E-Media Tidbits

Mac Slocum Tidbits contributor Mac Slocum really got me thinking this week.

In Part 2, Slocum wrote: "It took me a long time to accept the business side of journalism... This isn't a business discussion, it's a 'role' discussion. As Web journalists, we play an integral role in the creation of traffic. The more traffic we generate, the easier things get."

This hits upon something that's bugged me for the better part of a decade: Why is it that journalists often seem to prefer to avoid considering their role in the business model of a news organization?

In some cases, I hear disdain expressed for the business side. Other times, it's simple ignorance or willful blindness about (or lack of interest in) news business issues.

It's as if the unstated ethos is: If you're a reporter, it's beneath you -- or at least not your place -- to consider too closely what keeps your company afloat. (Now, that's just based on my own anecdotal experience. Your mileage may vary.)

I understand and agree with the importance of the advertising/editorial firewall, in terms of not letting advertisers control coverage. However, I think it's a mistake to extend that ethical principal into a generalized blindness toward news business considerations -- particularly when it comes to being creative about how you present news and analysis, and how you engage communities.

On another matter: When it comes to online media, I don't agree that page views are the most appropriate metric to indicate success. Nor are they necessarily the appropriate metric upon which to base online ad rates. Performance-based advertising is far more valuable to advertisers, and a page view doesn't necessarily translate into "performance." Even when it comes to "measuring eyeballs," quality of engagement matters more than quantity of traffic.

Mostly, how well an online ad performs depends upon its relevance to the reader and to the content. Since journalists produce news content and play a huge role in determining how engaging that content is, I think it's a mistake to keep ourselves entirely out of the general conversation about how to present ads online and gauge their performance.

Shouldn't journalists more actively advocate for more creative ways to present our content (beside the traditional story format) that would not only better serve our communities but also also support our employers, who in turn support us? In fact, why can't we take a leading role in that effort? Would that present an ethical problem? Please comment below.