Comments on: Can newspapers be like mega-churches?

By: himagain

himagain — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 03:14:19 +0000

Once upon a time, people bought newspapers for their content. However, they were greatly supported by advertising content.
Unfortunately, the advertisers become very important and affected the content greatly.

Even today, the options to get your news and information while so greatly expanded, are very uniform. All you really need is a Reuters feed.

“Donations” are for Good Causes.

I object to the nutters in the Open Source internet program movement, who cannot grasp that there are still costs involved and ALWAYS require sponsorship/donations to survive. What would just ten bucks for a copy of Linux really mean?

As for supporting the Times or any other publication, it is simple.
They have to come up with a value that is perceivable by the prospect.
News? No
Entertainment? No
Let them eat cake!
If a new uni graduate can start up a free dating service for his friends in his kitchen-based computer and a year or two later be making a million a month from his part-time biz ……..
(all from Google Ads)

Shut down the hard-world cost elements and get out in Cyberspace for a few bucks costs. But you better be either unique, or at least honestly superior to the rest. Then the pipples will pay.
Perception?
$25 suitcase virtually identical to a $12,500 Louis Vuitton.

By: Meridith

Meridith — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 05:52:08 +0000

After reading your thoughts, I am really beginning to wonder what people will pay for when it comes to online journalism. I agree that no one wants to pay for commodity news content. If a site charges for this, it is simple to find it for free elsewhere. However, I wonder how long users will pay for premium content and interaction. I think you are right about sustaining the quality of journalism. If adds are not enough to keep online sites functioning and providing high-quality journalism, then it seems the next best option is either monthly subscriptions or donations. I agree that some people will donate in order to keep the quality, but how many people are like that? Are there enough devoted users?

By: Rob Fishman: My Mother, the Future of Journalism

Rob Fishman: My Mother, the Future of Journalism — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:37:35 +0000

[...] [...]

By: Rebecca Gunnels

Rebecca Gunnels — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:02:55 +0000

Hey – nice article – I kind of agree with Eric, there.

Lakewood asks that you give to the church a percentage of your income and God will give it back ten-fold (or something equally exciting).

When I attend, I almost never give – and I don’t feel guilty.

But at yesterday’s service, they unveiled their latest project: a state-of-the-art, Mind-Body-Spirit facility for special-needs children.

If donations are spent so generously and wisely for its people, then they will donate your $75 mil.

Think about it.

By: Eric Kaiser

Eric Kaiser — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 02:41:37 +0000

Hmmm, if my local paper offered me eternal life I would gladly tithe to them ;+) Seriously though, as a Christian who does tithe, it’s not about any of things you wrote about here. Your analogy is so off base. I might be wrong, but my guess is you don’t go to church. And you likely did at one point but it was likely a legalistic church where it was more about how you looked and acted. However, I do think churches can offer a lot of insight into the business world, and not all of that insight involves money.
Christians tithe as an act of worship. Not out of guilt or coercion.

By: Printed Matters » Online advertising: newspapers never even tried

Printed Matters » Online advertising: newspapers never even tried — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 23:42:27 +0000

[...] daddy? That’s not earning revenues. Paywalls, donations, tip jars, Kachingle? Forms of pay-for-content. Targeted search ads, upsells in business directory, [...]

By: TomKoltai

TomKoltai — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 05:01:24 +0000

Actually – churches do have something to sell.
Guilt Bandaids.
Atonement tithes and
Forgiveness for all that Blaspheming, cussing and fornication.

The Baptists have an interesting way to present it – If you cussed this week then drop a dollar in the collection plate – If you blashemed this week, then it better be two dollars and if you …. fornicated – well then that better be five dollars.

By: Digidave

Digidave — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 05:22:05 +0000

I’m with you on this one Steve. It’s very much akin to Spot.us. The gift economy in the U.S. was 300 billion in 2006. Seventy-five percent of that was from individuals (228 billion). The majority of that 228 billion goes to schools and churches.

The question is: can journalism be seen as a public good in the same way and merit some of that 228 billion.

By: Steve Outing

Steve Outing — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 04:45:32 +0000

Martin: I think I addressed your point in my response to David above. So MinnPost, StLBeacon and a thousand other sites — all worthy of people’s support — ask for money separately. That can never work, and that’s why the web developed into a primarily free-content environment, with only the very highest value content having price tags, and few sites making more than a pittance off donations. Most news content isn’t worth the typical web user paying for. That’s not saying that the content isn’t very valuable (and costly to produce), but when there’s a competitor offering the same thing for free, you’re screwed if you try to charge.

If MinnPost and similar sites can make a bit of money from their own individual application of the NPR model, fantastic, but it won’t be enough to sustain them. And as you point out, it will take a long time to build up a decent base of user financial support.

What I think everyone is missing — and I guess I haven’t articulated it well enough — is leveraging the power of the Internet and the several billion people now using it. MinnPost by itself asking for a monthly donation (repeated automatically on your credit card for convenience!) will grow way too slowly. But a system that includes everyone (news sites, blogs, whatever), and that those people disposed to donate money automatically each month can sign up for once, and click a Support button on every site/blog they like to give their money — well, the overall system works so that when someone signs up on another blog, that benefits your site.

This is still theory, but I want to see it in action to find out if it will work. Google makes billions by putting AdSense ads on all manner of websites (probably millions of them). I want to see that kind of reach applied to a distributed monthly contribution model. Even if 10% of users said yes to a monthly donation to support the sites and blogs they like best, the numbers could be impressive.

Going it alone on the NPR-like donation model? Forget it.

By: Steve Outing

Steve Outing — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 04:19:40 +0000

David: I’m pleased that I made you laugh. Alas, you twist my words. I did not advocate that newspapers adopt churches’ business model. I said that if people are willing to pay to attend church (they aren’t required to pay), they may be willing to pay for commodity online news (again, which they don’t have to). Churchgoers donate to their individual churches; I’m saying that donating to individual news websites won’t work, because we Internet users visit and value many sites, while churchgoers only go to and support one church. Ergo, for a donation model to work for web news it must deploy the power of the network, making it easy for the online user to easily and automatically donate on a monthly basis, with a simple means to identify which sites and/or blogs to financially support.

You say, “Newspapers sell news, most of which is depressing and I don’t want to read it but think I have to. Churches sell the feeling of being in Love, which nobody can get enough of.”

I respectfully disagree. Some churchgoers donate for the “Love”; others attend and donate out of a sense of duty and tradition and because that’s how they were brought up — you just GO to church without feeling the fervor of some evangelicals.

I can say the same sort of thing about newspapers and their websites. Some of us are news junkies and love to keep up with the news, and enjoy the fun parts (Dear Abby, comics, et al); others read news out of sense of duty but don’t enjoy it.

“Might as well ask why mortuaries don’t operate like strip clubs.” Hmm, I’ll have to think pretty hard to come up with a rationale, but perhaps it can be done! 8^)

I think you’re dissing me for thinking out of the box, which is exactly what newspaper executives don’t do enough of. They’re so stuck inside their boxes that they’re about to be buried still inside them.