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Speaking as somebody who has been involved in tech sales for a long time, 'communicating' is not the main problem. You need a monetization model that channels u

Speaking as somebody who has been involved in tech sales for a long time, 'communicating' is not the main problem. You need a monetization model that channels users into paths that oblige them to pay for content. And it needs to work at scale. $120 a year for a subscription might seem iniquitous to HN readers. From the business point of view you need over 1500 subscription to pay for a single dev working at non-large-city rate, e.g., in Richmond Virginia. That's just to run the website, not to generate content. It's a big hill to climb. My estimate assumes a $150/year salary + benefits, $120 subscription, and 20% customer acquisition cost for each subscription. 150000 / (120 * (1 - .20))

nr2x 6y ago
My point was more about software engineers having trouble grasping effort/production costs involved in media outside of their immediate domain, despite having the power to dramatically affect revenue calculations in other domains.
notsureaboutpg 6y ago
How would a news website do this though? If all their content is behind a paywall, people won't read it and they'll make no money. If they try to limit you to 3 articles a day then ask you to pay for a subscription, sites which aggregate news articles make it easy for users to skirt around that restriction. What other alternatives are there? I've genuinely not thought about it enough to come up with another one that works. EDIT: Actually the Buzzfeed model might be the best one for newsrooms. Pump out tons of free, clickbaity content. Solicit paid sponsorships for lots of that content (e.g. "We try snacks from around the world" then solicit snack companies in that niche to sponsor the video) and use the profits to run a successful investigative journalism section as well.
PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
You think you (or anyone else) could earn $150k/yr working as a webdev for a media outlet based in Richmond, VA?
- lotsofpulp 6y ago
  To pay someone $100k, a business needs to earn $150k assuming a certain level of benefits commonly offered to white collar workers.
- creinhardt 6y ago
  This! I doubt whoever is running the website for the Richmond Times-Dispatch is making more than $75k/year. They're probably also maintaining sites for others papers in their group, and maybe even working on sites for local businesses too.
- hodgesrm 6y ago
  Pick your salary. With benefits and overhead it's not going to be far off even in Richmond assuming you can find the right person. Most big media outlets work in more expensive markets. My point is that you have to make real money to support these businesses, which means figuring out a monetization strategy that results in 10s or even hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

nr2x 6y ago

My point was more about software engineers having trouble grasping effort/production costs involved in media outside of their immediate domain, despite having the power to dramatically affect revenue calculations in other domains.

notsureaboutpg 6y ago

How would a news website do this though? If all their content is behind a paywall, people won't read it and they'll make no money. If they try to limit you to 3 articles a day then ask you to pay for a subscription, sites which aggregate news articles make it easy for users to skirt around that restriction. What other alternatives are there? I've genuinely not thought about it enough to come up with another one that works. EDIT: Actually the Buzzfeed model might be the best one for newsrooms. Pump out tons of free, clickbaity content. Solicit paid sponsorships for lots of that content (e.g. "We try snacks from around the world" then solicit snack companies in that niche to sponsor the video) and use the profits to run a successful investigative journalism section as well.

PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago

You think you (or anyone else) could earn $150k/yr working as a webdev for a media outlet based in Richmond, VA?

lotsofpulp 6y ago
To pay someone $100k, a business needs to earn $150k assuming a certain level of benefits commonly offered to white collar workers.
creinhardt 6y ago
This! I doubt whoever is running the website for the Richmond Times-Dispatch is making more than $75k/year. They're probably also maintaining sites for others papers in their group, and maybe even working on sites for local businesses too.
hodgesrm 6y ago
Pick your salary. With benefits and overhead it's not going to be far off even in Richmond assuming you can find the right person. Most big media outlets work in more expensive markets. My point is that you have to make real money to support these businesses, which means figuring out a monetization strategy that results in 10s or even hundreds of thousands of subscribers.