It’s time for the “show me the money” part of the Online Journalism Symposium at Austin, Texas, with speakers focusing on how the media is struggling to find sustainable business models.

First up, is Ken Riddick, vice president of digital media at Hearst Newspapers with a sombre message for newspapers – marketers have options far beyond paid media.

“Because we are not a mass media, advertisers have choices”, he says. This also means lower prices which in turn implies more volume.

For Riddick, this requires a shift in sales strategies. He makes a good point by suggesting there needs to be a shift away from chasing the big dollar advertising accounts and instead going after smaller, local businesses with ad dollars to spend.

He only shows how ad sales are shifting away from selling online ads as part of the print sell, and now shifting towards selling online only ads. ‘We’re got to build this business by itself”.

Richard Anderson, president of the community service, Villagesoup.com has a more radical message. He suggests that the media needs to become an aggregator of content rather than simply supplying controlled content, shfiting towards a model bringing together pros and amateurs.

He also suggests that audiences are looking for answers and solutions, rather than just entertainment. This seems to be a mistaken view of what journalists do. There is an element of entertainment, but good journalism also offers answers and solutions.

Anderson makes some good points, but his presentation is too much of a sales pitch for VillageSoup. More relevant is its business model, chasing small markets with small audiences.

For $19.95 a week, local businesses can post anything they want on the site, from special offers to goods for sale. It also sells $25 per year slots to local realtors, who maintain the real estate database. And it is working for them. in 2007, VillageSoup generated $450,ooo in online ad revenues in a market of 80,000 people.

Michael Smith, executive director at the Media Management center at Northwestern University, quickly runs through three example of companies that have reinvented how they provide content to the public – MLB, Meredith Media and Vorarlberg Medienhaus.

Much of it is drawn from a report on emerging business models, published last year by the center, called Running While The Earth Shakes.

His five takeaways:

• Focus on customer experience

• Continous innovation
• Invest in workforce of tomorrow
• Enhance, seed and nurture communities
• Grow through partnerships and collaboration

The upstart on the panel is Staci Kramer, co-editor of ContentNext Media/PaidContent.org, a company that grew out of a blog.

Her advice to succeed as a emerging media outlet:

• Be patient
• Be nimble
• Be responsive
• Be secure in your identiy
• Be aware of your readers
• Be willing to experiment
• Be able to gain and keep trust
• Be able to find/create/fit a need

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