After seeing this call from Wikimedia to get volunteers and experts for a strategic plan, the question would be, could some media companies do the same with their audience? The New York Times has an initiatie (in which I participate) called Insights Labs, but I do not know many other initiatives.  Incorporating talent and letting people to be part of us can also be made through volunteers.  Media companies could have a big volunteer network with the right policies and incentives. Under the principle of “give a little, get a lot” our audience could be an added-value self-service.

I had no hope in sustaining contents thanks to donations, and I wish I was totally wrong. Having a look to two references in donation supported models, I see that MIT OCW says to be operating at a cost of 3.6MM $ while wikimedia has an annual expenditure of nearly 6 MM $. When wikimedia reached their target, all funds collected were put into a reserve fund (if media had done this we won’t probably be where we are).  What calls my attention the most is their conservative approach to expenditures following a logic: if you do not have it, do not spend it. A second interesting point is in their budget. No content production costs (of course) and no traffic acquisition costs while technology is, by far, their main cost.

Sustaining a part, a section, a portion of contents of a traditional media by donations would need to be transparent and to give recognizement to donors. It may be possible but it would need a change in many decision makers. Converting a part of our business in a foundation could be possible and these two examples are showing how it could be done.