Journalism Idea: Rewards

Briefly:  Newspapers and magazines are struggling with "free content".   Competition is out there, and if you don't make your webpage free, people will go elsewhere.  If you give yours away for free, how do you pay your reporters?

First, marketplace basics.   If a story you are publishing is already out there for free, then it isn't "premium content".   If you have an exclusive, that's what to pay for.

Second, reward people who buy.   When I click on a paid link, or use up my "free" allotment, I want some kind of good deed credit recognition, I want to be treated like the hotel or airline treats me, with reward membership. Give me credits each time I read one of your stories, with which I can buy free access to other stories.

This recipe will increase readership, which is how you really make your money anyway.

I am not a professional journalist, by the way.  But I play one on the internet.

2 comments:

LiLi WeiWei said...

Here's a point worth exploring further: on one hand, BAN trusts the Hong Kong EPD to do the right thing and send back these allegedly illegal containers. But, on the other hand, BAN and its followers in the media, are always ready to point out that Hong Kong is one of the world's #1 trans-shipment points for e-waste ... a state of affairs that falls in the lap of the Hong Kong EPD.

So let's tease this apart, shall we? On one hand, the Hong Kong EPD is, in part, responsible for allowing - by BAN's estimation - thousands of containers of e-waste into China, via Hong Kong, every year. And yet, on the other hand, BAN feels perfectly comfortable in working with them to bust e-waste exporters in the US.

Can they have it both ways? I'm just not so sure. Are you, Robin?

Robin said...

LiLi WeiWei: I see your point. HK is "incompetent" and is yet "competent authority". If they are "incompetent" in stopping imports, are they "competent" in deciding whether imports are legal under Basel Convention Annex IX B1110?

Yet the Hong Kong Legislative Council reviews the Basel Convention with more conviction:
http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr04-05/english/bc/bc63/reports/bc630329cb2-1482e.pdf