News Corp writers paid by the click; Guardian subs paid by the typo
Writers for Australia’s Herald Sun can boost their pay by turning their stories into sponsored posts and marketing campaigns. Writers can earn between $10 and $50 for, as the Guardian puts it, “driving digital subscriptions and traffic through their own stories”.
Journalists are engaged in something akin to a popularity contest. Nothing new in that, of course. Columnists have long been hired to keep readers reading. It’s why they’re often their views are front-page news. The new bit is that analytics can measure who readers read the most and are willing to pay to read. The writer can then get their dues.
The News Corp system, called Verity, “empowers our editors, newsrooms and content promoters with real-time information to understand and influence the content for which our audiences are willing to ‘pay & stay’”.
According to Nathaniel Bane, the title’s head of digital, the number crunchers “know how many subscribers viewed it, how many times it was shared on social media, how many clicks it drove to other content, and how long readers dwelled on it.”
If you’ve a large social media following, a column in a paper could be the best way to cash in on it. (I have 650,000 followers – call me, I have ideas.)
So much for the strongest links in the news chain. What of the weakest? The Guardian has that covered:
Priceless.
Posted: 26th, June 2019 | In: Broadsheets, Key Posts, News Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
