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This all seems to be about right. Well done on a timely and - as far as I can tell - accurate report.

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In terms of business models I'd generalise and make the following four points:

1. In most cases publishers will have to recognise they will end up with smaller online publishing businesses in terms of revenue than their print equivalents, but these businesses can be *more profitable* than print businesses, and you can create *more of them* in more niches.

2. It isn't about paid content vs. ad-funded. In almost all cases it should be *both*. And other revenue streams too e.g. affiliate commission, surveys/data, premium services (e.g. press release distribution) etc. You need all these revenue streams to maximise value and survive.

3. As a publisher you really *have to* to make Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) + Email marketing the two key pillars of your marketing. As both are scalable and deliver volume and targeting at low cost. Publishers are in a good position to do both given their communities and content.

4. Ad-funded models will have to go more performance-driven. I've posted on this, and the kinds of metrics required, in more detail at http://econsultancy.com/blog/3233-draft-new-metrics-and-business-models-for-digital-publishing-selling-outcomes-not-inputs

Regards

Ashley Friedlein
CEO
Econsultancy

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The report is well-presented and refreshingly honest, particularly regarding how to exploit online opportunities and deal with this highly disruptive technology. A common excuse is that the web is 'new', but it isn't. Most publishers have either ignored it, followed the herd or attacked it head-on with ersatz versions of their printed offerings - the equivalent of showing printed pages on a TV screen. Digital media demands different approaches to the way we present information and different payment models. Free online content is the equivalent of controlled circulation - ok in an advertising boom, lethal in a downturn. Most, if not all online publishers have only launched and operated in a rising market and coat-tailed on print or broadcast media. With no model, no strategy and no innovation, it is hard to avoid the prognosis of a savage shakeout in the teeth of a prolonged recession. Web 2 will go the way of Web 1, in other words. John

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