Will People Pay For Investigative Journalism To Get The Results A Week Early
from the some,-but-not-many... dept
Tracy writes in to alert us to an attempt by a Milwaukee newspaper to get people to pay, specifically for investigative reporting, by publishing it in the paper a week before it goes online for free and by offering it online only to paying subscribers:Investigative reporting is the most expensive form of journalism produced by the Journal Sentinel newsroom. Because of the expense and resources it requires, we are giving our print and e-edition subscribers exclusive access to the Preacher's Mob series. We will be doing this on a regular basis with certain enterprise stories and investigations. Online readers will be able to see the full story later this week. For now, all readers can read this summary version below or click on several interactive and multimedia features, including a mini-documentary that contains jailhouse interviews, audio files of secret recordings of Michael Lock by a law enforcement informant, and an interactive map of key dates and places in the world of Michael Lock. With an e-edition subscription, you can read the full series as it unfolds over five days in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel starting May 17.On the whole, I don't think this is as bad an idea as some others, but it's difficult to see how it'd be successful. If the details of a story are really that interesting, then any other news organization in the area has incentive to at least report on the high points for free online and get all the online traffic that the Journal Sentinel should have received. Also, the number of people who really think it's worth paying for a few investigative reports to get it a week before others get to see it seems like a very small audience. I'd imagine the lost online ad revenue from not drawing traffic to the website is a much bigger number than the incremental new subscribers who want to read the story at the Journal Sentinel.
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Filed Under: delay, investigative journalism, journal sentinel, pay
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paying for online news
I read it online now so I can be selective and skip all the material I do not want to see at all. I think that others do so as well.
If it becomes no longer free here then I will go elsewhere. I already pay 115 a month for high speed cable, just under 90 a month for satellite tv, and 160 a month for cellular services for me and my wife along with a land line at just about 50 a month.
Tapped out? No but enough is enough and I have other things to do anyway.
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I have 3-5 sites that I visit daily because they provide real value to me. You know what is the most important thing for me? These sites are all FREE!
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I would guess that the answer would be "no". This site gets it's money from the Insight Community. The way to get more people to use the Insight Community is to get more eyes here to see that it exists and is a good source for insight. Put up a pay wall (or even just a log in), people stop coming, and less eyes see the main money maker.
Plus, after all the articles about embracing free and selling finite goods, putting up a pay wall would be hypocritical and betray the loyal readers.
I wish the Journal Sentinel luck in trying to sell their investigative skills (That's what they're selling, not the news itself). Hopefully, for them, the skills are good enough that people are willing to pay to get it early.
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(See also the related previous story on TechDirt.)
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Why not?
It won't be the broad mass that will subscribe those stories in print, but that was never the case. Some folks might just like a head start on the news, and these are the kind that value information enough to pay some extra money. If they put teasers online and i find some topic interesting, i might just buy a print version myself.
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Re: Why not?
They already are, they just don't seem to want to admit it.
That party couldn't possibly copy/paste the complete article, so the print version still has advantages.
Not to sound overly snarky, but there are these things called scanners, and software called OCR. If someone wants to republish a print article online, it's not that hard. They could even type the whole thing in.
The people who write "if it isn't free i won't read it" will not benefit the journalist anyways.
Wrong, any people advertisers are willing to advertise to will benefit the news outlet.
Some folks might just like a head start on the news, and these are the kind that value information enough to pay some extra money.
Quite right. It will be interesting to see how many people that is.
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This model already works for stock values
I think that the "I want it now" camp might be prepared to use a (very cheap, quick and easy) micropayments scheme to see a headline (or see exclusive pictures) an hour before anyone else picked up the story.
I think the legal status of exclusive would end up being tested a lot more firmly in court though.
But wait a week for an in-depth ?
I subscribe to the economist, because it's convenient having a magazine at the saturday breakfast table. I am not paying for the content (which I am certainly able to get online somewhere) but for the convenience. My time & convenience is move valuable to me than my share of their subscription and ad revenue.
I could even imagine a model where things were completely reversed from where everyone assumes it is heading. As I walk to the train my local news-stand hands me a newspaper tailored to me (that was printed at 2am) which I subscribe to and which gives me in a single read every website and magazine I am interested in. It also features google-like ads that relate to the sort of things that might appeal to me.
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Re: This model already works for stock values
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And then they will show it to their friends, or post it somewhere else, effectively nullifying the point of a paywall.
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Hmmm
Second, I can see this working. By what I understand from your excerpt only the journalist column (Preacher's Mob) is behind any "paywall". Anyone that subscribes gets this "bonus" column. It's what Mike is always talking about, adding value. It gives people a reason to pay. You still get your free news online, you just have to wait for their "exclusive" section (which IMO is the correct term since the Preacher's Mob is exclusive to their paper).
No business model is perfect, but I think this is a huge step in right direction for newspapers.
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except speed is not the high point of mainstream media
One of the bloggers on Cnet put it best -- this whole hot news / aggregation / rss bit is going to destroy the newspaper industry, not because aggregators are somehow stealing something, but because investigative journalism is mostly done from behind a keyboard. They get most of their info from business wire (all press releases) and court/administrative filings, and wikipedia -- all of which are available online.
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As for your comment "I'd imagine the lost online ad revenue from not drawing traffic to the website is a much bigger number than the incremental new subscribers who want to read the story at the Journal Sentinel." It's this type of comment that makes me think TechDirt breaks from reality completely at times. Online ad revenue for most papers (and most sites in general) is PALTRY (and recently dropping). The value of a few thousand subscribers on the print side is (likely to be) much greater to this modest-sized paper. For most media organizations, though online advertising as a source of revenue has been growing by leaps and bounds over the last 5 years (until late 2008) it is still typically 5 - 15% of print revenue. While the figure I mention is focused mostly on the magazine space, I think it is reasonable to extrapolate that newspapers probably fall into the same universe, especially if they don't have a strong online classifieds system...which many don't.
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Content is content, if you put something behind a paywall, it will get out anyway.
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