Democracy and profit

There is a serious problem about how to make Internet-based mass media profitable. This is not just a problem for the owners of these media, motivated by gains, but also for journalists, as earnings strongly impact on the independence of the press.

Two weeks ago professor August Grant, Ph. D. (journalism and mass communications), University of South Carolina, M. A. (journalism and communications), University of Florida, met with editors in chief of Ukrainian mass media to share his views on “the development of mass media on the Internet, and making them profitable.”

The Day used this opportunity and asked Professor Grant a few questions.

Experts have been elaborating strategies that would make electronic mass media lucrative for quite a while now. What are the most notable recent tendencies in this direction?

“The phrase electronic media comprises a whole string of various mass media types. Let us start with the Internet. The most conspicuous tendency here is charging a fee for a part of one’s content. However, not all media can afford such a step. The New York Times can, for one, as their content has a certain unique value for which readers are willing to pay.

“Successful media may have several sources of income. The more they are, the safer. For instance, cable TV companies earn both from advertising and subscription fees. It gives a feeling of security, because if one source of revenue dries up, the other will remain more or less stable.

“Another tendency worth mentioning, and which is slowly developing, is the rise of new types of content for the new media. At the beginning, a new type of media copies the content of the more conventional kind. But eventually it stops working, so they have to invent new formats.

“Thus, the very first TV news programs featured an individual reading news in front of the camera. The very first Internet news were copied from paper and TV news. Later this practice stopped and new formats appeared. It is the rise of those formats that compel people to spend more time on the net, i.e., net media are becoming more profitable.”

Ukraine has a specific media market. In particular, under our legislation, the Internet-based mass media are not mass media, because they are not mentioned in specific laws. We also have problems with profitability in general. With regard to this, what Ukrainian peculiarities of the Internet media and their profitability would you like to highlight?

“Firstly, media should have certain organizations which would represent them, speak about the necessity of the Internet-media regulation, and also promote them. Secondly, media have to work with audiences, emphasizing their role in supporting democracy. Democracy can’t exist without free and independent media.”