Over the Thanksgiving holiday I somehow got sucked into watching James Cameron’s Titanic with extended family in Atlanta. I’ve never been a fan of the movie — the ship sinks — but this time around I saw it in a different light. Somewhere between Jack gambling his way on to the ship and Rose vowing to never let go, I started noticing parallels between the film and the news industry.
In a scene that foreshadows the tragedy to come, a conversation takes place between the captain and the second officer about the threat of ice. The second officer suggests they slow the ship because at its current speed the Titanic would be unable to stop in time to avoid an iceberg. Foolishly, the captain says to maintain speed.
We know what happens next. the Titanic hits an iceberg and begins to sink, suddenly jolting Jack and Rose into a fight for their lives. Jack is handcuffed to a pipe in the lowest level of a ship taking on massive amounts of water, Rose searches frantically for an axe to break him free, they rip a bench from a steel floor to break through locked gates to get to high ground, and finally take refuge on a makeshift float in the Atlantic Ocean as they wait to be rescued.
Not so long ago, ours was an industry akin to the Titanic. Celebrated. Sought after. Virtually indestructible. Legacy news organizations were the go-to destination for people who wanted to learn about what was happening in their communities, and no one else could do it better. But the fact is those days are behind us, and unlike Jack and Rose we don’t seem to be acting like we’re in a fight for our lives.
For the better part of two decades, the news industry has been in search of new and sustainable revenue models. Sure, we’ve introduced events and membership plans with varying degrees of success, but we still predominantly rely on content monetization to keep the lights on, which will only last for so long.
Despite the so-called “Trump bump” many national media outlets enjoyed in 2016, Pew Research analysis shows that print and digital newspaper circulation declined by 8 percent last year, marking the 28th consecutive year of declines. In fact, only 8 percent of U.S. households paid for online news last year according to a study conducted by the Reuters Institute.
When it comes to advertising revenue, the story is much the same. Although digital advertising revenue is trending up, overall advertising revenue at newspapers remains down. And even the gains in digital are a bit deceptive as Google and Facebook capture 75 percent of the spend leaving breadcrumbs for publishers.
As Rasmus Kleis Nielsen argued recently, “More than 20 years into the rise of digital media, it seems clear that the content bubble will eventually burst unless more robust business models are found.”
Readers value journalism as a means to stay informed. This makes journalists, at least in part, problem solvers for people who seek information. What if we used that same problem-solving ability to build new products that go beyond content and solve other problems our audiences face, as well?
Designers, product managers, and engineers are uniquely suited to help news organizations do this. By leveraging design-thinking principles and deep audience insights, we can better understand our readers on an individual level, determine the commonalities between large groups of individuals, come up with practical ideas that solve real problems, and quickly test for efficacy. Building, marketing, and selling new products is a difficult proposition, but the upside is tremendous.
We’re trying this strategy at American City Business Journals where we know our audience of small business owners is constantly looking for new ways to improve their hiring processes. In early 2018 we will introduce SelecTalent, a candidate evaluation tool that predicts an individual’s ability to succeed in a role by measuring his or her natural talents. We are confident in SelecTalent because we know it solves a real problem: An employee that doesn’t work out can cost a business as much as $25,000 in lost revenue, lost client relationships, and lost productivity. While this isn’t an editorial product, it is yet another expression of the Business Journals’ mission to help our readers advance their careers, grow their businesses, and simplify their lives.
Creating products that go beyond content will offer publishers new opportunities to keep producing the mission-critical journalism that readers expect, while helping sustain the business financially.
Unfortunately, there may not be enough people who are willing to pay for news or advertising to fund our organizations for the long haul, but that doesn’t mean we should stop the presses. It does mean that we have to look for new revenue opportunities if we want to keep the presses running. The Titanic sank because its captain failed to adapt to the environment around him. If we don’t similarly adapt our revenue models I fear our ship may sink, too. We have to do everything we can — and maybe some things we don’t think we can — to find a lifeboat and save our love.
Kyle Ellis is a senior product manager at American City Business Journals. His views do not necessarily represent those of his employer.
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change