Reading About the Business of Media

Audience, Innovation and Solutions

I am teaching two (new to me) courses in the fall — one is a senior capstone previously led by Mike McKean that focuses on semester-long real-world project work. The other is a small class (five students) officially called GN_HON2010 The Business of Media: Audience, Innovation and Solutions. Both courses are product-focused, but the Business of Media class is all classroom work.

So, how in 16 class sessions do we introduce Mizzou sophomores to the challenges and complications of media — at least to the extent needed for them to write up individual cases studies for an end-of-semester project?

Well, with a long list of readings and a mash-up of strategy frameworks to anchor the case studies and discussions.

A strategy matrix for discussing media product.

You will see those terms reflected in the early readings (weeks 1–8) and then applied to the case studies we will be discussing in weeks 9–12. The last few class sessions are spent on student project presentations.

I crowd-sourced some of these links from Twitter, but it is an incomplete list — happy to read and consider other/better options if you have suggestions.

For reference, students will not be reading every page of every link and PDF here. The idea is to get them exposed to the history and context of these issues and then let them skim, pick-and-choose and go out and find other resources if they want. Like most of us do.

Week Zero — Introductory Readings

Week 1 — Business of Media

Week 2 — Process and Planning

Week 3 — Understanding Audience Needs

Week 4 — Audience Research Methods

Week 5 — Developing Goals

Week 6 — The Challenges of Advertising Tech

Week 7 — The Potential of Consumer Revenue

Week 8 — Whereby.US Case Study

Week 9 — Texas Tribune Case Study

Evan Smith Leaving Texas Monthly to Launch the “Texas Tribune” (7/17/09)
News Erupts, and So Does a Web Debut (11/8/09)
T-Squared: The Times is Now (10/29/10)
The Texas Tribune is Destroying Journalism (3/15/12)
Becoming the Texas Tribune (4/15/13)
The Texas Tribune is getting into sponsored content for a new online opinion section (11/4/13)
The Texas Tribune is 5 years old and sustainable. Now what (11/3/14)
The Texas Tribune: audience strategy and business model (9/27/18)
The Texas Tribune is changing the journalism landscape for the better (7/17/18)
A decade in, the Texas Tribune pursues the rest of its audience (9/5/18)
A strategic vision for The Texas Tribune’s future (9/5/18)
Evan Smith on the Secret of Texas Tribune’s Success (3/13/19)
Texas Tribune Tax documents

Week 10 — New York Times Subscriptions Case Study

Times Select (2005)
A Letter to Readers About TimesSelect (9/18/2007)
New York Times Ends Times Select (9/18/2007)
How to avoid paying the sucker rate for a New York Times subscription. (11/17/2010)
The Times Announces Digital Subscription Plan (3/18/2011)
With App and Premium Plan, The Times Expands Online Offerings (3/26/14)
New York Times Paywall Case Study(6/01/14)
The New York Times Reaches a Milestone, Thanks to Our Readers (10/5/15)
To goose subscriber growth, The New York Times plans to try a flexible meter (11/8/18)
Some New York Times Subscribers Actually Pay More Than $1,000 Per Year (12/3/18)
Can Subscriptions Save All Media Companies, or Just the New York Times? (2/19/19)
How The New York Times’ free student subscriptions strategy will pay off (2/28/19)
New York Times Company Continues to Add Online Subscribers as Digital Advertising Grows (5/8/19)
Tearing Down the Pricing of the New York Times (6/5/19)

Week 11 — Gatehouse/Gannett Merger Case Study

Week 12 — Apple News+ Case Study