Some people call them the 5th estate. Others call them content mills or content farms. Whatever you call them, new content providers are a force to be reckoned with.
For example, Demand Media is now working with Gannett and Hearst. Yahoo recently purchased Associated Content to bolster its newly aggressive local strategy. And Examiner.com is one of the fastest growing sites in the U.S. with 14 million unique visitors in May. And there are dozens more out there, competing with traditional local news operations.
Examiner.com’s Mitch Gelman, who started as a crime reporter at NY News Day and spent time at CNN.com and ESPN.com, served as the tour guide during today’s Poynter/NewsU webinar co-sponsored by the Online News Association.
Gelman broke down the content providers into three camps:
- Open mic
- Buzz Brokers (roots in Extra! Extra!)
- Pro-am (roots in stringers)
The first question, of course, is whether a writer or reporter can make a living working for one of these new content providers. “While many people make measurable money,” Gelman said, “we tell people don’t leave your dayjob.
“We can help people with tuition, car payments, insurance payments. It’s supplementary income for the most part. That’s not the driving force for why people contribute, though. They want to share passion, be recognized for their expertise and create a following online.”
Following the question of pay, the next issue that always arises is quality. Gelman was surprised by an in-webinar poll where respondents judged most of the content from these new sources as “good enough.” He challenged attendees to take a quiz that tests your ability to recognize mainstream news organizations when blindly presented the first few sentences with those from new content providers.
At Examiner, there are 3,000 stories uploaded per day so the quality will swing wildly. As good as the quality might be, Gelman reassured the MSM attendees that replacing traditional news organizations is not the goal here.
“Editors and trained reporters not going away. We are not trying to be the watchdog of the community. But when you look at events, reviews, travel and other areas, we can help fill the gap,” Gelman said.
More partnerships will emerge, I predict. Some of these sites can become freelance wire services for local media. In a perfect world, they will help local media grow their businesses and share in that additional revenue. Here’s hoping tomorrow will be more perfect than today for local media.