Media commentary

Digital First journalism

A series in 2011 explained several key aspects of Digital First journalism:

Business models

My Blueprint for the Complete Community Connection presented a vision for a new business model for community media. While it was written in 2009, much of it remains relevant to news organizations.

I also have written several posts about mobile strategies for the news media:

I have written about entrepreneurial journalism in conjunction with a course I am co-teaching at Georgetown University:

I have also commented extensively on the folly of trying to support journalism by paywalls:

I have also commented on the insistence by some that Google is to blame for newspaper companies’ failure to innovate:

I vigorously opposed suggestions that the solution to newspapers’ woes lies in government subsidies:

I joined an online discussion of the “Original Sin” of newspapers in the digital age:

Newspapers’ Original Sin: Not failing to charge but failing to innovate (an interesting debate developed in the comments)
Chris O’Brien responds about data and readership
Another view on newspapers’ Original Sin, from Howard Owens

Several posts focused on business models for obituaries:

I’ve written about the importance of personal news:

Personal news: Big news in small circles

I’ve written about competition and collaboration:

I’ve written about other issues relating to journalism and innovation:

Community engagement

Career development

Journalism education

After consulting with the curriculum committee of the Schieffer School of Journalism at Texas Christian University, I shared my views on how journalism schools need to update curriculum in the digital age.
A journalism professor seeks advice on learning and teaching social media
You can’t go back to the basics in journalism education; go forward with the basics

Journalism ethics

I have led more than two dozen seminars on journalism ethics. I have compiled a list of my workshop handouts and other journalism ethics resources.

Twitter and other social media

I write frequently about the importance of social media, particularly Twitter, for journalists:

I have written quite a bit about social media policies of news organizations:

The Buttry version of social media best practices
ASNE offers good advice on social media, but too much fear and not really best practices
Simple guidance on social media
Two posts on the Washington Post’s social media policy
Objectivity and neutrality aren’t the only ways to protect a journalist’s credibility (still commenting on the Post guidelines, but expanding to a broader issue)
Washington Post’s social media policy didn’t prevent Mike Wise’s Twitter hoax
Several blog posts on the Wall Street Journal social-media policy and other major papers’ policies
Criticism of the Los Angeles Times social media policy
A more thoughtful approach to ethics in social media (about the Roanoke Times ethics policy)
The key to social media ethics: good judgment (on NPR’s social media ethics policy)
The Guardian shows newsrooms how to guide digital journalists

Liveblogging

Storytelling

Research on digital journalism

I criticize research that shows bias or ignorance about digital journalism:

TBD

I blogged frequently about TBD, the Washington local news site I worked for in 2010 and 2011:

5 Comments »

5 Responses

on March 8, 2010 at 9:01 am | Reply Thoughts on redirecting and rejuvenating a career « Pursuing the Complete Community Connection

[...] Commentary on media issues [...]
on September 17, 2010 at 2:08 pm | Reply Pankaj

For putting paywall, the questions to answer for newspapers are:

1. Are their content really premium so the users will not go other places to see them free?
2. Second part of this question is:
Are they providing good options for users to pay:
a. Day pass
b. monthly subscription
c. yearly subscription
d. Pay per article (???)

I have seen first 3 modes of payment on several newspaper sites. But I have not come across the fourth one. As a user, it makes sense to pay for the article that is interesting.

Why is this option missing?

Is there a newspaper/magazine that is doing that? If not, why is it not done?
on September 17, 2010 at 2:56 pm | Reply Steve Buttry

As my various paywall commentaries linked above say, I think paywalls are a losing proposition. So I’m not exactly the person to say why people aren’t considering a particular option. But I would venture that the difference between a day pass and a price per article would be negligible, so any site offering a day pass essentially is offering to let you buy a single article. But the other point is that the actual price per article would be so low that the cost of handling the transaction would give you negligible proceeds. iTunes charges 99 cents for a song you might play over and over. So you can’t reasonably charge that much for an article you would read just once. If a newspaper costs 50 cents and has 50 articles, isn’t the fair-market value of a single news story just a penny?
- on September 17, 2010 at 3:01 pm | Reply Pankaj
  
  Thanks Steve for your reply.
  
  You are right. One article may be 5-10 pennies.
  
  For credit card fee, ask user to create an online wallet where they deposit $10 and use it at multiple sites.
on September 17, 2010 at 3:10 pm | Reply Steve Buttry

Alan Mutter proposed a good payment system in ViewPass and couldn’t get any support for it: http://bit.ly/aGNcWx

The truth is paywalls are mostly a waste of time, so the means of collection or the rate charged doesn’t make much difference.

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The Buttry Diary

Steve Buttry, Director of Community Engagement & Social Media, Digital First Media