The publishing model, in contrast, is based on creating a “ catalog of content ”
that can be sold directly to consumers in as many ways as possible. It is based
mostly on material goods that people can touch and pay for directly or rent
access to: books, music, video, and ! lm. For these goods, the logic of direct
commodi! cation prevails. The publishing model is also typi! ed by a core group
of companies that commission, ! nance, package, and distribute content, and own
the intellectual property rights to their “catalogs.” Rather than directly creating
content, “publisher ! rms” depend on independently sourced programming and
a “" exible” pool of cultural workers who are paid from royalties and employed
from one project to another. Originally, this model played a modest role in
the overall scheme of things. Since then, however, it has moved closer to the
center of the media, ! rst through policy initiatives, such as the creation of
Channel 4 in the United Kingdom in 1982, and subsequently as the template
for neoliberal capitalism writ large (Lash and Urry 1994).
The “club” model is a hybrid of elements from the publishing and " ow
models as well as some new characteristics unique to digital media. The gradual shift from the “" ow” to the “publishing” and “club” models re" ects the
cumulative changes since the 1980s due to the growing centrality of digitization
and communication networks (cable, telecoms, DTH, internet, wireless, etc.),
corporate consolidation, restructuring and the rise of new players (e.g. Apple
and Google), and the proliferation of content receiving and storage devices
(Lacroix and Tremblay 1997). These models are being extended through the
direct pay model of television and subscription services based on large catalogs
of content rather than the scheduled " ow of programs. Content integrators/
aggregators (Noam) exemplify the “publishing” and “club” models, but they
simultaneously continue to cultivate audiences’ expectations that content is
free. The free culture norm, in turn, does not re" ect new expectations, however,
but the enduring “sociocultural fact” that information and cultural products
are public goods as well as more than a century of socialization by the " ow
model where most of the costs of media consumption were paid by someone
else (Bustamante 2004: 811). The three models of the cultural industries are
summarized in Table I.3.