Division of Labor, Talent and Journalistic Branding

A clear divide exists between generic labor and talent in media companies and it is now increasingly dividing journalists. The divide initially appeared in the motion picture industry and moved into broadcasting as competition led companies to vie for the talented people—or at least those who could generate the largest audiences and revenue for media companies.

The talent concept moved into journalism with the development of television news and salaries for news presenters and leading correspondents that were far above those of average television reporters.   In print journalism, talent initially involved columnists and then encompassed a few well-known reporters.
Today, the appearances of journalists at events and on talk shows, individually-authored digital news sites, and the increasing uses of blogs and social media by journalists is transforming many into individual brands that are being using to improve their social standing and connections with audiences. This journalistic branding no longer primarily supports employers’ interests for audience creation and retention. Instead, it creates an individual brand that increases the demand for the services of the branded journalist. This, of course, can be translated in higher wages, better employment opportunities, or self employment via the digital media.

The fact that individual journalists are finding ways to increase their value isn’t a problem, but journalists need to thinking about the point where branding transforms them into celebrity—thus moving them from being an observer to a participant in the news they report.
The development of talent—whether as journalists, investment managers, sports personalities, and even publicly recognized scholars—represents a significant shift in capital-labor relations.  In industrial society, capital had disproportionate power because it controlled factories and labor had few ways to counteract that power outside of collective bargaining. In post-industrial society, however, power is shifting toward talent because these branded professionals are a new class of personnel who are crucial for companies—but talent doesn't fall into the traditional capital or labor categories.

One of the downsides of this shift, according to Roger Martin, dean of Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto, is that it is creates two classes of labor: generic labour and talent. The first is often undervalued and the second sometimes overvalued.  The process is creating disproportionate incomes, opportunities, and mobility for the latter group and there is growing animosity between generic labour and talent because they do not share similar experiences or have a common identity.
What talent will mean to the future of journalism is uncertain, but digital communications are clearly making it possible for some journalists to separate themselves from others and to move into the talent category. It is something we should be watching.

Self Employed Jobs

Being self employed often sounds exciting. The thought of not having to work for anyone else and being able to enjoy your freedom is appealing. Those who decide to take this route anytime soon will find out that this is often not the case and realize that they will actually be working longer, harder hours for a few years as they try to get their business off the ground. The difference in being self-employed and working for someone else is that now everything rests on your shoulders. When you were working for someone else, you didn't have the responsibility of the whole company to worry about, it didn't matter too much if the company was a financial success or not, it was not your concern – it is now. In this article, we will look at some types of businesses that you can have at home.

1. If you are a pet lover then consider a pet-based business from home. You may be one of those individuals that animals of all kinds are drawn to, and if so this type of business is perfectly suited to you. A pet-business can involve everything from pet sitting, to walking and training pets, and providing supplies and toys to the pet owners. More than 60 million American homes have pets and that is a huge market for a home based business on any level.This kind of work can be done world-wide with very little start up costs. Most pet owners will spoil the beloved animals with anything that they find is cute, fun, and practical.

2. Home improvement is an excellent self-employed business opportunity, as homeowners will pay to have items removed from their residence as well as fixing up much needed repairs. This is an excellent source of income for the person who is good at fixing things and loves to clean and clear items from one place to another. During the warmer seasons, this is a great way to make extra income. Obviously you cannot do this type of business with a car so you will need a pick-up truck of some type or a vehicle that is capable of carrying away a variety of items.

3. If you are good at typing and have knowledge of how to work a computer, you may want to consider medical transcription. Transcription can be done at home and if you do not have much medical knowledge you can brush up on medical terminology or even through taking a quick course at your community college or other institutes. This is a demand that will not slow down anytime soon. Doctors offices, dentists, and even veterinarians all need someone to transcribe their records. If you are good at typing and familiar with Word documents and formatting this is a good choice for you.

Home based jobs are becoming very popular for many families who are looking to increase their income but not necessarily work outside of the home.

Home Business Management 101 Marketing Techniques Home Business Owners Can Use

During these times when the economy is failing and it is very difficult to land a good job in the corporate world, a large portion of the population is turning to home based businesses as a primary source of income. This is really not surprising, considering all the benefits that come with working from home: a flexible work schedule, more time for the family, no sitting for hours in rush hour traffic, and so on.

Despite all these potential benefits, however, running a successful home-based business involves a lot of challenges. One of these is learning how to effectively market your business without spending a lot of time, money, and effort. There are two basic ways of marketing a business: online and offline. Both of these have their own advantages, which you should understand clearly so you can use the best ones for your home business.

Offline Marketing Techniques

Common forms of offline marketing methods are newspaper or magazine ads, leaflets or flyers, brochures, posters, and streamers. If your target market is relatively small and are concentrated in a local area, these offline marketing methods will work very well. You do have to realize that the costs of these methods can vary widely, depending on the rates of the publication or the printing company. The size of your ad, the use of color, and the length of time you want the ad to run will also make a significant difference in the total cost.

Another kind of offline marketing technique you can use is broadcast media. Television ads almost always bring more traffic than radio ads, but they are also considerably more expensive. A cheaper alternative is to use direct mail, but this will take more time and it doesn't have such a high traffic conversion rate either.

Online Marketing Techniques

Basically, online marketing includes all marketing methods that make use of the Internet in some form. One of the most popular methods of online marketing is placing ads on sites that have a lot of visitors. You will have to pay a fee to place these ads, which will depend mostly on the size of your ad and the popularity of the website. These days, there are also quite a lot of free online marketing strategies you can use, such as by posting your ads on social networking sites and classifieds ads sites. You can even create your own account with these sites, where you can include details of your products and services or post interesting updates about your business.

Marketing Skills You Should Acquire

Aside from knowing where and how to market your home business, you should also develop skills that will help you promote your business even more efficiently. For example, you shouldn't be afraid to put yourself out there when advertising a new business. Timidity will not get you anywhere in the business world. By displaying charisma and self-confidence, you will be able to attract more potential customers to your business. However, you should also know where to draw the line when it comes to confidence. Some people go too far to the point of being obnoxious and arrogant, which can certainly put people off. Finally, if you are truly determined to make your business a smashing success, you can sign up for seminars and lectures where you can learn advanced marketing techniques that can put you ahead of your competition.

What we now know about news and news revenue in the digital world


There has now been enough experience and research to draw conclusions about how news is transitioning to the digital world and what it means for news companies. If one objectively views the developments, one sees that the current developments are is neither as bleak as some journalists portray them nor as rosy as some digerati frame them. Instead, we have reached a point where digital news is becoming workable in commercial terms, but is not yet mature enough to erase the industry's business challenges.
News consumption in the digital environment is significant and audience reach is now 5 to 10 times larger across digital platforms than for print editions of most newspapers.  Many large news organizations are now generating 15-25 percent of their revenue from online, tablet, and smartphone platforms and benefits are starting to appear for some mid-sized players as well.

If we look at what has occurred in the past decade, there are some important lessons to embrace about news businesses in the digital environment:
  • Commoditized news does not create economic value; you have to provide something unique if you are going to get the public to pay for it
  • Consumer payments are becoming a more important revenue source than advertising and success come through creating more sources of revenue than merely audience sales and advertising sales
  • Paid apps for news on smartphones and tablets are gaining better acceptance than general online payments, and
  • new partners, networks, and value configurations are needed in the digital world.
When it comes to payment issues we now know that:
  • Willingness to pay is affected by the platform used (partly because of expectations and traditions and partly because of better payment interfaces), as well as the number of free digital competitors in the market
  • Willingness to pay ranges from about 4 to 12 percent of the public in markets that have been studied
  • Larger legacy news players seem to have advantages when seeking digital payments because of their offline size and resources and the strengths of their brands
  • Instituting a paywall reduces website traffic between 85-95 percent
  • Metered ( freemium) models provide brand and marketing advantages and reduce traffic loss somewhat
  • Cooperative paywalls involving multiple newspapers are beginning to work in some locations and provide economies of scale and transaction cost saving that are useful for smaller organizations
  • Public affairs magazines are finding it easier to get the public to pay than newspapers, especially on tablets. This may be due to differences in how they approach and present content.
It is also apparent that users expect more from digital environments than the print environment and that they are more willing to use and pay for news if it offers a better experience (convenience, simplicity, ease of reading/viewing, enjoyment), if they can influence the presentation and consumption and interact with content and other users, if content includes more analysis and access to additional material, if it includes audio-visual material, and if it offers various usability tools. Those factors mean that news organizations have to offer digital content that differs from the print newspaper in many ways.

We have learned that to make money from news in the digital world companies have to focus on customer needs (not the needs of the news organization), must be realistic about financial expectations (you won’t make as much money as in the 1990s and growth won’t be highly rapid), and that you cannot just transfer the same content among platforms because each platform requires different types of presentations, story forms and navigation.
Some news organizations are making good progress in getting things right and the public is increasingly seeing value provided by news on digital platforms and evidencing increased willingness to pay. Most news enterprises still have a long way to go, but we have no reason to be  highly pessimistic about the future of news in the digital world.