Media Following the Money
posted by on November 20 at 11:36 AM
Back in March, a media expert named John McManus told me that he sees a journalistic future in which newspapers are outpaced by specialty blogs.
He envisions newsrooms being “depopulated” as these online ventures become profitable through advertising revenue and “micropayments” (charging, say, five cents a view for certain newsy offerings). Getting there is going to involve “a pretty bumpy middle,” McManus says, but on the other side could be work for newspaper employees… who may lose their current jobs in the transition.
Today, just nine months after McManus made that prediction, the Washington Post lost two of its top political reporters to… a new specialty blog. (Actually, it’s being described as a “multi-platform company,” one that is “anchored on the Web” and “just does politics.”)
I don’t understand the business model yet, but the yet-to-be-named venture has been given a ton of cash by something called Albritton Communications—enough cash, apparently, to make salary offers that two of the most highly-paid and respected political journalists in the business couldn’t refuse.
They’ve been given an impressive budget to go out and hire roughly six additional top, top political reporters (expect another big announcement/hire soon) at salaries competitive with those at the nation’s top newspapers. They are currently in talks to steal away top reporters from networks, magazines and newspapers… [The aim is] to take on the political coverage of the Washington Post and the New York Times.
Yet another thing for newspapers to worry about: Blogs with enough cash to poach their best reporters.
Eli, you'd do well to remember that you work for a newspaper, not a blog....
Why would I do well to remember that, Fnarf? Enlighten me.
I don’t understand the business model yet, but the yet-to-be-named venture has been given a ton of cash by something called Albritton Communications—enough cash, apparently, to make salary offers that two of the most highly-paid and respected political journalists in the business couldn’t refuse.
That's the business model? It's a proven failure. 'Front-money now and figure out how to actually turn a profit later' is the exact business model the dot-coms used, and Seattlites should know as well as anyone how that turned out.
Take on the WP and the NYT?
OK, no prob if they take on the pay-more-to-view NYT, but step AWAY from my WP!
Eli: if you're right, you're cheerleading for the demise of not just your employer's business, but his business category. That's kind of a weird thing to do. If you're wrong, and I think you are, then you're cheerleading for more lemmings-off-the-cliff dotcommery.
Please excuse the old joke, but...
Step 1: Steal Underpants
Step 2: ???
Step 3: PROFIT!!!
Fnarf: I suppose, then, that you think I shouldn't let you know about anything that might hurt my employer's business?
That's a funny thing for a huge media (and blog) consumer like yourself to suggest.
Also, whether or not the Slog does a post about this phenomenon has little impact, in the end, on whether the phenomenon occurs. I don't want to dispel your notions of an all-powerful Slog, but between you and me, we don't control major economic trends or major technological advances.
Didn't we try #6 in Iraq?
Man, that didn't work, did it?
Gomez is right--it's the dot-com boom all over again. Journalists got hired away from their newsrooms at high salaries to become "content providers." Then, within a year or so, these same journalists became "unemployed" (and often returned to those same newsrooms). Perhaps you might take a 1990s history class and broaden your horizons, Eli.
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