J-Topics

“We don't make any money and we're not designed to make money,” the Tyee's David Beers said in this 2008 interview with the Chicago Reader. That business philosophy didn't stop BCBusiness from naming the Tyee one of the province's most innovative companies.

How do you produce quality journalism that you give away for free? In this BNET Media post, David Weir writes the alternative press has a business model, too – and it seems to be working. Relying on advertising and foundations, adapting to a free content environment and working with smaller profit margins are some features behind the steady success of alternative media outlets.

In this 2006 Project for Excellence in Journalism roundtable, Richard Karpel of the Association of Alternative Weeklies predicts that mainstream papers will move to a free newstand model within five years. That's now just two years away, but the mainstream still seems stuck in the paid content model, even looking to expand it to the internet.

Can the dailies step out of the tarpit? “Not since the Seventies have we had a genuine chance to imagine the possibility of a different business model for newspapers,” says the Guardian's Ray Greenslade, quoted in this Media Notes post. A special report in Editor and Publisher looks at spreading the financial risk of news reporting among non-profit societies and community-based entrepreneurs – looking a bit more like the alt weekly sector.

It's not all roses and rainbows in Indy Media Land, though. In this panel discussion, alumni of the Independent voice familiar-sounding concerns, like the spreading influence of alt weekly chains. For more information about alt media, visit J-Topics – Alternative Media.