- Image by A Hermida via Flickr
Back in June I asked the question, “Is PCW’s demise the beginning of the end for tech magazines?” Print journalism in tech has been on a gradual decline for the past few years – not necessarily in quality, but a downturn caused by a combination of factors, such as falling advertising revenues and not being able to be as reactive to emerging events.
The same drivers have been grinding away at all areas of print journalism and I’ve been wondering for a while why more journalists don’t adopt the “if you can’t beat them..” attitude and join the online world (rather than, for many, the PR industry).
According to media analyst and lecturer Jeff Jarvis, there’s a massive opportunity for independent local news sites that are supported by property ads and other products and services. In the Guardian today, he wrote:
The most startling and hopeful number we found is this: some hyperlocal bloggers, serving markets of about 50,000 people, are bringing in up to $200,000 a year in advertising. These are sustainable businesses and we believe they are critical elements of the future of local news – a future no longer controlled by a single newspaper but instead by an ecosystem made up of many players with varying motives, means and models, working collaboratively in networks….
Bottom line: after three years, we project that a blogger could hire editorial staff and advertising help – citizen salespeople who help support the citizen journalists – and net $148,000 out of $332,000 revenue. That’s a conservative estimate when you consider that a community weekly paper in such a town probably earns between $2m-$5m.
Even allowing for the translation from US to UK, I fully agree with Jeff’s view about the potential of this model - although, despite the increasing use of social networking sites and national newspapers’ websites, we’re still a way off this becoming a reality in the UK. To me, it’s actually a device and networking issue. When e-readers, that more resemble e-paper than thin PDAs, become available and linked up to an always on internet connection, the opportunity for this kind of regional content will truly take off. In the meantime, those who are able to make a go of it financially now will have a head start on the rest in years to come.
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Well that’s what I hope anyway.
My local news site functions as an open hub for local bloggers and I try to write a regular digest of their opinions on similar subjects.
It can be quite a stretch sometimes, but as I collect more voices representing more angles it becomes more sustainable as a journalistic enterprise. One major difficulty is in creating an independent editorial agenda, deciding what to focus on and what to ignore, and whether a valuable story can or should be stimulated through direct communication with the relevant author-publisher.
I’ve noticed an interesting trend for various hyperlocal sites around the UK kicking off, but so far it seems I’m carving an (admittedly modest) niche as a sort of local news agency which the local papers occasionally pick up upon.
Still, the pioneers who explore the boundaries of citizen journalism will have the advantage in learning these lessons and defining the shape of the future market.
How the online ecosphere evolves is definitely an interesting subject, but I can only see an increasing geographic connection emerging to complement the extant diversity of non-spatial communities. And my first year’s interim stats tend to support the claim that this is in fact an emergent area which will become viable in the near future.
In the meantime understanding new ways to collect/aggregate/harvest information and opinions efficiently in order to synthesise them effectively remains the biggest challenge.
This is exactly what I am hoping can happen too, since it’s increasingly hard to find a job in IT these days, even harder to find one that pays well, and almost impossible to find one with any kind of job security.
This is true in both the UK and USA. I recently moved back to the UK from Florida, and the job situation is no different here.
If you can write, find the right niche topics and can market yourself well, the revenue from advertising (paid as well as affiliate links, Adsense etc) is potentially very high, and it’s a lot better than working for someone who might let you go at the drop of a hat.
The downside is that the blogging market is also changing rapidly, so you not only need to find plenty to write about and to market yourself, you need to keep on top of the changing social networking and blogging world, and adapt to new trends as things evolve.
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