The Changing Conditionsof Journalism in Japan and Finland

- Case SuBmoJour -project

Mikihito Tanaka, Waseda UniversityEsa Sirkkunen, COMET, University of Tampere

Finnish-Japanese seminar: Research in Ubiquitous Communication and Services16.12.2011 Embassy of Finland, Tokyo

The Context

• Rapidly changing environment of journalism, changes in the media consumption, media markets, media technology, media ethics

• The highly profitable newspaper business is becoming mortal

• Slow crisis of the ”public good” –model of media already from early 1990s

• A tipping point? => social media and the 2008 crisis

OECD: News& Internet 2010

Japan 94->92%2002-2008

Finland 82->79 % 2005 -2008

Japan and Finlandhave had very high newspaperreach nationallybut it has startedto decline

USA 55 -> 45/482001 - 2008

OECD: News& Internet 2010

USA Japan

Finland

OECD: News& Internet 2010

Estimated newspaper publishing market decline 2007-2009

Japan -15%

Finland -7%

USA -30%

The change in advertising sales of newspapers in Finland and in the U.S. from 2000 -2010

Finland

Things started to getreally bad in the US.after 2006

Statistics Finland 2011

Registered users of social media (Facebook, Twitter etc.) in Finland, year 2010, % share of the population

The challengeof social media:the young are all there

women, men, togheter

• In Finland printed media is very dominant, altogether 64 % of the whole media market (electronic media 29 %, recorded media 7 %)

• Printed media – especially newspapers - have considered to be culturally important; general VAT-exemption untill 2011

• Finland has more journalists per capita than any other country in the world, most of them working in printed media

Specific Tendency in Japan• ”Galake” vs. Smartphone? :potential digital divide

*Galake: Galapagos-Keitai (Cellphone)

Smartphone share = only 6 % (2011/11, cf. 50% in UK)-> Gakake : Sm.phone = Low : High income = Local : Central =Old : Youth

• Slanted SNS ecosystemTwitter, Facebook: user= (rather) high income groupGREE, Mobage, Mixi: user= low income group (ex. GREE: 130+ billion yen/y?)

• Collapsing OJT system in Legacy media-”Journalism school” dissapeared in 1960s -> 21c: revival of Journalism education

• After 3.11: “complemental” view betweein New/Legacy Media• Portal Site Market share: Yahoo! >> Google, others

• The media market is changing – from a scarcity of content to an abundance of it

• the newspapers are facing new challenges – how to make money in the age of Internet

• if the media companies are not providing steady jobs in the future – are journalist becoming as outsourced workforce?

• all this affects to journalism as an institution – how to maintain the social accountability of journalism ?

• What are the new skills that journalists should master in this new situation?

What SuBmoJour is?• an attempt to create an inventory of what kind of new

start-ups are around that look like “sustainable” => an attempt to identify new elements (revenue sources) and new combinations of old ones

• a search for the ”next model”: old elements, new elements, new combinations, new organisational structures etc.

• a collaboration project of three universities, USC Annenberg, J-School of Waseda University and COMET Centre at Tampere University

• the part of the project made in the U.S. and Finland is funded by Helsingin Sanomat Foundation

The database• SuBmoJour

project will be realized in two phases. The first phase consists of planning and building the Jbusinessmodels101.com database. The database will present business models that are profitable, or are soon becoming profitable.

http://www.submojour.net/

Case Studies• In the second phase, we will study

with in-depth case studies the economical and social conditions of journalism in order to understand what the context of these business models is.

Preliminary Results: Finland• Although the legacy media has the most

successful media sites, there are newcomers which have become successful and profitable

• Small businesses, revenue 200 – 400 000 euros per year, 1-2 employees

• Targeted often to niche contents: travelling and holidays, health and wellbeing, digital gadgets and programs, pop gossip and celebrities etc.

Preliminary Results: Finland

• Some startups have chosen to grow slowly, not taking too many risks, doing all by themselves, avoiding big fixed costs

• Many startups see journalism only as one part of their services

• Although the startups have been successful in getting the users/readers, the real problem is how to monetize the traffic

• Still highly concentrated on selling banner-ads, more revenue sources should be developed

Preliminary results: Japan• Overall tendencies of interviewees’ comments:

-Optimistic views: ”Situation in Japan follows 10 years behind U.S.” -> strongly depends of legacy news business structure (especially about investigative reporting) (only ”Alternative” (skeptic) media standing alone)

-Tabloid/Pulp web media were more confident about their “Journalistic” norm than Legacy-based web media.

-Legacy-based web media staff are expecting for ePub. (Hindrance: universal Japanese format)

-Still struggling for monetize their services.

• comments?• Thank you!

esa.sirkkunen@uta.fim-tanaka.@aoni.waseda.jp