There is a framed movie poster sitting on a radiator in my office almost directly across from my desk. I can't help but see it every day, all the time. It's an original "one-sheet" (creases and all) that was used in theaters to promote All the President's Men, the tale of Watergate, Richard Nixon, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. I was a reporter for the University of Iowa student newspaper back then. It's why I got into the news business -- and probably why I'm still in it today.
For the longest time, I felt news was a calling. Report the facts. Cultivate your sources. Uncover information. Write the story for the public good. Journalism was -- and still largely remains -- a top-down, one-to-many business, with the same "voice of God" formula that one TV executive vowed to do away with but never did. I still see it as a calling, though I must admit to some cynicism after 35 plus years doing this. But I've definitely shed my arrogant journalistic upbringing. Today, I believe digital news is like the Web itself -- that is, a transactional affair.
The Web is the ultimate marketplace where ideas as well as goods and services are exchanged. It is essentially different from print, broadcast and cable. Sure, traditional media can stimulate a response, but the response is discontinuous -- it requires a separate channel, such as the Postal Service or an 800 number -- and it's never permitted to have equal weight. The Web is a channel that both stimulates and fulfills. It's one and the same because its tools help blur the line between sellers (that includes journalists) and buyers (that includes news consumers).
The Web's effectiveness has been pretty clear for commerce, especially with the arrival of Google AdSense. Advertisers are feeling the potential, too. "Brand" advertising has always been aimed at that abstraction known as the consumer market ("I know half my advertising dollars are wasted - I just don't know which half!" quips the ad man). "Fulfillment" advertising is different -- and perfect for the Web. It's aimed directly at the individual and seeks an individual response -- a transaction. The unanswered question is whether marketers will attempt to -- or could even be effective at -- using the the Web as a channel to fold brand campaigns into transaction-based fulfillment selling.
Now, journalism is not commerce and it's not advertising. But the Web's impact on the news media is not dissimilar. No longer is the journalist addressing the abstract notion of "the reader." On the Web, the author connects one at a time with individual readers, right down to the IP address. That means journalists now must engage, or "transact," accordingly. This does not at all negate our (mine, too) rich heritage. In fact, we need to draw on it to effectively practice transactional journalism.
This all became much clearer to me last week as we released a new FORBES article page -- a template for authoritative news in this unfolding era of social journalism, which is in large part transaction-based journalism. Our new page puts the journalist -- or the topic-specific expert -- at the very center of a community of followers who respect that person's knowledge or world view. Among many features, we created a new social layer directly beneath every post's headline that highlights Called Out comments, the direct transactions between our authors and their individual readers.
Our evolving contributor incentive program is built for transactions. It rewards authors who attract and build an audience around their page, effectively a "product" based on their topic-specific knowledge. Transacting helps them secure a loyal audience for their brand. Both staffers and contributors must still report, write and cultivate sources, but they also need to engage -- find and react to followers, respond to commenters and transact with the individual reader just as they do with a fellow journalist in the office, at lunch or over dinner. Each of those reader transactions will lead to smarter and better journalism.
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