Reader Voices: Who Pays for Content?

As newspapers and other print publications shrink while the webosphere grows ever larger, will the quality of content available to us all get better or worse? Ever since I raised that question in my comments about InfoWorld ceasing its print publication (see "Out of Print"), readers have been sharing some very interesting thoughts on the s

As newspapers and other print publications shrink while the webosphere grows ever larger, will the quality of content available to us all get better or worse? Ever since I raised that question in my comments about InfoWorld ceasing its print publication (see "Out of Print"), readers have been sharing some very interesting thoughts on the subject with me.

"You make a very good point, a point about which I have been concerned," wrote one reader. "Publications -- whether in print or online -- must have content and the content must be authoritative. Why else would anyone take the time to read anything? Blogs are fine but blogs are essentially opinions of individuals. Citizen reporters are usually not trained to report accurately, and there is no way to tell if an article is accurate, biased, or fraudulent unless there is a news organization backing the article to certify/check for accuracy. The NY Times or the Wall Street Journal would have little value if it contained nothing but opinion columns and commentaries. We need hard news--whether it be about politics or computers or the entertainment industry. If the current trend continues to downsize and minimize authoritative content, I am afraid that future Americans will read only opinions, commentaries and musings."

If you're going to have authoritative content, doesn't someone have to foot the bill? "Yup, that one's been puzzling me ever since the time I started doing most of my own news reading on the web," wrote another reader. "Most of the best web news sites are parasites on some print publication. The few that aren't -- Salon, for example -- usually have small budgets and similarly small staffs. AP wire copy shows up all over the Web, and I assume most of the sites that use it pay for it. But if we wind up with no news but what AP delivers from its staff reporters, where does that leave us? Has anyone -- E&P or Poynter or CJR, maybe? -- done a good survey of how print-plus-Web publications are approaching the question of who pays the reporters? Is anyone onto a good formula?"

Many readers were concerned about the point that the Googles and Yahoos get much of the ad revenue without producing the content. "I couldn't agree with you more," wrote another reader. "The web has no editor -- we look at personal blogs for medical advice, computer advice, and what televisions to buy. Yet there is no responsibility nor is there any accountability for the information that is published there. Where do you go to find reliable information? Do you Yahoo or Google it? The Internet is vast and like e-mail -- meaning unfortunately that most of it is garbage."