Problems with the pay-per-view model in Journalism
I agree when Nicholas Carr says ‘Pay-per-view journalism’ is inevitable. However, I have been thinking about the deep effects ‘Pay-per-view journalism' may have on the whole news publishing business.Blog Networks, led by Gawker and WebslogsInc have long used this model to compensate their bloggers. However, I am still not sure whether bloggers are not paid an assured sum at the end of the month.
Now, mainstream news sites such as Zdnet.com are following suit.
I also agree when Nick says that ‘Pay-per-view journalism’ brings the compensation model in line with the online content model where every story has the power to have a life of its own – ratings, comments, trackbacks, updates, comments on comments, so on and so forth.
‘Pay-per-view journalism’ may be okay when established media names follow it. Zdnet is an established name. I would be surprised if my friend’s brand new technology blog network followed this model.
Although one is attracted to the idea of ' one who gets most clicks, gets to write', still, you can’t expect to start a brand new news site and pay writers on ‘pay-per-view/trackbacks/links earned/or, whatever’ basis.
One good story does not build stickiness. For repeat visits, you need consistency. For consistency, writers must post good stories over a long period for the Google effect, Pagerank and others to push the product along. That takes time and money.
Agreed that online media startup costs are less than 1/10 of print startup cost but costs are costs and new fancy models such as ‘pay-per-view’ may be implemented only when the business is settled.
Then there is the ethics issue.
When you tell a journalist that her job is also to bring in traffic, what’s there to stop her from treading a Grey line? For example, she may write a puff piece on a new product launch, disillusioned that she has become.
For those who point out that Gawker utilized the ‘pay-per-view’ model, May I remind you to take a look at the topics that Gawker covers? Scandal, DIY, Gadgets – that’s where pay-per-view thrives. My article on the Burma issue will not even send a blip on the ‘pay-per-view’ screen.
I hear that porn and sports are the champions in the ‘pay-per-view’ video business. Viva journalism.
posted by Pramit Singh @ 3:09 PM
2 Comments:
All good points: especially the ethical problems that journalists might face if they are trying to grab page views instead of good solid content. As I put it at "What happens to the quality of content if journalists are just looking for the quick buck? If success is measured by page-views what happens to the tried-and-true journalist that wants to be informative, accurate and unfortunately — sometimes boring?"
True, David.
Didn't someone said that Pageviews are obsolete? I wonder what the publishers will say about that?
:-)
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