Ads are not enough - what a revelation

Surprise, surprise: many a media executive these days is cited that new business models are necessary as print revenues decline and online advertising doesn't continue to double each year. Not exactly a revelation, or at least it shouldn't be.

But what business models are possible at all? Suddenly the 10+ year old idea of paid content comes back to surface - but I strongly agree with Mort Zuckerman that such models simply aren't realistic currently.
We tend to pay for software / tools much quicker than for online content - but then, that's natural as it's much easier to see the actual and unique value of a tool that e.g. saves you time sorting through e-mail. Of course, media companies should be able to create valuable tools for consumers?

Walter Isaacson, who contributed the Time magazine article "How to save your newspaper?", sees quality regional journalism as especially worth saving for a nation, as it provides information necessary to be a good citizen. But then, why shouldn't a freelance journalist set up a market place where caring citizens (or organisations or communities...) can assign him to report from any townhall meeting online and pay him by task?

After now about 3 years of constant fight for changing from classic magazine publisher to modern media company, we learned a lot about what works and what doesn't. #1 lesson: affiliate partnerships - or as it's often called today: "lead generation" - won't fix the problem. The volume's just too small to supply a classic cost structure.

So what we're doing instead, is to really expand the core business, leveraging the portfolio / reach.
Production, dibstribution, exploitation of Online Games is such a field of activity, and a very promising indeed. We partner with a leading game development studio, the first game is released in May 09. A "normally" successful browsergame is worth a 6-digit-revenue per month. Could help, right?

And of course it's a constant struggle for more efficient processes and less overhead.

Any thoughts on what could save us media guys?