Media 140’s Sydney meetup last week attempted to discuss the future of journalism. While it wasn’t really successful, it did expose the fundamental flaw in the online publishing model and the other crowdsourcing business ideas that rely on cheap or free labour.
All three panellists agreed that as publishers “The sustainability of our business is very much linked to the quality of content.” because with several million online voices a site needs compelling and relevant content to attract and retain readers.
Yet every panel participant agreed the cost of content is falling and in many cases is now free.
There lies the paradox; if content is so valuable, why is it so cheap or even worthless?
The model for online publishers is the same as it was in the days of every city having three evening newspapers or when the six o’clock TV news was the most watched show on television. Compelling content attracted readers and viewers which in turned attracted eager advertisers.
In the days of metro evening newspapers and the six o’clock news there were substantial barriers to competition with printing presses, broadcast licenses and distribution networks required. Today anyone who can afford $10 a month for website hosting can be a publisher.
Worse, the rates for online advertising are plummeting and with the site owners only making a few dollars there’s little for publishers, let alone the content creators.
Which brings us back to the fundamental problem, if there isn’t any money for those who create the content then there’s little point in the middle men distributing it.
Many of today’s online publishers are like the loom weavers of the early 18th Century who derived a short term benefit from the change that eventually destroyed them. The same forces that make journalists work for nothing are the same ones that will render the bulk of publishers insolvent.
And that could be where the future of journalism, writing and publishing really lies — the bulk of the industry eking out an existance providing commoditised, generic pap and a few niche publications with readerships that attract good incomes that in turn can pay a small number of writers.
That’s certainly the model the panel at Media 140 are betting on and I hope they all do well.
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