"mixing business models for journalism with business models for newspapers" - from the comments on the 'guide'
It is a (by web standards) interesting and broad piece - but I agree with some of the commenters; Glaser is mixing it all up and could do with a bit more structure and defining some terms.
Journalism, publishing and media - are they entwined, and do the need to be?
Looking across from newspapers into print in general, television and online services - the answer is a partial yes, and clearly no.Most magazines offer some sort of "journalistic content" - but the form and process differ across titles and genres (compare a games magazine to a fashion title, and then with a journal like Nature)
Many (most?) television channels offer only a small share of news - and even for those that do it makes up a small percentage of total time spent viewing. And yet some of the core tenets of objectivity and presenting a story are well taken care of on channels like Discovery and National Geo. (Mythbusters rather than American Chopper - but even the latter serves as a human interest story and presents both details on the production as well as the cause of the bike in question)
Turning back to Glaser - blogs and video are tools for spreading online content, not a business model as such, but a vital part of any broader or more niche offering. Hyperlocal and niches are targets or user needs - but still need to be supported by revenues.
That narrows down the list to subscription (walled garden), classified (ie business and private ads), philantrophy (crowdfunding, nonprofit) - with the last one being the only "alternative" to the two most common for newspapers today, but still as well known media solution in terms of NPR, PBS etc.
Does that make the piece thin? No, because the main conclusion is delivered up front before the different models - and it is one with which I for one wholeheartedly agree with;
"a successful online newspaper will need a mix of many different revenue streams to survive in the digital age" - Glaser
...and the sun turned around today - heading towards summer as of a little past noon local time...
...and yes - I intentionnaly did not define the terms or link extensively to wikipedia and so on - as this is a short musing and not a "guide" :)
