Abstract
The two-sided market of newspapers with its two customer groups, readers and advertisers, is changing due to digitalization. This former stable and profitable market has lately suffered from both decreasing subscription and advertiser revenue. In this paper we use the term ubiquitous media environments to represent the vision of future media environments enabling device independent mass-scale distribution of ubiquitous media services in integrated infrastructures. We build upon a two-year action research project where researchers worked together with the Swedish newspaper industry to envision future ubiquitous media services and explore the following research question: how can ubiquitous media services be designed to leverage and balance value in a two-sided market? Five examples of ubiquitous media services were developed in collaboration and thereafter evaluated. These services were then illustrated in movie clips to trigger discussions on how ubiquitous media services can be designed. Drawing on the value aspects of ubiquitous media services from an advertiser and reader point-of-view and the platform owner role of the newspapers in a future ubiquitous media environments, we describe and discuss how ubiquitous media services can be designed to leverage value for advertisers and readers, and how newspaper organizations can strategize ubiquitous media environments.
Highlights
Given the ongoing diffusion of laptops, tablets, phablets, smart phones and watches, as well as the advent of new service and platform providers, such as Google, Facebook and Apple, the media ecosystem is rapidly changing
The envisioned ubiquitous media services (UMS) were designed to complement the core businesses of newspapers, i.e. presenting news and feature material based on journalistic perspectives, to create value for and connect with their customers
The UMS were built on the presumption that readers are willing to provide more personal information if they receive adequate and helpful services provided by newspaper brands
Summary
Given the ongoing diffusion of laptops, tablets, phablets, smart phones and watches, as well as the advent of new service and platform providers, such as Google, Facebook and Apple, the media ecosystem is rapidly changing. These changes challenge traditional media organizations such as newspapers in several ways. One major challenge facing the industry has been to innovate profitable digital news services in which consumers are willing to pay for content, as the subscriptions of the printed newspapers is constantly decreasing. We provide a literature background on ubiquitous information environments and two-sided markets This is followed by a methodology section that describes the action research approach, the data collection and analysis. We conclude the paper by discussing the design and strategical implications of an UME in the newspaper industry
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