Media Product: Distribution, Engagement, Monetisation MIT-SM>ProdMed
- https://upjp2.klimek.ac (term 2026/2027-Z)
The course shows how a media product works as a whole: how content reaches the audience, what makes people come back, and how the publisher makes money. The starting point is the difference between product thinking and editorial thinking. Each topic is built around a real case from a large news portal and discussed in the form of conversation and debate.
Topics:
- Product thinking versus editorial thinking
- Anatomy of a large portal’s homepage: how traffic becomes a product
- How user habits are formed
- The recommendation engine and the limits of personalisation
- AI on both sides of the screen: in the newsroom and for the audience
- Advertising and subscriptions: two revenue streams and the tension between them
- Funnel, paywall and price: revenue today versus loyalty tomorrow
- KPIs and the principles of a good A/B test
- A product decision on a single slide
- Product under pressure: election night and major sporting events
- Newsroom and product: who decides what
- Team project: a habit-forming product from idea to test plan
- Project presentations and discussion
Course coordinators
(in Polish) Tryb zajęć
Learning outcomes
After completing the course, the student:
- Knowledge: knows and understands how a media product works: content distribution, building habits and engagement, personalisation, and revenue models based on advertising and subscriptions
- Skills: can design a habit-forming product, choose KPIs for it, plan an A/B test and present a product decision concisely, based on data
- Social competences: is ready to work in a project team, defend their own view and accept data-based criticism
Assessment criteria
Teaching approach: conversation and discussion based on real-world cases, plus a team project with feedback in class.
Requirements: a team project for a habit-forming product (a media product or any other, either new or a new part of an existing product), presented in five slides to people who are hearing about it for the first time: who and why, product, habit, numbers and money, test and rollout. A prototype is optional. Each team submits its materials before the presentations and presents the project live during the last two meetings.
Grading: one grade for the whole project, covering the materials and the presentation. Criteria:
- Idea: will anyone come back to it tomorrow and the day after
- User: who they are, when and why they reach for the product
- Habit: trigger, action, reward
- Numbers: KPIs and a test plan
- Money: how the product makes money, or how it makes money for the company
- Feasibility: how to build it, with what, and in what order
- Form: whether the material stands on its own, without the authors present
- Presentation: clarity, aesthetics and style
Active participation in class (questions, discussion, defending one’s own view) raises the grade.
Practical placement
Not applicable.
Bibliography
- Nir Eyal, Ryan Hoover, Skuszeni. Jak tworzyć produkty kształtujące nawyki konsumenckie, Onepress 2016 (Polish edition of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products)
- Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Gregory Bernarda, Alan Smith, Tworzenie najlepszych ofert. Produkty i usługi, na których zależy klientom, Onepress 2022 (Polish edition of Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want)
- Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test. How to talk to customers and learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you, Robfitz Ltd 2013
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: