Revenue streams in pressurized markets
Pia Lexa, Teamlead Programm
"It was crazy nice to be back on site and in real-life! After two years of Zoom calls, the IJF was an insanely intense experience and a great prelude to a more hopeful time as far as conferences go. I'm looking forward to more events in person, and at the same time I see an unfortunate hybrid period coming our way, where we'll try (and fail) to juggle the two worlds. Proof of this: In a line at an exciting session, there was a woman in front of me who, instead of talking, just looked into her smartphone, "So sorry, I'm in our morning meeting." A world in which we can, or have to, go to physical events again and are still on Zoom for hours is not one I want to live in.
Among the sessions, I was particularly impressed by a panel on" revenue streams in pressurized markets". Three founders from Belarus, Lebanon and Jordan talked about how they can be financially independent and thus also journalistically independent through creative business models. My highlights were:
- Reader-revenue works unexpectedly well, especially for startups, even if there is otherwise less willingness to pay for media in the respective markets.
- Ad alliances can be a lifesaver, especially if you don't have a large reach yourself. There are many companies that identify with the values of independent reporting as practiced in indie publications and want to advertise there. Of course, editorial work and ads or native advertising must always be kept cleanly separate. But if you are transparent about this, your own credibility increases with both customers and users.
- For all three founders on stage, diversification in terms of revenue streams was crucial, and the resulting financial independence was the guarantee for journalistic independence.