3 ms·
> My original contract stipulated that I had to bring in a minimum of ten thousand unique readers a month, an impossibly high number that my editor told me to
by seanwilson 7y ago
> My original contract stipulated that I had to bring in a minimum of ten thousand unique readers a month, an impossibly high number that my editor told me to ignore. The world, US, and business desks were meant to write “legitimate” stories that went on the front page, while a “Continuous News Desk,” later renamed “Breaking News,” spammed Google News and paid our salaries. Drafting off the BuzzFeed News model that had developed months earlier, Jeffrey Rothfeder, our Editor-in-Chief, said that the clickbait would bring in revenue while hard-news reporting would build our reputation.
> Last year, in response to complaints from reporters, Newsweek added group bonuses, meaning a news desk’s traffic-per-reporter was averaged and everyone could receive a small payout if certain goals were reached. The intent was for less popular but important beats, like climate change, to be balanced out by more popular stories in the same section. When the individual bonus system changed, these group bonuses were eliminated entirely, though editors can now nominate writers for bonuses based on journalistic excellence, regardless of readership.
> But the reality is that if you aren’t writing clickbait, the bonuses can be hard to get. And failing to get a traffic bonus, some said, puts a target on your back.
So news is completely broken - what's the solution? Are people less informed about the world now compared to several decades ago because of the above?
- mpiedrav 7y agoAudiences are "parainformed": not informed about the really important (but "boring") topics and not necessarily told lies all the time, but fed data that apparently seems relevant, but in fact is a lot of noise with a hint of signal (for the sake of advertising profits). A solution is not following the news, but rather reading expert insights about current events (root causes of massive inmigration, drug wars and the involvement of three-lettered federal agencies, deregulation of private healthcare and higher education, etc.)
- mschuster91 7y ago> A solution is not following the news, but rather reading expert insights about current events (root causes of massive inmigration, drug wars and the involvement of three-lettered federal agencies, deregulation of private healthcare and higher education, etc.) But... but that would lead to the public turning against those responsible for these things. Cannot let that happen! Sarcasm aside: there is an insane amount of money and profits involved and I am not sure how a publication that delivers proper journalism is supposed to be financed. The funding needs to be massive to account for headcount as well as legal defense, a lot of advertising to tell people about its existence, and it should not be ads (create an implicit threat on the publication to not report on those who book ads), philantropists (people rich enough to fund a newspaper are exactly those people that should be investigated) or taxes (politicians can cut these at any moment)...