Thoughts on Keeping Traditional Newsrooms Running

Posted by Marci Hotsenpiller Nov 28, 2008

It’s been hard to hold our tongues lately when reading coverage about the “death” of the newspaper. Over at Publishing 2.0, Scott Karp’s post on this topic led to an active debate about where news media is going to find a workable business model. Somehow it never feels appropriate to pipe up and say "Excuse me. Over here folks.”

And yet everyday, professional journalists who are victims of newsroom downsizing are knocking on our virtual door, asking to come in. Lately the trickle has become a steady stream. We’re picky about which writers we choose at Suite (our acceptance rate sits at 25%), but we’re happy to swing the doors open to these writers (whose acceptance rate, as a group, is closer to 100%).

It would be disingenuous of me--an avid newspaper reader--to sit and simply watch this trend happen, so instead I’ll point out some concepts that might help newspapers (or entrepreneurial journalists) benefit from the business model we follow at Suite.

* Share ad revenue with writers: this seems preferable compared to the “assign an article, pay once” approach favored by newspapers. Articles that make money for the publisher make money for the writer.

* Royalty-based payment systems: follow a dividend style that pays a writer monthly for as long their work is available to read. (Skip the upfront payment to a writer but let then benefit from the revenue their writing earns each month, for eternity.)

* Let writers keep their copyright: find a middle ground for supplying exclusive news and articles without trying to “lock” it down. Publishers: try asking for a period of exclusivity, rather than owning all rights for every possible medium, forever.

In times of crisis like the financial one we’re witnessing now, this kind of royalty-based payment model could prevent the dramatic staffing course-corrections that news media are currently making.

What are the challenges? One of the quirkier ones is answering the question: “what can I make?” (This is like an author asking “how many books will I sell?”) Since royalties depend on how long someone’s been publishing and how many articles they have on the site, it’s a huge range. When you’ve got writers making $2000 a month at the top end, combined with new writers earning $10 a month, you can see the challenge of providing an exact figure.

Is it a crisis-proof model? Well, we won’t be firing any writers anytime soon here at Suite and we’ll keep paying them a share of what their articles earn for as long as they’re on our site.