The earning of revenues from publicity and number of printed copies is a traditional model of business in the mass media. The new models are imposed by the modernization of the sources of information, which bring another type of publicity, another type of communication with the audience and new opportunities of making profit. The issue was developed by expert Tatiana Repkova, founder and director of the Global Online Network “Media Managers Club”, who is the author of the book “New Times: Making a Professional Newspaper in an Emerging Democracy”, within the masterclass “New business models in the mass media – new sources of income”. The masterclass was held within the Mass Media Forum staged by the Press Council, IPN reports.
Tatiana Repkova told those attending that the key difference between the traditional mass media and the new one is that in the traditional one a person speaks and several thousand people listen to him/her. These cannot give feedback immediately. Instead, the modern models allow doing this. For example, somebody writes something on Facebook and several thousand people can react immediately.
The expert noted that the number of authors over the last 20 years rose from 300 million to over 2 billion. Any message written on Facebook automatically makes the person who wrote it an author. “We are familiar with both of the media models, but the future generations will know only the new media model,” stated Tatiana Repkova.
The commercials in the mass media now have a different character. If a commercial article is written, it will be based on a general material on the issue, to which reference will be made. These commercials usually copy the main content of the publication for which the reader or consumer enters a particular platform. “This type of publicity is promoted by ‘brand-journalism’. I think ‘brand-journalism’ is not journalism,” said Tatiana Repkova.
The expert also said that now the audience likes to communicate with the preferred author directly. This attracts them and contributes to increased confidence in the publication or in the media outlet and the editors should take this fact into account. In the current conditions, the media outlets should promote electronic subscription to their news so that the interested audience received directly the published materials. They should also ensure access to their websites from tablets and smartphones.
The Mass Media Forum was organized in partnership with the Association of Independent Press, the Independent Journalism Center, the Electronic Press Association and the Young Journalist’s Center. The event was financed by the Media Program of Soros Foundation Moldova and co-financed by the Council of Europe and East Europe Foundation.
