Friday, March 9, 2007

Poynter:Romenesko: Online Revenue

I read two articles on the Poynter site dealing with online revenue. One was about the New York Times company and its rising web revenue. The company's digital revenue now accounts for 8% of its total, double the share from 2004. It also expects to save $65 to $75 million this year in staff reductions, lower newsprint costs and greater productivity.
The other article was about Glen Falls New York's Post-Star, which has made the decision to stop charging a subscription fee for web content.
It's clear that news is moving to the web. It makes a lot of sense for everyone, it cuts down costs, saves paper, and makes news more accesible. But I'm still not convinced that its a good thing.
It's an open format which is good. It offers the ability to provide video, illustration, short articles, in depth articles etc. But I worry that like television, the power of the format will be neglected in favor of sensationalism, gossip, soundbites and generally poor reporting. If news organizations are shrinking and attention spans are becoming shorter will there be any organizations financially well off enough to do quality, in-depth work? My guess is that there will always be some examples of good work just as there are in broadcast journalism. But will there be enough people interested enough, or capable of focusing for long enough for it to make an impact?

1 comment:

Abrahm Lustgarten said...

unfortunately, much of that good work today comes from philanthropy -- publications like the New Yorker which are almost expected to lose money each year.