Media 4.0 Business Models: Hybridity, Modularity, and Revenue Strategies in the Media Industry

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to present business models in the field of new ways of generating income by media industry entities. It is established that Media 4.0 is a new phenomenon that shapes our reality. The directions and intensity of growth and development of this phenomenon will determine the capabilities and functioning of the media industry. Business models that will be implemented by media enterprises in accordance with the Media 4.0 strategy will be open, networked and based on data analysis. They will integrate different business models for generating income. Media companies will freely “move” between existing business models and income streams. It is proven that business models and income models will be based on the following components: differentiation of income sources; subscription models; freemium models; crowdsourcing models; “pay and use” models; “try and pay” models; data collection models; pay-per-use or pay-per-print models; non-commercialized (grant) models. The advantages of the concept of media convergence for users and providers are substantiated. Media 4.0 business models will include; the creation of specific budgets that flexibly adapt to changing conditions; various producers entering and leaving certain platforms; the desire to increase profits and generate income through flexible cooperation between the platform as a carrier of aggregated information and the recipients of this information; cooperation agreements between information producers, platform creators. information providers, individual users regarding the appropriate distribution of the resulting profits. redefinition of the return on investment (ROI), which should take into account all of the above components; an increase in the number of multi-level projects that will be aimed at constantly increasing their impact and reach. That is, an integral feature of Media 4.0 will be the hybridity of information transmission. Information will be generated in a way that will allow it to be transmitted through different channels. This would mean that the information should have a modular structure and be suitable for simultaneous transmission using single image, audio, combined image and sensory-based channels in which the recipient will actively participate.