All Posts Tagged With: "editor & publisher"

Almost forgot to plug my latest Editor & Publisher Online column here: “Readers Want to Pay for News Online — So Let Them.”

It’s a summary of the growing number of solutions to allow online users to voluntarily financially support the websites and blogs they visit, or like, or individual stories (and other content). A growing number of Internet entrepreneurs have concluded that asking people to pay for web content rather than demanding them to do so; utilizing networks to make voluntary support of many online publishers easy; and making the barriers or “mental transactions” extremely low to contribute is more promising than competing plans to put price tags or subscription walls on online news. They’re using not only technology, but also leveraging the power of social networking and psychological techniques like “social proof” to encourage contributions.

A lot of traditional media people are skeptical that any scheme to make money on the web by just “asking,” a la National Public Radio or Public Broadcasting Service outlets’ fund drives, can work. A couple of my friends who I’d put in the “digital media guru” category have even expressed dismay that I think the voluntary schemes have a chance at creating revenues streams that amount to more than a trickle.

Because the services I write about in the column are so new, or aren’t yet launched, there’s no track record to cite. We need some publishers to take this model seriously and experiment with these new services, adding optional contributions by online users to their other revenue streams. (Advertising of course will remain dominant for many or most websites, especially news sites, though I can envision some popular, quality blogs making more from reader contributions.)

The knee-jerk rejection of the voluntary model that I’m encountering so much of reminds me of a few years ago when Craigslist really started to boom and chip away at newspapers’ classifieds revenue. Most newspaper publishers and classifieds managers back then dismissed Craigslist as a threat, and even as Craig Newmark and his small team were making paid newspaper classifieds evaporate with their offer of free web ads, the newspaper executives ignored him. Many had not even heard of Craig Newmark, and if they knew what he was doing, they considered him a pesky fly and not a mortal threat.

I hope my traditional-media colleagues will read my column and take it seriously. Otherwise, it will be the bloggers and online entrepreneurs who implement the voluntary solutions first, and they’ll pocket the money as old-media entities bypass yet another opportunity because it falls outside their comfort zone.

My latest Editor & Publisher Online column is up: “Need to Make Profits Online? It CAN Be Done.”

It’s a follow-up to my previous E&P column, which advised newspaper CEOs on 11 key strategies to reinvent their enterprises. But since I didn’t focus so much on the money angle in that column, this time I tried to put my head around how the suggested adaptations by a newspaper company to survive in the digital age can be used to boost revenues.

There’s no silver-bullet solution (I only wish I was that smart), but I hope newspaper folks will find some useful ideas in the column.

Sticking to the topic of “micro-personal news” (see previous blog item), John Paul Titlow wrote me the following note which responds to my September Editor & Publisher Online column, “Newspapers First Need to Redefine ‘News’ to Move Forward Online.” He makes some good points worth sharing, so with his permission here it is:

“I couldn’t agree more with your assessment. I am a 25 year-old news junkie and Web content delivery manager for a weekly newspaper company in Philadelphia. Personally, I am able to consume most of my ‘news’ from the home screen of my iPhone.

“That includes the NYTimes and NPR apps for iPhone, a Digg app to see what the Digg community is pushing, CNN to tune into what’s considered ‘news’ by one of the big cable players, and Google Reader (any number of Web design & tech blogs, newspaper industry sites, Reuters, about 2 dozen other sites I read).

“But what I find myself tapping just as often as Google Reader or NYTimes are Twitter and Facebook. You’re right; it’s addictive. In a few seconds, I can see what friends are tweeting or posting as their ’status’ on Facebook. It’s even called a ‘News Feed’ on Facebook.

“Before reading your column, however, I hadn’t thought of it that way — these status posts and tweets are just as much news to me as headlines about the Iraq war or tech news.

“Newspaper companies will have to find a way to leverage this. You correctly point out that the ‘open’ nature of (most) social networks and their API’s should help enable this. I would also add that recent moves towards a universal log-in (OpenID, etc.) should also make this vision of ‘news’ closer to a reality.

“Hopefully publishers will catch on before it’s too late.”

Interesting. I’ve been getting a new round of e-mail comments about the Editor & Publisher Online column I did back in late September: “Newspapers First Need to Redefine ‘News’ to Move Forward Online.” (My most current one is here.)

Also, Paul Gillin over at NewspaperDeathWatch.com did a blog item about the column, “Your Friend Feed Is News,” published just today.

When I wrote that column, I really felt like it touched on an important concept that’s been largely ignored by the news industry (and newspapers, especially, for whom I target my E&P columns): People today have the opportunity to receive a stream of what I call “micro-personal news” from their friends and family via participation in social networks (like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, FriendFeed, et al). News organizations need to recognize that and incorporate it into their own definition of news, and start including micro-personal news in personalized or “individuated” news streams, along with traditional news content.

The column didn’t elicit as much reaction as I’d hoped for when first published, which I found disappointing. Maybe there’s another chance for these ideas to get more discussion and analysis?

My latest column is up over at Editor & Publisher Online: “Newspapers First Need to Redefine ‘News’ to Move Forward Online.”

I’m very curious to see the reaction to this one, as I think I’m hitting some significant new ground. And if anyone can point me to examples of the global-to-micro-personal news service that I’m imagining, please do.