By Harsha Man Maharjan
Day by
day the number of online news portals is increasing because it is easy to
start. Having two three computers or laptops and two three journalists are
enough to start up. Any eligible person
who dreams to have media can start it in a shoe string. Many online news
portals are sprouting without proper planning on their economic sustainability.
But Setopati, a digital patrika which was started on 1 April 2012 sought
suggestions from its readers or visitors for its appropriate business model and
came up with a mixed model of subscription and advertisement. This initiated a
debate for and against Setopati’s plan. So, this is the right time to discuss
about the appropriate business models for Nepali online news portals in light
of models being practiced in the world.
Media products are different from
ordinary products as often they don’t get used up even if people consumed it.
Media economic scholar Gillian Doyle uses words, ‘public goods’ for these
products whose production cost of a unit is higher and this cost becomes
minimal in the next unit. This is glaring in print media’s case. In
broadcasting media, once a product is made, there are chances of distributing
it time and again. So, digitization of media content has made distribution easy
and fast making the distribution cost is almost zero and money used for
distribution in print media can be used in the process of content production.
Another media scholar Robert G. Picard says, “Digitization cuts costs by
simplifying production. More content can be made and distributed by more
enterprises and individuals than ever before. However, while the internet
creates opportunities for online content, it yields only limited monetization
for news and general information providers.” Due to this, unless the news
portals operators do sound planning, making money out of news portals in Nepal
and abroad is not easy.
Though
advertisement, subscription are the business models most prevalent in the
world, in Nepal only advertisement is in practice till now. When online news
portals like Parewa.com came into existence as an amateur activity on 4 March
2006 through the initiatives of four active journalists, Krishna Dungana, Umesh
Shrestha, Deepak Bhattarai and Rajan Shrestha, they had never imagined that
local advertisers would be interested. In the beginning, google ad sense was
only its economic source. Gradually Nepali advertisers like a money transfer
company showed interest, and according to a research carried out by Shreeman
Sharma in August 2007, this portal was earning Rs 30 thousand per month by the
time it was closed in August /Septmber 2006. This is also true in the case of
Onlinekhabr.com, the most popular news portal in Nepal. According for editor in
chief of this portal, Dhrma Raj Bhusal for one year, no Nepali advertisers
desired to display advertisement in his portal in the beginning. As shown by
Shreeman Sharma’s research, during August 2007, advertisements covered 40
percent of its monthly operational cost of 60 to 70 thousand. Now it has
largest numbers of advertisement among all Nepali online news portals.
When Setopati sought suggestions, many of them went for advertisement
with cautiousness. They made aware that Setopati had to refrain from being
influenced by advertisers. For an example Santosh Pokharel who has completed
Masters in Journalism and Mass Communication wrote this with a warning: “The
continuation of healthy journalism rarely possible without advertisement, but
advertisements should not influence news. In Nepal many news are manufactured
according to advertisements of corporate houses. Please do take advertisement,
but don’t take suggestions from corporate houses for news”. And corporate
interest is increasing in online news portals. Dharma Raj Bhusa, the initiator of
Onlinekhabar.com claims that his journalism is also business- the business with
social responsibility. “To have or not to have influence of advertisers is in
the online news portal manager’s hand. If the managers are strong, they can
resist influences”, Bhusal says. But Onlinekhabar is also publishing
advertisements as news. For example, on 4 October 2013, it has published a news
with the headline, “Shopping Centres of Darbar Marga are Waiting for
Customers”. This news is full of prices of different brands. This kind of
presentation violates the ethics of journalism which urge journalists not to
present advertisements as news. It is a kind of corporate influence.
When Setopati sought suggestions, no one went for the idea of
subscription. When it decided also to start subscription in monthly basis, many
inquired about the process of subscription and few even resisted. This kind of
resistance is obvious as there is a mentality that “information is free” in internet.
As shown by Fred Schiff the most of time when online news portals or internet
newspapers go for subscription, visitors resisted. In the world many online
news portals are retreating from charging visitors for its content but many
others are opting for charging. So, both models are prevailing. For example,
though in New York Time’s portal almost all news is free, yet, one reader can
only read 10 articles a month. Economist.com contains both free contents and
those requiring subscription. In the UK the Times, http://www.thetimes.co.uk,
Times.co.uk let domestic readers to access its content freely, but requires
subscription to it’s the content from abroad. In Malaysia, people have to
subscribe to access Malayasiakini.com,
alternative online news portal. In case of Setopati, Ameet Dhakal believes that
without readers contributing monetarily, online news portals or digital
newspapers can not sustain. He even argue in absence of this revenue, Setopati
or other news portal might need to kowtow advertisers’ pressure. But the
problem with Setopati and other online portal is lack of new and exclusive or
premium content. While studying online
news media in Greece and the UK, Alexander Arampatiz claims that some online
media have put columns and “personality driven pieces” like opinion pieces for
subscribers only. Could that be a model of Setopati or other online news portal
for subscription? The chances seem slim.
Till
now advertisement seems to be the viable business model of online news portals
but the portal operators must be able to check unwanted and undesired influence
of advertisers. If any portals want to seek fees from readers they have to
produce premium content targeting niche market. Making readers pay for the
content of online news portals with the nature of content they are serving
today is not easy. News and views are available through also FM radios, 24
hours television channels, etc. These online news portals should deliver
contents different from other media.
