Crowdfunding for long-form journalism may work in Japan, but what’s next for books?
I should be an entrepreneur
More than 50 guest speakers, 12 site visits and well-organized courses by superstar faculty members and mentors — I was so happy to have such opportunities in the Tow-Knight entrepreneurial fellowship program in New York, where so many media organizations are packed. The program taught me about many practical and up-to-date topics, including native ads and platforms that may eat up legacy media.
I don’t know if such specific knowledge will help me in the future because the situation we have in the media all over the world is rapidly changing, even now. More important, I’ve learned the mindset of an entrepreneur. Until I joined this program, I hadn’t thought of how to create new business models — in other words, how to survive as an editor or journalist. For 12 years, as an editor at Japan’s largest legacy publishing house, I always thought readers would exist as long as I provided valuable content.
However, coming to the United States, I found my idea was wrong. All the startup media and even legacy organizations like Hearst, The New York Times, The Atlantic and Conde Nast are absolutely continuing to create new strategies based on social media, technology and data.
I was impressed by Jeff Jarvis’s saying,
“We are not in the content business. Consider journalism as a service.”
Everyone in the journalism business needs to think of the lean canvas model based on customers’ problems, solutions and new value proposition. On these canvases, we finally can provide new ways to serve society.
First experiment has launched
As I have written about previously, my new project, Reposeed, is a crowdfunding platform to help Japanese journalists publish long-form stories and have their costs covered. In other words, it combines existing magazine media and crowdfunding functions. Finally, all the stories will be published in print books. So I described Reposeed as “Kickstarter + Narratively + Random House” for Japanese journalists.
Of course some crowdfunding platforms already exist, even in Japan, but there are fewer platforms for long-form journalism. One reason is that Japanese crowdfunding sites tend to focus on social projects. In addition, many authors aren’t accustomed to getting money this way.
I believe crowdfunding is one way for narrative nonfiction based on investigative research to survive. As I’ve written here, I’ve continued to improve my idea since January with suggestions from CUNY faculty members and my entrepreneurial mentor, Joshua Cohen.
This month, May 2016, I can finally launch Reposeed’s first project, “Okinawa Underground,” by Seiji Fujii, one of the most prominent journalists in Japan. By posting the first chapter free and having the author pitch, Reposeed raised about $5,100 from 112 contributors in 30 days.
These supporters have reached us through social media — mine, Reposeed’s and the author’s. They’re already joining the dedicated Facebook page, discussing the first chapter; some did fact-checking on the draft they read. In June, we’re going to host exclusive events for them and send them the drafts of later chapters. In addition, many influential media are asking to interview me about this project. I think such a connection with supporters and the author helps the marketing of the book, to be published this summer. In June I’ll be back in Japan, doing the second and third projects by different authors. Because the Japanese book publishing business has no advance fee system, only $5,000 is essential. Some experts in Japan say,
“Even if $5,000 is funded, it’s not enough for journalists to do investigation.”
Yes, I know. But they cannot do anything without at least that much. When I was an editor of the nonfiction literature magazine G2, the basic cost of an investigation was limited to $5,000. If that’s not enough, the journalist can pitch the multiple projects to the audience and combine the amounts raised. Needless to say, the better the content of pitching, the more funding journalists they can get.
From observing the first experiment, I strongly believe Reposeed system will continue to work.
What is the future of books, my main revenue source?
This problem will exist in the next step. I think this crowdfunding system works as long as we set selling print and digital books as the main revenue stream. But how long will the existing book publishing system continue?
In the United States, depending on the genre, e-books’ penetration rate is about 20 to 25%. In Japan, their penetration is less than 10%, most of which consists of manga. Most general books’ revenue depends on print sales. I guess they will shift to digital in the near future, but what will happen in the long term?
Will e-books be just one form of paid content on Kindle Apps on the iPhone? Will such content continue to be difficult to share online, as it is now? Will many people think such content is expensive compared to what they read online free? Will free long-form content on sites like Medium attract all the book fans?
If so, existing book publishing houses’ main revenue will disappear.
As Craig Mod or Bob Stein says, current e-books are created on the existing legacy print format, although technology can make it possible to create e-books more convenient for social sharing or anything. Digital tech could release every audience from boring limitations, but the reality is that e-books don’t, so far. Most e-books are limited to the form of print books.
The solutions are being created by great entrepreneurs like Bob Stein, but many book publishers don’t accept them. What is next for book publishing? Perhaps this is my next assignment.
Katsunao Ishii is a Tow-Knight fellow in entrepreneurial journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and an editor at Kodansha Ltd in Tokyo. He is launching Reposeed, the first crowdfunding service for Japanese journalists.
