Monday, July 2, 2012

"Content" As A Commodity

"This American Life" is one of my favorite radio programs, both for entertainment and insights into, well, American life. . This week's show had a segment on Journatic, an outsourced "content" provider. Anyone interested in the current state of newspapers needs to read this Poynter article.

The idea of gathering "hyperlocal" news from distant locations was quite jarring to me, although I once thought it would be interesting to try to keep up the blog from Seattle if I ever get to live there. One of the differences here is that reporters or writers with no knowledge of a city or neighborhood are putting together stories. I would at least have the advantage of possessing institutional history that might lend context.

What a world we live in now. Four-sentence news stories, all the news that's fit to print on your Android screen, journalism by parachute or maybe just free fall ...

--Bernice 
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4 comments:

  1. olddocJuly 2, 2012 at 12:33 PM

    Very interesting and disturbing. How often is the West Seattle Blog posted? I supposed that it is funded by the ads. More news than our local papers.But this is not the world for those that like hard copy or find the smart phone too smart for them.

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  2. Dottie GutenkaufJuly 3, 2012 at 11:48 AM

    And we wonder why young people won't read, can't spell, and don't learn to interact with others face to face in real conversations...it gets worse every year.

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  3. AnonymousJuly 4, 2012 at 11:16 AM

    Bernice, I listened while driving, to that segment. Utterly fascinating, and just as disturbing. The story runs the gamut, from noting that as little as 30 cents is paid to a "story writer" who is 13000 miles away from the news they're writing of, to the rationale offered up by the ceo of the company that sells these "services" to newspaper groups / publishers. I would like to listen to the show again, when not hamstrung by the task of driving the car.

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  4. Jenn PopperJuly 5, 2012 at 2:55 PM

    To add on, check out this article, "Bad News: U.S. Newspapers Receive Poor Forecast", 7/3/12, about the state of the newspaper advertising industry.

    "The decline in newspaper advertising revenues has been dramatic. From peak revenues of $49.3 billion in 2005, total ad revenues tumbled to $23.9 billion in 2011, according to the Newspaper Association of America, for a 51.5% drop in just six years."

    http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/178115/bad-news-us-newspapers-receive-poor-forecast.html?edition=48682

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