TREotM: The History of Media Revenue Models Continued

The Revolutionary Evolution of the Media is a book in progress Go here to read it from the beginningOamp173nce again monetization is the topic of the day Why Because history repeats itselfamp160 And that repetition is your single best bet for picking winning strategiesRealistically speaking there are only a few ways to monetize any mediumamp160 For centuries patronage was the wayamp160 However as the commercial world expanded and literacy become more common barter economies gave way to monetary economiesamp160 War of course played a big part as well But the key has always been moneySo letamp8217s take a short detour to look at a capsule account of the history of moneyamp160 Barter naturally suffered from what is called amp8220a coincidence of wantsamp8221amp160 What I have might not be what you want and vice versaamp160 The result was the tendency of each growing civilization to land on a commodity that rather naturally satisfied both sides of any transactionamp160 Some the socalled amp8220intermediate commoditiesamp8221 used included wine rum rice gold silver and even cowry shellsamp160 Intermediate commodities shared a characteristic of shelf life it didnamp8217t perish and regular demand it wasnamp8217t seasonalCoinage showed up between 700 and 500 BC and took a variety of shapesamp160 Some were stamped some hammered some with holes in India along the Ganges valley and on the Chinese plain they could be strung togetheramp160In 5th century BC Greece the discovery of massive veins of silver amp8211 along with the discovery of a touchstone method of ascertaining the relative purity of metals amp8211 led to significant coinage of silver that was used to pay Athenian soldiersamp160 The second big discovery led to a much bigger armySparta meanwhile used iron coins to discourage amp8220foreignamp8221 tradeGold as a monetary unit grew out of Asia Minoramp160 The touchstone made the assaying universal allowing for a real medium of exchange amp8230 and it worked with gold silver and copperNow letamp8217s fast forward for a close look at subscription revenuesamp160 We left off last week looking at some of the ways patrons financed some aspects of the beginning of monetizing media forms amp8230 performers artists writers jesters and quite seriously religious and social workersThe news amp8211 and the fact it really never ends amp8211 helped develop the concept of subscriptionsamp160 News was distributed originally via handcarried letters andor word of mouth by travelers amp160Nothing much was current though as weamp8217ve seen beforeamp160 The growth of better roads postal services private and governmental and moveable type paved the way forward as the costs of providing regular news reports continued to dropamp160 Charging minimal amounts for printed flyers or pamphlets allowed for the creation of newsagents and newsstandsamp160 Dropping distribution costs via postal services instead of private couriers made longer distance distribution possibleAsking for small amounts for regular information created subscription modelsamp160 Those models continue on a plethora of platforms today for news information and entertainmentamp160 Despite flirtations with free newsletters via the Internet amp8211 many of which have devolved to teaser amp8220clickbaitsamp8221 subscription models prevail for high value contentIndeed it wasnamp8217t until Home Box Office debuted with a subscription model that premium movie sales took off over cable and then satelliteamp160 A large part of the demise of Blockbuster can be laid at the hands of the Netflix amp8220allyoucaneatamp8221 monthly subscription model amp8230 first by mail and then via broadbandEven though the Internet wanted everything to be free for users and even though advertising seemed to work for a while nothing remains free for longamp160 And thatamp8217s not just on the Internetamp160 Subscription models are being reintroduced almost dailyamp160 Some adsupported sites and subscription models are adding premium levelsamp160 Politico has added amp8220Pro Politicoamp8221 as paid insider newslettersamp160 Hulu an adsupported on demand video system has added a paid subscription versionIn almost any media venture it is worth reviewing whatamp8217s worked beforeNext Weamp8217ll begin touring media formats and discussing other monetization modelsamp160Next week Chapter 14 Part 3The opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageMyersBizNet management or associated bloggers

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TREotM: The History of Media Revenue Models Continued

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Paul S. Maxwell

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