to the beginning of this decade, most metropolitan newspapers in the United States took great pride in their commitment to in-depth reporting. Editors often would cut lose reporters and photographers for months at a time to produce lengthy special reports that would appear in the printed editions as complete sections or as series.
The ultimate reward for all this effort and expense was, and still is, the recognition afforded by winning a Pulitzer Prize or other prestigious journalism awards.
For journalists, winning prizes can boost their careers and salaries, but for newspaper companies, the benefits beyond bragging rights have been difficult to quantify.
The inability of newspapers to directly connect their special reports to increased readership and revenues may be the principal reason why so many publishers are cutting back on in-depth reporting. The Internet/Web and the growing emphasis on video story telling also have accelerated the decline of newspaper special reports.
These days it’s popular to cast textual story telling as a dying form of communication. While there is plenty of evidence that people on average are devoting less time to leisure reading, there still are large audiences for relevant, timely stories told primarily with written words.
However, the inconvenient truth for newspapers today is that text-heavy stories presented on multiple large-format newsprint pages may be cost effective, but they are not very compelling or convenient for potential readers, especially when they arrive early in the morning as people are preparing to leave for work.
Text-heavy special reports also have not played well on newspaper websites. Scrolling long columns of generic text on multiple Web pages requires a strong commitment from readers.
Even the “printer-friendly” versions, which display lines of text the full width of a letter-size page, are not very “reader-friendly.”
Additionally, most newspaper special reports are difficult to find and rarely promoted on websites where breaking news stories, multimedia elements and commentary dominate the prime locations.
Digital Newsbooks are designed to address these problems by presenting special reports in an easier to read and more convenient format, and by providing newspapers with a monetary return on their investments in enterprise and investigative journalism. Digital Newsbooks also prepare newspapers to take full advantage of eReaders and other mobile reading devices as they are more widely adopted.
Editor’s Note: Fidler advises that the institute is exploring several possible business models. One model is to treat the Digital Newsbooks just like other downloadable eBooks that are sold through online stores. People could select and buy individual newsbooks at a modest price. We have not fixed a price, but we have been discussing a range between $2 and $10. My best guess is that most newspapers will be inclined to price their newsbooks at less than $5 ($4.95). We also are looking at a subscription model, where subscribers could download “x” number of newsbooks per month and would receive e-mail notification as new newsbooks become available to download.
In either model, newspapers would only charge for the digital newsbook versions of their special reports. Readers could still read special reports (in html format) on the newspapers’ website for free as long as the reports remained accessible on the Web. Some newspapers remove special reports from the Web after a few weeks or months.
The advantages of the digital newsbook model are:
- Convenience and mobility (they can be saved and read offline anywhere, anytime on eReaders or notebook computers);
- Reader-friendly book-like design with photos and graphics placed where they relate to the text;
- Simple navigation that blends book-like “page turning” with Web-like hyperlinks.
- Scalability for reading on devices with small displays (eReaders) and large desktop monitors;
- Brand preservation (typography, logos and design elements are based on each newspaper’s printed editions);
- Fast downloading (newsbooks will range between 500 KM and 3 MB, so they will download in less than a minute using broadband networks);
- Extended life (they can be sold only for years and can be readily archived).
Roger Fidler can be contacted by email at fidlerr@missouri.edu.
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