Big Bucks Hunter
YM/krucoff.com gets reader email on the average of once every six months and it's usually a request for the Flipper "Sex Bomb" mp3 I had to take down 'cause that hog was crowding my mudwidth. So when I get something that says "this might be of interest to your readers" (Gage, Sac - you got both eyes open?) I feel an obligation to share it and offer my insight. Nevermind this has already been linked around, Tristan Louis conducts an interesting analysis of blogger vs. journalist bucks using the recent Sunday NYTimes article about Gawker Media to build a model.
It's an admirable effort but the methodology is inherently flawed since it's based on comparing word count to estimate pay per word for bloggers and journalists. It's crab-apples and orange-smoothies. (Actually, I propose a permanent replacement of the old a's & o's phrase with "it's like comparing bloggers and journalists.") These blogs average 150 words/post, not 180 as Tristan notes, because his list includes irregular posts written by contributors. For example, those stories marked with word counts of 703 and 828 are the Team Party Crash or Look Book features that the editor only writes a quick introduction before the editorial "jump" of faith.
That's really a minor point but the major problem is equating the value of blogger word with journalist word. The latter is worth more than the former, if not in your mind then at least in the marketplace. Writing twelve 150-word blog posts is a helluva lot easier than submitting an 1,800-word piece to your magazine or newspaper editor. These blog posts are quick hits that are the result of producing witty commentary about stories reported elsewhere. The time and effort invested in an original (though not necessarily imaginative) 1,800-word article that involves actual reporting, tracking people down, interviewing, and fact-checking is not in the same earthly time zone as 12 blog posts that rely on coke and dick jokes. (Sorry, I know there's more to them than that but those are usually my favorite ones.) The gadget blogs are an exception, the work they do is essentially no different than their "journalist" counterparts.
I applaud Tristan's analysis on imagination and effort alone; it will at least spark some conversation but I don't think it's a reliable measure. Of course I have no doubt Denton still grossly underpays his bloggers based on the revenue he's bringing in, even though his bloggers uniquely provide a product that's far superior to the mainstream media in terms of pure entertainment. By contrast, this very post I'm coming to the end of is worth 1/200th of a Cheerios coupon.
Gawker Bucks vs Journalists Bucks [TNL.net]
It's an admirable effort but the methodology is inherently flawed since it's based on comparing word count to estimate pay per word for bloggers and journalists. It's crab-apples and orange-smoothies. (Actually, I propose a permanent replacement of the old a's & o's phrase with "it's like comparing bloggers and journalists.") These blogs average 150 words/post, not 180 as Tristan notes, because his list includes irregular posts written by contributors. For example, those stories marked with word counts of 703 and 828 are the Team Party Crash or Look Book features that the editor only writes a quick introduction before the editorial "jump" of faith.
That's really a minor point but the major problem is equating the value of blogger word with journalist word. The latter is worth more than the former, if not in your mind then at least in the marketplace. Writing twelve 150-word blog posts is a helluva lot easier than submitting an 1,800-word piece to your magazine or newspaper editor. These blog posts are quick hits that are the result of producing witty commentary about stories reported elsewhere. The time and effort invested in an original (though not necessarily imaginative) 1,800-word article that involves actual reporting, tracking people down, interviewing, and fact-checking is not in the same earthly time zone as 12 blog posts that rely on coke and dick jokes. (Sorry, I know there's more to them than that but those are usually my favorite ones.) The gadget blogs are an exception, the work they do is essentially no different than their "journalist" counterparts.
I applaud Tristan's analysis on imagination and effort alone; it will at least spark some conversation but I don't think it's a reliable measure. Of course I have no doubt Denton still grossly underpays his bloggers based on the revenue he's bringing in, even though his bloggers uniquely provide a product that's far superior to the mainstream media in terms of pure entertainment. By contrast, this very post I'm coming to the end of is worth 1/200th of a Cheerios coupon.
Gawker Bucks vs Journalists Bucks [TNL.net]
