Beyond Broadcast: Mapping the Money

As participatory media and user-generated content continues to grow, public media broadcasters need to move rapidly to find ways to monetize content and imagine new business models, panelists said at Beyond Broadcast’s afternoon session "Mapping the Money."

Diane Mermigas, Editor-at-Large, Media Post, said that public broadcasting and commercial media are all faced with the same issues and that public media must begin to take action. This might mean making moves such as putting content up on a major online clearinghouse site as PBS has just done with some of its content on Hulu.com –feeds that are bookended by 30-second commercials. It is also imperative, she noted, to build rapport with users, allowing sponsors to connect with a target audience.

Henry Jenkins, Director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT, participating through Skype from Boston, made clear that a distinction should be drawn between "interactivity," which he sees as a technological property, and "participation," which he considers to be a social and cultural response.

He also pointed out that much of the viral content online right now has emerged from partnerships of new media makers and traditional non-profit organizations. "There is a new opportunity for alliances," he said. But he cautioned that non-profits and public broadcasters also need to be aware of ethical issues such as the debate about free labor – "not just in terms of uncompensated labor but the sense of consumer-driven content being exploited."

Additionally, public media needs to consider the "participation gap." He notes that participation requires time and specific competencies that are not available to everyone. He also cautions that diverse groups of people must feel empowered to participate.

"As exciting as it might seem to funnel content and a DIY ethos, we still have a ways to go before we achieve the goals of diversity," he said.

Keith Hopper, Product Manager at Public Interactive, offers the advice to focus on getting more online users and building user interaction—defined as actions such as product downloads, references in blogs and social networks, and participation in online discussions. "User interaction is the new currency," he said, noting that Google and Yahoo give away most of their content for free in order to build users. "This buys you significant leverage with partners and underwriters," he said, adding that currently, "Most public media doesn’t have enough user interaction to monetize."

Craig Reigel, Vice President at the Nonprofit Finance Fund, suggested that regardless of user participation, "there are only four ways media companies make money:
They participate in commerce, advertising, they have specific support from people who have a vested interested in what they’re saying, and they take investors dollars."

"In the future there may be a way to monetize viewers," Reigel said. "But right now, public media needs to figure out how to piggyback on those four models."

Vince Stehle, Program Officer for the Nonprofit Sector Initiative at the Surdna Foundation, points out that while it is a time of great change for public media, "it’s a total freak out for commercial media." But commercial entities have adapted more dramatically, he said, pointing to Radiohead’s experiment with a pay-what-you-want pricing structure for its latest album. "It’s a revolution," he said. "But in the public media, that is a business model."

But in other ways, public media needs to rethink some business models. "The subscription model for public radio and TV audiences is pretty rigid. Where’s the iTunes, 99 cent experience for public media?" He suggested that users who are reluctant to pay large donations annually might be willing to pay in smaller increments for content that interests them.

Ernest J. Wilson, Walter Annenberg Chair in Communication and dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, changed the tone of the panel a bit to increase the sense of urgency to the discussion about the future of public media.

"As we think about business models, I want to reintroduce the notion of why we care about this – representation, openness, freedom, democracy," he said. "If you don’t get this right pretty soon, the quality of democracy will decline and stagnate and it will be our fault."

He urged public media makers to innovate at a rapid pace. "We are way behind the curve in adjusting in public service media in what is taking place on new digital platforms. It is frustrating and ridiculous," Wilson said. He urged media makers to step out of the four silos of media he sees right now – print, digital media, public broadcasting, and commercial media—in order to come up with new inventive business models.

Wilson then called for public media to set an agenda and follow through: "I can assure you NAB has an agenda and MPAA has an agenda, and if you don’t have an agenda, you’ll probably lose."