David Simon, creator of The Wire and a former journalist, on monetizing newspapers... but it applies across the board. He says to charge for online content:
Content matters. And you must find a way, in the brave new world of digitization, to make people pay for that content. If you do this, you still have a product and there is still an industry, a calling, and a career known as professional journalism. If you do not find a way to make people pay for your product, then you are—if you choose to remain in this line of work—delusional.
There are few people better qualified to make this comment than Simon. Working within TV's HBO system -- in which the user pays for the content -- Simon created what a great many people agree is the greatest television series ever, The Wire. A user-pays model generates the best content.
On the other hand, there's the advertiser-pays model, which is how network television operates. Yeah, you get some good stuff, but there's a whole lot of crap.
Ultimately, I think many web creators are going to rely on both ad revenues and user-fees, but unless users get in there and pay part of the freight, they are not going to get the product they want.
Disney plans to offer a broad array of its content, including movies, TV shows and games, online to those willing to pay for it -- possibly at a single Web site that requires a subscription, president and CEO Robert Iger said Wednesday.
"The notion of going online at some point as a subscribe-to, robust entertainment experience is pretty attractive to us," Iger said. "We are developing such an experience."
Disney already is bringing in revenue online. It has joined NBC Universal and News Corp. as a content provider and equity partner in Hulu, which sells advertising. Disney also sells content on iTunes and charges a subscription fee for its Club Penguin site.
But Iger said much more money can be extracted from Web surfers seeking quality content. He noted that consumers spend $5 an hour at theaters to see movies, 75 cents an hour to read books, newspapers and magazines and 50 cents an hour to watch cable and satellite TV, but only 25 cents an hour to surf the Internet.
"There's plenty of room for people to spend more money on things that they're doing online," Iger said.
Pretty amazing that Mr Iger can pinpoint the cost of consuming TV, reading books and watching movies so well... Or maybe it's not so amazing considering it's Disney. Anyway interesting stats to add to the collection and also confirmation that the user-pays one will shape up to be a viable business model in the long run.
Clickz has a fantastic interview with Justine Bateman who you remember mostly as an actress, albeit one with incredible range (on Family Ties, Arrested Development, Californication). She's also one of the web savvy women building a new entertainment model on the web. She's doing branded entertainment through her company FM78. Here are some of the juicier quotes from the article that is definitely a must read.
We realized during the strike that the bottom of the distribution pyramid had dropped out and that the Internet had crushed the stranglehold on distribution that the media corporations had held for decades. We knew that the studios and the networks would fold in on themselves and that the entertainment business as we'd known it would never return.
When the U.S. government relaxed the rules governing how much a media corporation could own, everything became vertical. And very tall, at that. The result was very few corporations owning the entertainment outlets and too many people in that vertical-ownership silo having a say in the creative process. Both are bad news for the creative community and for the ultimate consumer of the product. For the creatives -- the writers, directors, actors, and crew members -- we entered a season of not being paid our worth, receiving too many notes [changes to the script] during the process, and seeing fewer opportunities.
Sponsor-funded scripted content is one of the best ways advertising dollars can be spent right now. When a sponsor is organically integrated into one of our projects, not only are we accomplishing a favorable association for our audience of that product in that we will always present the product in a good light and make clear to the audience that the sponsor is the reason we are able to bring them this entertainment but it's [also] the gift that keeps on giving for the sponsor.
There are no continuous bills for future ad buys. There is only a distribution model that involves copious amounts of press (an incredible ROI before the show even launches), distribution on all the top sites online, and an involvement of the online community. The show will be passed around, re-blogged, scraped, and shared. And that is one of the ways content is distributed online and is to be embraced.
When we incorporate a brand or company into one of our scripts, there has to first of all be an organic fit, and then the placement in the plot has to add to the story. Sometimes we are dealing with one of our existing scripts on our slate and sometimes we are creating something new for the sponsor. In those cases, we like to discover first what the sponsor needs, what kind of impression are they hoping to make on their customers, and then we create a narrative story that either covers that theme or captures the qualities that the consumer may associate now with the product. Always, the story and narrative are paramount.
Jenn Schachter recently blogged about a dance flash mob at the White Hot Gala for the National Ballet:
As young folks in the city, we were offered tickets for about $30 to the event. We were also told that there would be the opportunity to do our own [secret] performance… And you know how I love to perform.
There were [apparently] 2 classes in May to learn the dance. We managed to miss them both. But yesterday the reminder email had a link to a video of the dance — so I practiced in front of my 12″ powerbook until I thought I knew the number passibly well. I had butterflies in the cab on the way to the performing arts centre (I would have taken the subway but that extra run through meant I was running late - kept getting stuck the “hard part”)
You can take a look at the video dance lesson on the National Ballet's site here. It's not an easy dance, so it took quite a commitment from the participants!
Jenn tells what happened after the official ballet performance:
Then the real fun began - there was food and drink to be enjoyed by all. Yes, an open bar - with Grey Goose Vodka martinis! So I was loosened up just in time to hear “History Repeating” — our cue that our dance was coming up next. Elaine provided great moral support while I danced my heart out (since no one was dancing around me). Since we were near the top (Ring 4) at that point, we could see people below us dancing as well which was useful when I forgot that the “shopping cart” was the next step. And then it was over. I was relieved and happy.
How did it turn out? See for yourself:
Slightly less fun, but requiring far less commitment from the audience is a new group that's sprung up on Facebook called "lying down game." To play, post a picture of yourself (or someone else) lying down in an odd or unusual place.
There are over 6000 photos posted on the lying down game page, hundreds of comments and over 28,088 members as of today. And there are dozens of other lying down groups, like lying down (newcastle) and The Lying Down Game!!!. Talk about engagement!
People love to participate. You just have to give them a way to do it and they jump in (or lie down as the case may be).
