The GigaOm News: What Can We Learn From the Opera,Ballet & Symphony?

(Disclosures: I am no high quality media industry revenue and profit model expert. But then, who is? Or we might have figured out how to make quality news media consistently profitable in this age. Oh, I'm also no editor and wrote this fast so excuse errors. Read on.)

The sudden closing of GigaOm this week highlights the biggest problem with quality news media in the digital age - that it’s stuck between the rock of quality and the hard place of low paying demand (or, how to get advertisers and readers to pay for quality journalism). Basically, there’s a supply and demand problem - a potentially strong supply of quality journalism but relatively low demand when it comes to paying what it would take to make that supply profitable. Know who else has that problem? The arts.

Another disclosure, I was raised in a family that was immersed in the arts both professionally and personally - ballet, opera, classical music, painting and more (third and final disclosure: I, apparently, missed that gene). So, the conversation around the lack of popular support for the arts was strong. But it was treated as a given. These were high value products and there wasn’t enough demand to pay for them at a price point but lowering the price was also not a viable model.

There are plenty of sponsorship opportunities though often tied to native sponsored content. The problem is that quality journalism can’t survive on that if it blurs too many lines. Yes, I work at an agency. But I also realize a strong line is needed so that if we do provide sponsored content, it’s quality content people want to see within a brand context and don’t confuse it with the quality content they want to see within an objective journalism environment. In other words, the slippery slope of today’s environment is similar to sponsoring the symphony and then creating a great area between the second movement and your brand’s theme song - not a winning formula.

That said, I’m not suggested we adopt the non-profit model of the arts but we may learn from it when it comes to dropping the focus on short term advertising and adopting long term sponsorship relationships similar supports of the arts.
What if quality news media took a page from the arts and had a list of ongoing sponsors that want to reach the audience, don’t see conflict with the reporting (or don’t fear) it and commit to supporting the organization long term vs. a short term ad buy. From a social and PR perspective, the formula can work very well as it allows us to reach a large, focused audience over a long period allowing for a strong relationship. Like sponsoring a conference…for a full year, or decade.

Instead of selling the next ad page, sell the opportunity to be the lead brand in front of the audience for a lengthy period of time. For brands interested in building true community, and there are many, this may be precisely what they are looking for as though their messages may change, their audiences and core values are consistent.

That all said, there are other models for quality journalism. LinkedIn makes its money on the social network but is layering more journalism on top to make it a better product. Buzzfeed makes its money from all that social listicle traffic, but tries to increase its value with quality reporting - not unsimilar to people getting the high value NY Times on Sunday…and immediately turning to the Style or Real Estate section. But when it comes to stand alone, high quality content, there seem to be few models. But let’s not let the operatic lady sing…let’s learn from her instead (sorry, couldn’t help that one).