#voj10: Let a thousand business models bloom

Jon Snow was introduced at the start of the Value of Journalism conference as an exemplary blogger, and described himself as a Twitter enthusiast. 

But the theme of his talk was distinctly anti-technological: he complained about how reporters in the field were subject to interfering requests from their newsdesks, whose staff now often knew more about a story even than a reporter who was physically present where it was happening.

In his experience, "the beauty of Haiti" had been how the earthquake had severed the usual communications with the newsroom, except for his ability to film, and broadcast live, which Snow's team had brought with them. Suddenly Snow found himself back in the good old days, when what counted was "one pair of eyes", and "the reporter as witness". 

Even though the physical hardship of the assignment made it "one of the most testing experiences any of us had been through", he had enjoyed being on the journalistic frontline, with a real reporting role. 

Suddenly the prevailing ethos of news, as Snow put it "the idea that we examine the whole bloody world", was forgotten as he made contact with individuals in the chaos of Haiti. Their stories were more powerful than any 'big picture' synthesis. 

Snow did acknowledge the power of new media in helping to raise £100 million in donations through the Disasters Emergency Committee. But his old-school instincts were revealed in his disdain for the likes of Google "thieving our stuff". 

Making original content was what counted, and the election coverage had proved once again that only big organisations that spent real money - such as the pool helicopter that followed Gordon Brown's car at the moment of his resignation - could deliver the goods.

While Snow spoke, Tweeted comments from his audience, both those present and others monitoring his talk online through the College of Journalism's Ustream coverage, flickered across big screens behind him. A useful contribution to the session, or, as even some of the Tweets suggested, a distraction from it?

Snow's talk was only the start of a long day of discussion. If the future of content - as Kevin Marsh put it, how the output of big media and smaller personalised content were going to live together - was never really resolved, the related dilemmas about business models seemed more straightforward. The prevailing feeling seemed to be 'try anything'.

A head-to-head between Danny Finkelstein of the Times, defending Rupert Murdoch's paywall strategy for his newspapers, and Janine Gibson of the Guardian, defending her newspaper's free online content, turned out to be more of a love-in than the session producer had probably anticipated. Both went out of their way to show almost grovelling respect for their competitor, and stressed the trial-and-error nature of all newspapers' attempts to make money in these changing times.

Later, Geordie Greig, editor of the now-free London Evening Standard, revealed some impressive numbers behind his paper's new strategy. 

A paid circulation of 140,000 has been replaced by a free distribution of 600,000 copies. And by replacing 8,000 outlets, mostly small newsagents, with just 300 distribution points, typically beside London railway stations, the cost of getting a copy of the paper to a reader had fallen from 30p a copy to just 4p. Although the switch to giving the paper away had thrown away an income of £12 million a year, Greig said they were already close to break-even.

So what did it all mean? Over coffee, I chatted to James Taylor from Ultra Knowledge, the people providing the live Twitter display. It turns out that Ultra Knowledge is a small London-based technology company that only does Twitter walls as a sideline. Its real business is working with content providers to make the most of their work by using special software to reorganise online material in different forms - maximising its value for users, making it more prominent on search engines, and increasing ad revenues. 

So if you look at the Independent's website, an Ultra Knowledge client, you'll find things like the NewsWall, which re-presents Indie content automatically in an attractive way, or an A-Z topics page. According to Taylor, the kind of service it offers can potentially pay for itself by raising the value of content that a publisher has already paid to create.

Surely even Jon Snow couldn't criticise this techie addition to journalistic output? I had a fleeting vision of a world in which geeks, journalists and media industry accountants are all smiling as they march forward into a bright and profitable future. I finished my coffee and came to my senses before the next session.

Watch Jon Snow's opening keynote presentation from the Value of Journalism conference.