La especialización y la calidad como apuesta para solucionar la crisis del papel: el caso de la revista Panenka

Abstract

El sistema periodístico está inmerso en un proceso de profunda transformación como consecuencia de la grave crisis que se lleva arrastrando en Esapaña desde 2008. En este contexto, han surgido ya más de 500 proyectos en los últimos siete años, poniéndose de manifiesto el auge del periodismo emprendedor. Creados por los propios periodistas, estos nuevos medios se han lanzado casi exclusivamente en el entorno digital, pero también ha habido algunos que han seguido apostando por el papel. Este es el caso de Panenka, una revista especializada en cultura futbolística nacida en 2011. Este texto tiene como objetivo analizar las claves del éxito de esta iniciativa, así como su modelo de negocio para poder aplicarlo, si procede, a otros proyectos. Partiendo de un análisis de contenido, los resultados muestran una tendencia hacia el periodismo narrativo y de largo formato, con el reportaje y la entrevista en profundidad como géneros estrella, y con un especial cuidado del diseño. Mediante una entrevista en profundidad con dos de los responsables del proyecto, se han conocido los detalles de un modelo de negocio que a día de hoy es viable, aunque es difícil asegurar si funcionaría en otro tipo de proyectos. Por tanto, se demuestra que el papel todavía tiene futuro, aunque del estudio se desprende que debe ir de la mano de una buena estructura digital para llegar a ser económicamente viable.

Journalism has been one of the most affected sectors in Spain due to the economic crisis that the country is suffering since 2008. However, this situation has also had some positive effects on the profession. Actually, more than 500 new enterprises related to journalism have been launched in the last seven years in Spain. Entrepreneurial journalism could be defined as the set of projects created by journalists to deal with the transformation of the Spanish news media. This phenomenon has emerged in Spain’s news media industry and has developed strongly in sports journalism. Specialization in sports stands out as one of the levers of growth, constituting around 15 per cent of the new media outlets. In fact, sports journalism is a field that favours innovation and the creation of a diversity of projects. For the most part, these projects only have a digital version, but there are also some cases of medias which still contemplate a model based on print journalism. This is the case of Panenka, a sports magazine which was launched in 2011 in Spain. Based on the German magazine 11 Freunde, Panenka has been pioneering in our country. In fact, similar projects such as Líbero, has been launched after Panenka’s success. This paper analyses the importance of entrepreneurial journalism in Spain through the study of Panenka magazine. Firstly, we review the data of the 2014 Report of the Journalistic Profession published by the Press Association of Madrid to identify the new media launched during the last seven years in Spain. After that, we focus on Panenka because we are interested on studying the future of print journalism. The aim of the article is to examine the contribution of these projects to the current structure of the journalism industry, as well as their viability, characteristic business models, and common patterns. In order to do that, we have made a content analysis of the magazine (we have analysed numbers 03, 17 and 35), and we have interviewed two of the founders of the project. Our hypothesis is that Panenka’s business model is sustainable. The degree of innovation in journalism production is analyzed through the measurement of two elements: the new ways of storytelling deployed in journalism, and their value proposition, in particular their business model. Two tendencies stand out: hyperlocal start-ups and niche information products, which is the case of Panenka. The results show that there are some new ways of storytelling deployed in journalism. This magazine uses different genres, based on slow journalism, with the purpose of innovate and make the difference. The most common genres used by Panenka are reports, articles and interviews. Moreover, we have observed that the design is a very important part of the magazine. They use a lot of pictures, photos and computer graphics to improve the quality of the articles. Apart from the original content and the style, the design is one of Panenka’s biggest assets. After the study of Panenka’s case we have observed some common patterns in relation with the entrepreneurial journalism phenomenon. First of all, we have found two cases of forced entrepreneurs, journalists who had lost their previous job and are forced to create their own enterprise. However, for the most part, the rest of associates are professionals who also work at the same time for another company. These new media launched after 2008 are composed by a reduced number of workers due to lack of money, usually less than 15 people. Only five people have a full-time job in Panenka, but there are a lot of collaborators who help to write the magazine. Moreover, Panenka has agreements of collaboration with other magazines like 11 Freunde or So Foot. These agreements are very beneficial for them because they can exchange contents and ideas without spend any money. Panenka’s business model is based on freemium, which means that Panenka gets the incomes through two main sources: subscriptions and advertising. Nowadays, we can say that the project is sustainable, above all, thanks to the subscribers, which are more than 2.000. Nowadays, Panenka sells 10.000 magazines per month and we can buy them in libraries or through Panenka’s website. Furthermore, we can also buy a digital version of the magazine trough mobile devices (Android and Apple Store). This initiative is very positive because allows buying the magazine to people all around the world After the study of Panenka, we can affirm that the print journalism is still alive. Actually, we can be a little bit more optimistic with the future of print journalism, because a modest project such as Panenka, born in a very critical situation, can be considered as sustainable after four years. However, their future objectives are to maintain the viability. We believe that the key of succession is not in the format we choose to tell stories. The most important thing is the quality of that stories and the innovation. If our product is good, people will pay for it. Although we have demonstrated that the print journalism can be sustainable, we should advert that this model cannot be separated of the digital format. The Internet and social networks are very important for promoting our product without spending any money. And if one of the biggest problems is the lack of money, we cannot lose all the potentialities of these tools. Moreover, social networks are very helpful in order to keep in touch with our readers and we can create a sense of community with them. Sports journalism is still at an expansive phase and involves new ways of managing internet-based businesses that rely heavily on the personal brand of journalists, as well as new thematic areas and contents. Panenka’s model business demonstrates, after four years, that these kind of projects can be sustainable. However, we think that there will be another business models which always success. Therefore, we should study other similar projects in order to arrive to more conclusive results. In this sense, we consider that the analysis of Líbero and other new European magazines would be very helpful in order to compare the results.