With the news industry facing a crisis, this study sets out to explore the possibilities of an integrated model employing various methodologies and theories integrated into it to come up with a model that charges for on-line news content. This is an a...
With the news industry facing a crisis, this study sets out to explore the possibilities of an integrated model employing various methodologies and theories integrated into it to come up with a model that charges for on-line news content. This is an alternative put forward to help news organization overcome hurdles to their financial stability. That is, the study examined strategies to rationalize the distribution of on-line news content from the perspective of public interest.
To build a business model, several requirements should first be met: first, they should be clearly aware of a crisis situation and legal and institutional issues that are entailed in overcoming a crisis situation. Second, experts from concerned fields should provide a new business model as well as a set of guidelines to resolve potential issues in each field including B2B, B2G, and B2C. Third, they need to test whether the model, from the user perspective, is actually acceptable. Finally, they should identify legislation and judicature tasks necessary to overcoming a crisis situation and search for campaign strategies that target users by putting research findings together.
The study first examined the news industry’s current crisis, identifying implications for the legal and institutional issues by analyzing the previous studies and precedents on news content copyright. Secondly, the profitability of a news content charging model was assessed through in-depth interviews with 30 experts. A paid on-line news content model was then established—optimized for national and local newspapers. Finally, the social structural obstacles to charging were identified, as were the implications for facilitating factors. Thirdly, a model that maximized the intention to accept paid on-line news content was examined with 520 users based on the B2C model founded on the in-depth interview results, the structural obstacles to charging, and the facilitating factors.
The study proposed the so-called IMTBPT-REI, which combined the structural environmental and individual difference variables, uses and gratification theory (U&G), technology acceptance model(TAM), and theory of planned behavior(TPB). The study checked its fitness and usability. Using the model, the investigator identified variables that would induce acceptance intention for national and local paid on-line news content. Fourthly, a paid on-line news content model was presented through qualitative and quantitative research, policy and user research, and process of theory infusion. The model consists of seven stages, namely 1) setting the causes and promoting, 2) establishing laws and policy agenda for setting and implementing preconditions, 3) building the policy basis, 4) evaluating the profitability of a macroscopic model, 5) exploring the applicability of a charging model for each news organization, 6) building a customized charging model for each news business, and 7) experimenting with a charging model for each news business. The study provided explanations about the validity of each stage of the paid on-line news content model, suggesting legislation and policy plans for the smooth implementation of each stage.
The study is significant in that it developed a new form of an on-line news content-charging model. The model was designed to compensate for the limitations of each methodology and theory by examining the possibilities to utilize an integrated model that combined a variety of methodologies and theories. Its practical value comes from the fact that it provided practical research findings news businesses could make direct use of in the field through a digital news content-charging model based on various methodologies and infusion method theories.