Filed under: Ways To "Save" Journalism? | Tags: CNN, crowdsourcing, Jigsaw, model, New York Times, NYT
“Jigsaw’s Business Model Is Based On Crowdsourcing,” by Jim Lohr for the NY Times
From the article:
Jigsaw offers discounts and essentially barter arrangements for contributors. An individual member, for example, pays $25 a month for access to 25 contacts or, alternatively, can contribute 25 contacts. For corporate members, who often want unlimited access to the Jigsaw database for their employees, the monthly rate is typically $99 a user if the company does not share data, and $79 a user if the company does.
If this was to be applied to an online newspaper or a news channel’s website, for instance, a consumer would pay by the article/video/etc. accessed. The method of micro-payment has been examined before, but it also combines a bit of give-and-take. Since Jigsaw is a business database, it logically accepts business data as currency–Cash and more desirable material that make the site more comprehensive make it successful.
What if this were applied to a hypothetical news provider? A consumer would pay a monthly price of, say, $30 that would allow access to content until the money ran out (like a gift card). Another option would allow unlimited access for $20, and in addition, the consumer must provide 10 unique pieces of content for the outlet to use.
That last option would allow everyone to be a content producer in exchange for viewing the site’s articles, videos, blogs, whatever. The obvious problem with this is that the organization would probably get a lot of useless and poor-quality material in return–Like how someone might give a fake e-mail or phone number for a raffle entry.
Even if the second option were only open to people with credentials, even the most accomplished journalist needs an editor. Ideally, the website would operate as it always had and without requiring new staff.
Plus, I think most journalists empathize with news sites requiring payment and would cough up a few bucks anyway.
Perhaps a model like this one could best be applied to a news provider with a niche audience–A dog news provider, for instance. Aside from being a fantastic networking tool (Imagine–all dog-lovers of the world unite!), this site could establish itself as the one-stop-shop for all things dog-related in the news sphere–Dog owners, veterinarians, dog walkers, dog groomers, dog photographers, all providing original content… But how many veterinarian journalists do you know?
This is probably why the beat reporter was invented.
In conclusion: Jigsaw’s model wouldn’t work for the New York Times or CNN’s, for example, websites.
