Raju Narisetti on emerging business models in global news media

The media veteran

There are very few people more qualified than Narisetti to speak on these matters. He is currently a Senior Vice-President, Strategy, for News Corporation, one of the largest media organisations in the world and the parent company of The Wall Street Journal(WSJ). As Senior VP of Strategy, Narisetti finds himself positioned at the cutting edge of the evolving news world.

His past, with successful stints at

, founding HT Media's

as well as its digital version

also points to a man who not only understands the business of news, but digital content as well.

True to his track record, Narisetti had a lot to say on the topic and, while a lot of it painted a grim future for news, he also offered a considerable amount of hope.

Right at the outset,

he

made a very clear distinction between journalism and the business of journalism. While Narisetti acknowledged the struggles the business of journalism was facing, he was of the opinion that there has never been a better time to be a journalist. After all, according to Narisetti, journalism has reached peak viewership.

Where your reach was once limited by the readership of your newspaper, internet and social media have changed that radically. Now, a piece written by a relative

ly

unknown

scribe

in a small town can reverberate across the world, potentially reaching millions and millions of people.

The problem of plenty

But while the potential of journalism has been amplified, the business side of things is entirely different. The problem for traditional media is that thanks to the internet and social media, journalism is no longer limited to just a few players who control the market.

Where these media giants once held captive audiences, especially in the age of print, that is no longer the case and while certain biggies,

being one, can still rely on a subscriber base even in the online age, most cannot. When there are a hundred sites offering content for free, how does one convince viewers to pay for content? According to Narisetti, people will only pay for unique content, or content that improves their lives. Both are easier said than done.

Now, media houses who once commanded advertising bucks and viewership now find themselves scraping for survival with newer fresher media. They're initial resistance to change with the advent of online news is what's gotten them into this situation and now, as they realise the need to adapt, they find themselves at a disadvantage.

The need to revamp advertising

According to Narisetti, one of the major problems is that media houses have grossly undervalued their reach. Even struggling newspapers have commendable readership numbers, the problem is that news houses are selling their ad space for a pittance.

Given the demographic of their readers and the importance of these readers to advertisers, media houses could solve a large chunk of their financial woes by correctly pricing their ads. The problem is that a precedent has been set by years of undervaluation, a trend that media houses are now struggling to reverse.

Media houses also need to spend money to earn money. A greater investment in ad creation, opined Narisetti, would yield greater advertising dividends. The problem is that most media houses are too shortsighted to understand this.

However, advertising bucks are increasingly being usurped by internet and social media biggies, meaning media houses now have to look at other streams of revenue.

Alternate streams of revenue

As the media gropes, seemingly in the dark, for new sources of finance, they've hit upon a few ways. Among these are the subscription model, offline events, native advertising and leveraging their archives, both photo and content. Fundraising too is an option, but Narisetti was at pains to point out that this isn't nearly as easy as it seems.

Another very useful stream of revenue is in selling reader's data. In an age where businesses are willing to pay a premium for user data, media houses, with their decades of user information are in a position to make a killing. However, here too, they find themselves handicapped by their reliance on social media.

By relying on social media for the bulk of their reach, their user's data is now also available for free to social media platforms. These platforms can afford to sell the data for significantly less than a media house would.

Narisetti has a solution for this, but it won't be easy. News organisations will need to reclaim their power from social media. Not by going off of these platforms, but by finding a middle ground where not all their content is social media available. They need to remind these social media platforms that ultimately, they are the content creators.

Will the media adapt before it's too late? Probably, but not before a few more casualties along the way.