Opinion: The integrated newsroom business model doesn't add up

There is an interesting article today on the Monday Note site that examines the integrated newsroom business model. The author, Frederic Filloux, was part of the team behind 20 Minutes and spent 12 years at Liberation, ultimately becoming the Editor-In-Chief. He now works as editor for the Norwegian group Schibsted.

He puts together some insightful figures about the cost of a large national newsroom:

* Cost of a journalist (including benefits and expenses) = €60,000
* Total cost of running a newsroom =  €10 million
* Per month costs = €830,000
* Average revenue per unique visitors per month appears = €0,10 to €0,25
* €830,000 costs requires 8.3 million Unique Visitors per month to break-even
* The French print edition of 20 Minutes made €45m in 2007. Each reader generates €18 per year for the newspaper.
* Online newsite readers generate approximately €1,2 per year (if a well-read site)

Looking at these figures, Filloux believes that "news is no longer able to sustain itself." He thinks it is now about seeking out "alternative subsidy streams" to support the news gathering and that "corporate money will inevitably percolate into news economics through service contracts, requests for expertise, corporate communication assignments." However, investment banks and the city do not like subsidised business models, so can newspaper businesses carry on being publicly traded on the stock market?

For the full debate and more detail, follow the link.

Source: Monday Notes