Are we ever going to get a grip on content value?
News Corp is throwing its content behind a paywall, ridding itself of third party ad networks (e.g. Google Adsense), and charging a premium for its online ad space, according to The Guardian.
I see two important lessons coming out of this.
Fear the Paywall
The news giant also lost 90% of its traffic, which tells you how willing consumers are to pay for content online. This undercuts News Corp’s efforts to hold advertisers feet to the fire. Are they really going to pay a higher fee for much lower traffic? I’m guessing not, no matter how loyal the audience is.
The news industry shot itself in the foot when assessing online content value at zero. Think about it. Could you imaging Nike saying, “Hey, look at this new thing called the Internet. Why don’t we open up an online store and offer our Air Jordans for zero dollars.” Yet that is fundamentally what newspapers and magazines did, self-assessing a content value at the same rate as every other Joe the Blogger.
But that is the environment we live in now, and it will be alienating at best to move consumers into a paywall environment.
But Don’t Sell Your Content Short
Creating good content isn’t easy. It takes skill, focus, research, interviews, writing, editing and re-editing. It costs news organizations a lot of time and money to do it well. The one thing that hasn’t changed is the world’s thirst for good content. Those who create it are giving people something of value, whether it is entertainment, information or a little of both. There needs to be fair compensation for this, and advertisers need to hold their end of the bargain.
Those who have endured the world of canvassing and cold calling know how tough it is to get someone to look at a product. It usually takes at least 100 calls. If I’m paying someone $10/hour to make those calls and the person makes 20 calls an hour, I am paying $50 for a single lead. Yet obtaining a similar lead online can cost as little as $0.50. Advertisers and third-party ad networks have hijacked the system.
The paywall is a risky move, but I at least applaud News Corp. for saying enough and demanding advertisers pay a premium to leverage its content for leads. If you are a content creator, I recommend you do the same.