Friday, March 04, 2011

An educated editorial staff could, and should, share in revenue, b2b publishers says

Editors traditionally are believed not to "do" the finance thing or involve themselves much in the business side, though the editorial silo was always more porous on the trade publishing side. But would editors do a better job if they understood the business models of their magazines or if they shared in the revenue?
Maurice Bakley, chief operating officer of FierceMarkets, a b2b e-media company with brands in the telecom, life sciences, healthcare, finance and enterprise IT industries promotes the idea that metrics can inform and incentivize editors.He told an an American Business Media webinar [reported by emedia vitals] this week that part of the content strategy is to educate the editorial staff about how content fuels revenue. 
It might sound simple, but many reporters weren't exactly trained to understand the business side of journalism or be involved in revenue-related discussion. Bakley said Fierce informs its editors about how content drives visitors, leading to several direct and indirect revenue generators, such as subscribers....When hiring, Fierce looks for editors comfortable in FierceMarkets' format, which is quick-paced and not the best fit for someone more interested in writing in-depth pieces. SEO and social media skills are now “non-negotiable” in the hiring process ― and help the company weed out about 70 percent of the applicants (though junior editors usually don't have a problem). “If you've done a blog on the side, if you have an active Twitter account, we can see that,” Bakley said.

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1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

There are times when that would work and at (the now defunct) CLB Media, editors did have part of their salary based on revenues. But simply basing it on metrics doesn't necessarily lead to good journalism or coverage. People really like to read gossip and gossipy stories always have online metrics that go through the roof - but those kinds of stories won't necessarily help your readers run a better business or keep governments on their toes, etc.

2:41 pm  

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