The Problem with Citizen Journalism
Today my startup closed its doors. ScribbleSheet was a citizen journalism website which provided a platform on which people could write editorials on politics, technology, business and culture. There are a number of reasons why it didn’t succeed all of which ultimately rest on my head. But first let’s talk about citizen journalism and some problems I see in the business.
1. People want Citizen Journalism - I think there is undoubtedly a need for citizen journalism. Not only as a means for people to vary their media intake but as a form of expression for those who have something to say. Mainstream media is not always the most appropriate avenue to express some of these views and its not uncommon for mainstream media to overlook/forget genuine stories developed by citizens. We only need look at the success of Oh My News or the thousands of people who send photos and comments to BBC’s “Have your Say”. Hence, I don’t think we can question the demand for citizen journalism.
2. But is it a Business? - Well, this is the crunch question. The problem citizen journalism websites face is recruiting good writers. On average the best way to recruit good writers is to pay them. But startups don’t have any money to pay writers and advertising CPMs are dropping like stones. They could pay their writers but isn’t 50p a bit of an insult?
And here we come to the crux of the problem. You need money to recruit writers but you need writers to make money.
3. Solutions - Most citizen journalism sites have solved the issue of good articles by importing Associated Press news feeds. Personally that always disappointed me. I felt it kind of betrayed the vision of citizen journalism which was supposed to be about the man or woman on the street telling his or her story, not about the trained professional. Perhaps that is some misplaced idealism, at the end of the day this is supposed to be a business and the business is dependent on well written articles.
Though some sites like Instablogs are said to be profitable using this exact model (citizen journalists + wire news services) I seriously doubt whether others are. Was Newsvine profitable when MSNBC bought them? Who knows, and Newsvine is probably the most successful citizen journalism site.
4. The Winner is… - I do have some faith left however and that is in Now Public. Now Public has cleverly attempted to position itself as a news broker. Citizen journalists provide it with content and they sell it on to wire services like AP. I assume some of this money then goes back to the original writer. This is the best business model I have seen around citizen journalism and the one I think most likely to succeed. Simple display advertising won’t cut it.
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[…] The London-based self-funded startup from co-founders John Ndege (22, formerly with Accenture), and Brian Oula (22, former IT consultant, was a brave, but I’m afraid naive, attempt to reproduce the success of OhMyNews or Newsvine. As I wrote on their launch “I fear they will get nowhere near those sites”. Ndege told me then that Scribblesheet would be a better alternative than all the “dead blogs” people create and then let die. He appears to have been quite prescient. [Update: He blogs about the experience here]. […]
I think that ‘real’ citizen journalism sites will always be small and amateurish. That’s the point of them and I wish them well. Some will get better funding if they can convince an interest group or a foundation to provide financial support. But my ’solution’ is not to expect a vast alternative media separate from mainstream news media. I think the most fertile future involved combining ‘professional’ journalism with public participation - its what I call ‘networked journalism’ and it’s the subject of my new book SuperMedia. (advert)
cheers
Charlie Beckett
Charlie I agree with you completely. Independent, stand alonr citizen journalism sites will probably never work.
Its a bout a mix with reader participation (if its to be a successful business). I’ve heard a lot about networked journalism of late. Seems like the solution the problems in the industry.
Sorry to here about Scribblesheet, however I’m sure this is only step 1 of your entrepreneurial journey.
Watching the breaking news (News 24 and Sky News) about the plane crash yesterday, it’s clear that citizen journalism is big and will get bigger. And as it does, convergence with traditional media is inevitable.
Now your question on whether its a business is a simple one. And the answer is yes. However the whole issue is clouded by the fact that when most people think money re the internet, they think advertising.
Thats the problem you allude to in your answer. For new players ad money will be increasingly difficult to chase. (look at TV and radio). Personally I think selling a white label to special interest groups and organisations is a good model. These already have an audience, but obviously want to increase content, traffic etc, whislt simutaneously letting members air their opinions other than in blog comments. Ning are ahead of this curve in the socnet space.
And going back to TV news, I’d have to say a service that can be some form of middle men, whislt still managing to be time critical, would be a great business.
Thanks Joe, you make a good point, there are really three options. for citizen journalism businesses…
1. Syndication
2. Become a News Broker (a la Now Public)
3. White Label and sell the software as you suggest. This sounds
like a viable business. However, what you are talking about is the enterprise sales business something completely different to consumer facing sites like Newsvine, etc. I won’t go into a lengthy discussion about enterprise sales but for many its not terribly appealing.
Bad luck with ScribbleSheet. Making a citizen journalism site work is a bit of an Everest of for start-ups with Backfence, Outside.in etc all hitting the wall. Nearly all of the big blogs have been built out of someone with a passion and talent for writing doing it in their spare time.
Good luck with next venture!
Thanks Nigel
[…] vez, é o britânico ScribbleSheet. O seu fechamento foi anunciado nesta segunda-feira. Era um site onde as pessoas poderiam publicar matérias e artigos sobre diversos […]
I’m glad I’m running Grassroots Journalism sites and not citizen journalism sites, then.
Seriously, though, some of us are still out here trying. I have a couple more things that might make a big difference this month.
There’s still hope…
-kpaul
Hey John - I’m really sorry to hear about the demis of the site, it is a real shame but I can see the problems that these types of start-ups have.
I am all for citizen journalism, BUT the stories have to be compelling and interesting, and most importantly, well written. They also have to be of concern to the public.
I think good blogs stand out - Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish gets thousands if not millions of hits a day, as do hundreds of others - and the free and easy opportunity to self-publish will be the way forward to many aspiring journalists.
A question: Do you think citizen journalists want to BE citizen journalists, or is citizen journalism a way of getting into the mainstream media - proving your worth so to speak?
I run MexicoReporter.com and the idea was totally to get myself out there and established as a reporter in Mexico and to generate work as a foreign correspondent. It’s worked, but I’m not sure that is the ambition of citizen journalism……are they trying to get jobs, or actually shunning the mainstream media as a statement…?
Good luck in whatever you do next.
@ Deborah - Well, I think citizen journalists is a general term. With out sites we had people who just wanted to write an opinion. We had student journalists, and people studying journalism. I doubt these people would call themselves citizen journalists, but they would call themselves people with something to say.
@Deborah Bonello - Yeah, I think the term citizen journalist needs to die finally. I mean, what next - human journalists?
Pro/Am is the model of the future, though. What I’m trying to do with my public newsroom idea is offer a place where people can come in, learn how to use the site, learn about how a story gets produced, etc. Most don’t want jobs or to do it full time, from what I’ve seen. A lot just have one or two things they want to get out to the people and are tired of newspapers and tv stations ignoring them.
I have a few ideas I’ve been playing with in the entertainment niche to hopefully help fund some ‘real journalism’… or more of it.
I invite anyone to stop by Anderson Free Press (http://www.andersonfreepress.net/tracker) and talk to the community we have there if there are any questions.
And yes, I’m sorry to hear you’ll be shutting down. It’s not an easy gig. The only reason I’m still around (one of them) is that I’ve been able to survive on under $10k a year for three years now. Hard to grow like that, but I’m still growing. Hopefully one of these ‘money making ideas’ will pan out soon.
Sorry for the bad news, though. I think I’d checked your site out once or twice, maybe?
In any case, if there’s anything I can do for ya, let me know.
K. Paul Mallasch - Publisher
http://www.kpaulmedia.com
And yeah, the advertising only model isn’t working out too well for anyone at the moment. With that in mind, I’ve been creating some actual physical products to sell. One is the Elwood 2007 Year in Review…
http://www.kpaulmedia.com/dvds/2007-elwood-year-in-review
More stuff like this is in the works. Not selling like hotcakes yet, but we haven’t really pushed it or marketed it a lot while we worked out some technical details.
Anyway, I’ll be doing a write-up about the whole thing (and whether we make money with it) on LocalJournalism.net eventually.
Best of luck in whatever you do next.
John, ultimately you need a community around what you publish. Why write an article if no one is there to read it, or respond? Even if you had a handful of good loyal writers, would they get bored if no-one responded to their words? Money wouldn’t help greatly in this situation.
You need a ‘boundary object’ - something that brings your community together beyond the network itself. Flickr has photos, youtube has video - if you can honestly say you had a boundary object, then perhaps your project isn’t ‘dead’, you just need to re-think things through and re-launch with an adaptation of the original idea.
Seems a shame to waste all that hard work?
[…] a shame that ScribbleSheet, a UK-based citizen journalism startup has closed its doors. John Ndege cites one of the reasons for failure as “You need money to recruit writers but […]
[…] sobre un sitio de “Periodismo Ciudadano” que debió cerrar sus puertas. Su creador, John Ndege, ha escrito en su blog las razones y me parecen que está bueno escuchar lo que dice. Existen infinidad de variables por […]
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[…] vez, é o britânico ScribbleSheet. O seu fechamento foi anunciado na segunda-feira. Era um site onde as pessoas podiam publicar matérias e artigos sobre diversos […]
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