The shift in monetisation and the dreadful condition of current media
Written by Maria Ermilinda Hayon | Read in Indonesian
The rapid development of digital technology seems like a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it can grow and give birth to new media outlets, while on the other hand, it can kill the existing media outlets.
Of course, no media outlet wants to lose their existence – despite the fact that many old media have fallen. Efforts to maintain this existence will eventually affect the competition in content and business competition between media outlets.
Broadly speaking, media outlets have two sources of income to survive, namely monetisation of products or content purchased or accessed by their audience and advertising revenue.
Monetisation is very important for media outlets to meet their operational needs. However, media outlets currently face a huge challenge, namely a shift in the way of monetisation due to a changing market. This shift occurs both in terms of content delivery and advertising revenue.
Monetisation in terms of ad revenue
At a time when digital advertising was not as strong and fast as it is today, brand owners will look for conventional mass media outlets to get advertising slots, such as in a newspaper or tabloid column and a spot on television.
At that time, conventional mass media outlets profited from the sale of advertising slots in addition to the sale of their media products.
Time is running, and when the world switches to digital, new ways of advertising appear. One of the advertising methods that is on the rise is using the service of influencers, which make the competition even tighter.
Influencer is a familiar term in the world of the digital economy. An influencer is an individual who has a large number of followers on their social media.
Thanks to their closer relationships with their followers, influencers can build attachments and this gives them a huge influence on society or audience on social media, even to the real world. Influencers do not have to be a public figure, and their rate varies greatly.
The presence of influencers, which offer several advantages, makes advertising in the mass media an alternative or a second choice for advertisers.
Media outlets undoubtedly have to face tough challenges; eroded by digital, ad revenues snatched away by social media and influencers, and information is getting increasingly free.
Business diversification
Executive Director of Indonesia ICT Institute Heru Sutadi said that revenue from advertising slots for media outlets is actually still there. However, with digitalisation, it has to be multichannel.
“So combining advertising in mainstream media and online media, including social media. It will be difficult for media that comprises only one media, such as print media and magazine, to survive. So, like it or not, you have to actively use digital. Or business diversification. Organise seminars, give awards and others,” Heru, who is also a technology observer, told The Finery Report.
It comes as no surprise that today’s media outlets have other side businesses. This is also a way of monetisation. For example, some media outlets tap into the property sector, create an agency or create their own studio outside media operations to support their finances.
That’s right. Building a new agency or studio can indeed be part of a business diversification strategy for both major media outlets and homeless media outlets.
It can also be the other way around. New digital media or homeless media outlets—referring to media outlets that live and develop their business on every giant social media platform, such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Tiktok—were created for business diversification in order to strengthen the existence and/or promote other existing businesses.
So, what happens to journalists?
"If media companies get additional income, of course it should also trickle down to the journalists," Heru said.
Right. That's how it should be. Despite the undeniable fact that there are journalists who end up having a dual role because they are asked to work multi-channel (for example, print and digital journalists or radio journalists and social media admins). Unfortunately, the pay they receive is still—and only—for one media channel.
On the other hand, the Press Council and the Ministry of Communication and Informatics are currently fighting for publisher rights regulations.
Publisher rights require digital giants to share revenues or pay for publishing rights to information utilised by search engines, social media and others to honour publishing copyrights.
“It doesn't solve it (the dominance of digital platforms, ed.). But there is revenue sharing. Hopefully this will keep journalism alive and can save the workers and sustain the media," said Heru.
Monetisation in terms of content
In the digital context, the media industry ecosystem from the upstream to the downstream is now dominated by Google and Facebook. Media outlets seem to be forced to follow Google and Facebook's rules. Unfortunately, this condition harms the media's image among the public and the quality of journalism.
It is indisputable that media outlets in general are competing to attract attention by creating content with the right keywords so that it is "read" and "displayed" on Google’s first page. We could say that today's digital media jobs are mostly "serving" machines.
That's why there is a lot of news with clickbait titles and shallow news content; sometimes the content is not even related to the title. This happens because the media outlet will earn money based on views or clicks. As a result, the quality of the news seems to be overlooked.
Ideally, content that is relatable to the audience will certainly increase the views and engagement of a media outlet. This is especially true if there is viral news; the fastest media with the right keyword can have a great opportunity to be opened and read by the public. In the end, money flows at the touch of a finger.
Media outlets are indeed in a dilemma; struggling whether to choose between remaining idealistic but with tiny profit–or even die–and reaping profit and continuing to exist by indulging the machines but sacrificing the value and quality of journalism.
With this dilemma and various changes, are there still many young people who are willing to enter the media industry as journalists? (*)
