GOOG Asks For Ideas On How To Help Online Newspapers
By Tom Foremski - December 3, 2009
Google is making a commendable effort to show it is a friend of the newspaper industry following a series of attacks in recent months from Rupert Murdoch, head of News Corp. and Robert Thomson, the chief editor of the Wall Street Journal.
Earlier this week Google amended the way it indexes news sites so that it could maintain its "mission to index the world's information" while supporting publishers' subscription paywalls.
[An Olive Branch To Murdoch? Google News Updated To Deal With Paid Content]
This morning Josh Cohen, head of Google News, wrote that Google believes, "Journalism will not only survive, but thrive on the Internet. And we think we can help."
However, it appears that Google has run out of ideas:
So please help Google and help the struggling newspaper industry and leave an idea. I did. It's about using virtual cash:
Virtual currencies could offer the best of both worlds, providing a surrogate micropayments system, and an advertising model that pays more than CPM ads.
- Local businesses could provide wads of virtual currencies to online newspaper readers, either in exchange for something such as survey data, or as a complimentary service to build goodwill.
- Businesses could also provide virtual cash that could be associated with reading specific sections in a newspaper, say furniture sellers to the "Home" section. Best Buy could provide virtual cash for reading the gadgets pages, etc.
- News sites could reward readers with virtual cash for contributing user generated content, such as a popular column, or for photos.
- Virtual cash could be exchanged between blogs and other online publishers for republishing great content. And there are a myriad other creative ways virtual cash could be used in news media.
The beauty is that the virtual cash would be purchased from the news media publishers with cold, hard cash by businesses, instead of purchasing online ads.
The virtual cash then powers an entire dynamic economy within a news site that helps produce great content and provide other services.
Compare that to buying an online ad that just sits there, usually unnoticed on the side of the page. Virtual cash engages readers.
There's Real Gold In Virtual Cash - Is This A Solution For Newspapers? - SVW
Adknowledge Buys Smart Rewards: Will Virtual Cash Reinvent Online Ads? - SVW
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Comments (5)
This is a fascinating idea - I'm drawn to the idea of brands 'being useful' to earn our attention and regard.
Two questions though -
if businesses are to provide virtual cash in return for reading content sections, then how would they ensure this resulted in increased awareness and consideration of their specific brand? Also, how would differentiation from other brands (doubtless doing the same thing) be achieved?
Cheers. Graham
Posted: December 3, 2009 10:53 PM
Hey Tom,
Thanks for the link. Have attempted to post there, agreeing with your recommendation and adding my reasons why.
I've also posted it here: http://bit.ly/8nN7h7
Katherine Warman Kern
@comradity
Posted: December 4, 2009 8:26 AM
I've always lamented about internet's lack of micropayment system for over a decade. One would think that creditcard companies and banks could have come up with an industry standard for such thing.
Even though we've grown used to free content, I don't think it's too late to establish a micropayment system that people can use to pay for, say, today's edition of NY Times online. But I wouldn't refer to it as 'virtual cash', and has the same denomination as local currencies.
Anyway what we need is a some kind of standard archival / retrieval method for all the online articles that we paid for. If I'm paying for it, I want to be able to keep it for a long time, just like with everything we buy, whether it's physical or virtual, (like iTune music)
I used to subscribe to National Geographic. Even though my subscription expired long time ago, I still keep old copies. But if my online WSJ subscription runs out, then I no longer have access to all the 'issues' that I paid for.
News may not be the candidate for 'archiving', but there are many online content/articles that are worthwhile.
Anyway, just a thought.
Personally I think the process of creative destruction will continue until there's more consolidation and minimal redundancy across news organizations.
Posted: December 5, 2009 11:59 AM
Graham: If readers apply for virtual cash from a specific brand then they are exposed to it in the same way that they would be by interacting with a brand's advert. And there would also be plenty of additional opportunities to mark the fact that " this page brought to you by Brand X" etc. Differentiation could be achieved by selling premium spots to brands, and there could be many permutations of 'differentiation' opportunities that publishers could custom craft for their clients...It's a brand new approach with plenty of room for creativity.
Posted: December 5, 2009 12:02 PM
I can only repeat, because I wrote about it many times already: Znak it! (www.znak-it.com) is a digital content monetization and payments platform built around the idea of virtual currency (the Znaks) and perfect for all kinds of content providers. It was built two years ago, long, long time before anyone even started thinking about such solutions.
And, it is not that the industry does not know about Znak it! and other similar platforms. Check: http://www.vdz.de/uploads/media/Digital_Innovators_09_Znak_It.pdf, which gives slide presentations from a conference on top innovative ideas for digital media -- one of the sponsors of the conference was Google. Participants included: Hearst, Forbes, and a score of other media. The solutions are out there!
Posted: December 5, 2009 3:42 PM