The Uncharted Backwaters of the Unfashionable

Developing a model that works

The news industry is broken. A business model based on 100+ years of being the only game in town has left us slow on the draw, slow to compromise and scared to try anything new without knowing exactly what the results will be.

But we’re merely slow and scared. Not incapable. Lately I’ve seen more ideas bring thrown around and tried out. I hope this becomes a trend.

Last week I met with a couple Marketing/advertising poobahs from the Des Moines Register. They talked, believe it or not, about James Wilkerson — a newsroom journalist — and the work he did to webify their garage sale listings. It’s a pretty cool application that allows people to search for sales in a certain location or with certain keywords and print out matches to a map.

I think it exemplifies an idea covered here about how the Internet might make money. The trick?

“The way for Main Street Web ventures to make money is to help other people to make money.”

I like that idea, and think our organizations are uniquely positioned to take advantage. The argument is that it’s not enough to simply deliver an audience to your advertisers in hopes they make a purchase, but to cut out that middle process entirely. Sell sales to your advertisers. Instead of something passive like CPM, we could turn it into something far more tangible… CP$?

That idea makes a lot of sense to me. It’s doable. It makes advertising with us valuable in a far more tangible way that a Google ad, TV or radio spot. But it’s far from the only idea out there. And I may be missing that’s a better fit.

With that in mind, I present the mechanisms of Time’s 50 best websites 2008 and the way they make money, thieved fiendishly from Valleywag.com.

• GasBuddy — Google AdSense and a display ad.
• Howcast — Google Adsense.
• iliketotallyloveit.com — Google Adsense
• Omiru — affiliate accounts with vendors such as Amazon and Bluefly
• PsychCentral — Google Adsense.
• TripKick — ValueClick banner ads.
• Wikitravel — Google Adsense.
• Yahoo! Answers — Yahoo display and search results.
• Zeer — Google AdSense
• Afrigadget.com — run by volunteers.
• AskMen.com — Google search ads and Google AdSense.
• ConcreteLoop.com — Google AdSense
• Health.com — Display advertising, served by DoubleClick, sold by Health magazine.
• PopSugar — display ads, sold internally.
• ProFootballTalk — Sponsored by Sprint, Valueclick display ads.
• Rate My Professors — display advertising and Yahoo contextual ads.
• Serious Eats — diplay advertising from BlogAds.com network.
• The Nest — display ads, sold internally.
• Geni — ad-free.
• MapJack — Google AdSense.
• Mint — affiliate marketing.
• NexTag — sells its own search ads.
• Nymbler — Google AdSense.
• Picnik — sells premium accounts
• Pixelgirl Presents — Volunteer run.
• SearchMe — Doesn’t make money.
• TinyUrl.com — Google AdSense.
• Mobaganda.com — Doesn’t make money.
• Urban Dictionary — Microsoft display ads, Google AdSense, Amazon Affiliate.
• Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project — Volunteer-run.
• Hulu — Pre-roll video ads.
• Imeem — affiliate sales, in-house ad sales and video ad networks.
• Kongregate — Google AdSense display ads.
• ffffound.com — Display ads from The Deck ad network.
• Lookybook — Affiliate links to Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.
• Someecards — Google AdSense.
• WebSudoku — Google AdSense.
• Penny Arcade — Google AdSense display ads, internal ad sales.
• Gaia Online — Sells virtual goods.
• CarbonRally — Volunteer run.
• COLOURlovers — Display ads from The Deck ad network.
• Apartment Therapy — Glam ad network, AdBrite text ads.
• Digital Vaults — Volunteer run.
• Free Rice — Volunteer run.
• HypeBeast — Google AdSense display ads.
• Kiva.org — Volunteer run.
• Net-a-Porter — Sells clothes.
• Open Source Food — Google AdSense.
• Petfinder — Sponorships, display ads, sold internally.
• WikiSky — Donations.

I’ll also tack on one more link with some ideas.

FINALLY, SOME CONTEXT:

Lest anyone think otherwise, I do commit journalism for a living. I hope to continue doing so well into senility. The recent rash of business-related posts (from a clueless dude whose only business-sense comes from his small-business owner mommy and investor daddy, no less) is because I’ve decided things like this have very little to do with bad work in the newsroom. I don’t think doing more video will save the industry. I don’t think Twittering beat reporters are the magic bullet. The product isn’t broken, just dated, and it’s changing fast.

It’s the business side that’s utterly damaged, and I don’t see enough — ANY — discussion, navel-gazing, twitter updates or general rowdiness because of it. These past few posts have been my attempts to change that. I’ve been dropping my bucket of substandard water into the ocean in hopes others will do the same.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 28th, 2008 at 11:03 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.