"One of the highest-profile acquisitions came in 2011 when Bloomberg—already a behemoth in the business-intelligence sphere—bought a longtime employee-owned trade outlet, the Bureau of National Affairs. BNA, as it is known, went for $990 million. [...] Contrast that with the recent sales and acquisitions of more household names in journalism. The Washington Post was sold to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2013 for $250 million. The Boston Globe sold in 2013 for $70 million. "
Thing I learned from this article: There are real paying customers for the news, and --surprise surprise-- it's the people whose jobs depend on it. The bulk of the American public doesn't care enough to pay, and so won't get the full news.
I'm not sure that there's a way around this... ideas?
Put an synopsis version of the story outside the firewall and do the in-depth article with reference, graphs, etc. inside the firewall. Paid subscription with a google friendly, ad supported front-end. People who aren't going to pay the fee probably just want the synopsis (executive summary) version anyway.
Not a bad idea, but it would only work for stories with the appropriate depth to support a longer exploration that would make people feel like they got their money's worth. Some stories just aren't worth more than 300 words and don't lend themselves to major explorations.
I've thought about this one a bit, and taken as one story what you say is true, but I think there is no such thing as a standalone story. Links to previous stories either by type or area, links to stats (e.g. CDC ranking of mortality), etc. could provide some valuable context as opposed to sensational headlines.
Comments
"One of the highest-profile acquisitions came in 2011 when Bloomberg—already a behemoth in the business-intelligence sphere—bought a longtime employee-owned trade outlet, the Bureau of National Affairs. BNA, as it is known, went for $990 million. [...] Contrast that with the recent sales and acquisitions of more household names in journalism. The Washington Post was sold to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2013 for $250 million. The Boston Globe sold in 2013 for $70 million. "
Thing I learned from this article: There are real paying customers for the news, and --surprise surprise-- it's the people whose jobs depend on it. The bulk of the American public doesn't care enough to pay, and so won't get the full news.
I'm not sure that there's a way around this... ideas?
Put an synopsis version of the story outside the firewall and do the in-depth article with reference, graphs, etc. inside the firewall. Paid subscription with a google friendly, ad supported front-end. People who aren't going to pay the fee probably just want the synopsis (executive summary) version anyway.
I don't know why this is being down voted as its a fairly good solution.
My idea was to have the general news media subscribe to these services and write delayed smaller summaries, kinda like how they subscribe to Reuter.
Not a bad idea, but it would only work for stories with the appropriate depth to support a longer exploration that would make people feel like they got their money's worth. Some stories just aren't worth more than 300 words and don't lend themselves to major explorations.
I've thought about this one a bit, and taken as one story what you say is true, but I think there is no such thing as a standalone story. Links to previous stories either by type or area, links to stats (e.g. CDC ranking of mortality), etc. could provide some valuable context as opposed to sensational headlines.