L.A. Times columnist Tim Rutten writing the Huffington Post/AOL merger last week, says it will result in very little journalism, but a lot of
That's a statistic I can relate to.
There are some days when I can offer up ten story ideas in a single day. Then again, there are days when the well is dry. And probably half of the ideas I generate won't go anywhere for any number of reasons.
I say cut to the chase and pay those HuffPoAOL journalists by the word. Really. Just like a sock factory in China or South America or wherever it is all of those Northeast Alabama sock jobs are now being performed.
Remember the shock in 2007 when a California website hired a writer in India to "cover" it's city council meetings and other city government events? The outrage the move generated seems positively quaint right now. These days it may be unemployed American reporters looking to cover news in India!
That reporter for the Pasadena website was required to come up with two stories a day from six-thousand miles away.
James Macpherson, Editor and Publisher of Pasadena Now, tells me the system is still in place today, and, as a matter of fact, has expanded to the administrative and sales departments. He says various journalilsts in India have filled the reporter's position in the four years since it started.
There are 1,445 words in this posting. If I pay myself a penny a word, I've paid for a nice breakfast. Now about that mortgage payment....
[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]
"...content...which is what journalism becomes when it's adulterated into a mere commodity."He points our that employees will be required to produce five to ten stories a day.
That's a statistic I can relate to.
There are some days when I can offer up ten story ideas in a single day. Then again, there are days when the well is dry. And probably half of the ideas I generate won't go anywhere for any number of reasons.
I say cut to the chase and pay those HuffPoAOL journalists by the word. Really. Just like a sock factory in China or South America or wherever it is all of those Northeast Alabama sock jobs are now being performed.
That reporter for the Pasadena website was required to come up with two stories a day from six-thousand miles away.
James Macpherson, Editor and Publisher of Pasadena Now, tells me the system is still in place today, and, as a matter of fact, has expanded to the administrative and sales departments. He says various journalilsts in India have filled the reporter's position in the four years since it started.
There are 1,445 words in this posting. If I pay myself a penny a word, I've paid for a nice breakfast. Now about that mortgage payment....
[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]
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