Some Observations from the Sink or Swim panel #SIIA

There's much discussion here about writing for the Web being different from writing for print. This is true, but there's still no answer on how to monetize...

Michael Wolff talked about creating a site where one doesn't pay for content. IMO, this thinking seems to distort why we--I'm thinking of bloggers here--link to one another. There's definitely a disconnect between how individuals link to one another, and how (or why) an organization might link, or even aggregate. Even though a link is a link, the money-making off of free content is problematic.

Kevin English makes a point that one cannot make a business work without a revenue stream. Okleigh Thorne makes a comment that BtoBs make money differently--have different rev stream. That's mostly because they are serving a different community than general interest publications like the daily newspaper. Bob Merry, ed in chief of Congressional Quarterly says they still rely on advertising.

Vivek Shad (Time, Inc. online) comments that it's not print vs. web. It's about the advertising; click-through rates are low on display advertising. "If advertising is how we'll fund content...if there's a loss of confidence in brand advertising....then...

"we should move from a brand to a direct model...." Michael Wolff

Interesting that the conversation is moving about the types of advertising...

"technology not as a way just to create cheaper content", but the means of moving that cheaper content (Wolff.)

Lots of talk about how the Web has "killed" content. Bob Merry suggests that platforms have to be better (that's a thought.)

Someone raised the question about foreign correspondents. Wolff notes that we've already lost a lot of those. We have access to native information sources, so we're no longer dependent on the NYTimes or Time magazine. Wolff doesn't see a problem of Time shutting its foreign bureau. But could the job of the "foreign correspondent" end up being one that's take up by rich guys who have the money to travel to places and report on them? Could we be inadvertently stratifying professions so that only the wealthy have access to professions that used to be open and ways for people to move up the social ladder?

Just a thought...

The panel on content monetization will be interesting....