Again, further to my earlier post about thinking aloud and suggesting structures and ideas.
Here’s our initial thinking on membership tiers and offerings. Your thoughts? Comments below or emails to me at bernard.hickey@journalism.org.nz.
Again, please don’t jump too hard and often on these. They’re suggestions and aren’t written in stone. We don’t have all the answers and we’ll be guided by our members.
We’re suggesting three tiers of membership, all with yearly and monthly payment options by credit card. We want to know your thoughts on the benefits of each and how much you would be happy to pay for this sort of service to society.
;
| Tier |
Benefits |
| Tier one
Member |
- Ability to comment on articles
- Invitations to events
- Online access to our editorial forum, to raise suggestions around governance and direction
- Web Badge with status for use on your personal website
- Cost of NZ$9/month or NZ$95 per year.
|
| Tier two
Founding Member |
All of the above +:
- Invitations to the quarterly editorial board meeting as a general member
- Weekly emails with digest of the key stories for the week
- Access to the journalist Yammer group and the ability to contribute to the reporting process with questions etc
- Discounted invitations to events
- Cost of NZ$39/month or NZ$395 a year.
- Limit of 500
|
| Tier three
Lifetime founding member
; |
All of the above+:
- Exclusive editorial dinners every three months
- One two hour speaking engagement by Bernard Hickey in your chosen workplace or organisation a year
- Cost of NZ$990/month for two years or NZ$19,000 upfront for lifetime membership
- Limit of 50
|
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I'm Bernard Hickey. I'm a financial journalist who has worked for wire services, for newspapers and for online publishers. Until January 2008 I was the Head of Digital at Fairfax Media in New Zealand. I have previously been the Managing Editor of the Independent Financial Review, the BusinessDay editor for the Dominion Post and the founding editor of Reuters.co.uk. I love the business of publishing online, both from an editorial and commercial point of view. I'm currently working as the editor of interest.co.nz. I begin as founding editor of Journalism.org.nz on November 1.
August 23, 2012 at 1:10 pm
I genuinely like the idea of a new journalism entity in New Zealand but I’’m troubled by the membership system. I would be prepared to pay an underwriting fee, say $200 per year, provided that all the information on the site was available to everyone, including comments. Certainly, the dinners and meetings might be extra and only offered to main underwriters, but in order for this form of journalism to work everyone needs access to the information, not an elite few who can afford the information. Further, perhaps what the site wants is to find 1000 members prepared to pay $200 per year each and I would be prepared to do that, but like ProPublica and shows like Frontline it seems the it’s best when a much wider audience can access the information. I don’t mind supporting something I want because the world would be poorer without it and because I want that service even if I know someone else is consuming it for free when it comes to good journalism. I think the relationship between the audience and the creator is key here.
August 23, 2012 at 1:12 pm
I genuinely like the idea of a new journalism entity in New Zealand but I’m troubled by the membership system. I would be prepared to pay an underwriting fee, say $200 per year, provided that all the information on the site was available to everyone, including comments. Certainly, the dinners and meetings might be extra and only offered to main underwriters, but in order for this form of journalism to work everyone needs access to the information, not an elite few who can afford the information. Further, perhaps what the site wants is to find 1000 members prepared to pay $200 per year each and I would be prepared to do that, but like ProPublica and shows like Frontline it seems the it’s best when a much wider audience can access the information. I don’t mind supporting something I want because the world would be poorer without it and because I want that service even if I know someone else is consuming it for free when it comes to good journalism. I think the relationship between the audience and the creator is key here.
August 24, 2012 at 11:15 pm
Tim C
I agree it’s important the articles and comments should be available for all to see.
But the ability to comment on articles is what I’m suggesting should be part of the membership.
I’ve been running these blog sites for 5 years and am keen to have a threshold set where commenters have a commitment to making the site work and respect their fellow commenters/members.
cheers
Bernard
August 23, 2012 at 4:05 pm
Hi! When you say you have membership tiers, as a matter of public disclosure it would be good to know how much Selwyn Pellett is paying. I’d like to help you out and I’d like to be a platinum subscriber, but unlike Selwyn I haven’t been getting large sums of cash from the taxpayer for the last decade so I’d like to know what you might hit me up for, for this.
August 24, 2012 at 11:12 pm
Tim
The membership tiers are identified.
You’re welcome to contribute once we’re up and running.
Everyone’s contributions will be clearly identified when they comment, given they’ll be identified with their ‘member’ ‘founding member’ and ‘founding lifetime member’ IDs
cheers
Bernard
August 23, 2012 at 6:30 pm
For me the essence is the writing itself so I’m not really interested in the extras. I’d. E prepared to pay a subscriptionas I do for the Guardian Weekly. I also like that on Amazon I can download an edition of a journal that has an article I’m particularly interested in. Hope that helps.
August 24, 2012 at 11:10 pm
Cheers.
That’s useful
Bernard
August 23, 2012 at 8:59 pm
Love the lifetime membership option which isnt necessarily a lifetime membership. A recurring option is good – kind of like a gym membership which is just too much hassle to cancel.
I will be in for Option 1 as other than the discount to events, the other options dont offer me anything.
I am in two minds about the comments thing. In one way I dont like the idea of restricting it to those that can pay. On the other hand, I prefer forums where the comments are more limited and of a higher quality which is what I think you will achieve by limiting to paid members. One of the reasons I dont like interest.co.nz comments is that they sometimes number into the 100′s. You cant comment on someones point as you are already 50 posts too late.
By limiting the people able to comment, you also start to remember different peoples view points. So for example you can ignore Tim Ellis since his comments are pointless but you can engage more with those that have opposing views but a good argument behind it. It is from those engagements that you learn the most and flush out the opposing viewpoints that you have not considered yourself. That’s one thing I like about you and Selwyn is that even though our views often differ, you cant explain your reasons which makes me understand them better and can either agree or agree to disagree.
August 24, 2012 at 11:09 pm
Harvey,
Many thanks.
You’re right I’m keen to lift the threshold for comments and to avoid the ugliness and pain of having to regularly kill off the trolls.
We did this for 5 years at Interest.co.nz.
We eventually had to restrict commenting to registered members.
I want a genuine community where people feel they are committed and serious. I want everyone to respect the committment others have made by paying to be members.
I’m keen for an engaged debate where people share information, arguments and links, rather than throw abuse.
cheers
Bernard
August 25, 2012 at 2:17 am
Will Alias still be allowed?
I think it is important alias be allowed though it is best if you cant change alias.
August 25, 2012 at 9:36 pm
Harvey
I agree many people prefer to comment under a pseudonym.
But I prefer a site where registered commenters have to give a real email address that is is verified. There is also the ability to block commenters who are abusive or defamatory.
cheers
Bernard
August 26, 2012 at 8:57 pm
My email address is read. Just my name is fake.
I am happy for Admin to know on a confidential basis and to call me out in private if I cross any lines (including being a factor to banning not that I would get to that hopfully), but
with google, I dont want my posts linked to my linkedin profile, linked to my employer, resulting in me getting a warning for expressing my personal opinion because a client, my boss or someone else doesn’t like what I have said.
My fake name from a blog post got picked up in the Herald a couple of times.
August 26, 2012 at 8:57 pm
Plus, I dont want everyone to know I cant spell – that should be – “My email address is REAL”
August 26, 2012 at 11:53 pm
Cheers. Good point. Pseudonyms fine for the world at large. Only Journalism.org.nz knows the real email address. And hopefully the face behind the email address through attendance at events.
cheers
Bernard
August 23, 2012 at 9:18 pm
Less hui more do-ie Bernard. I know you want to involve everyone in the process to stress the community part of it, but really, I just want the outcome. Come talk to ma again when you have something to show. You’re babbling.
August 23, 2012 at 11:40 pm
Dear Bernard. Your last tweet reads “When there are no journalists left, the public will have their news written for them by marketers and PR people, unless…”. Is it true that you have Selwyn Pellett’s marketer and PR person assisting you with content on this blog?
August 24, 2012 at 11:05 pm
Tim,
Happy to talk about this.
As I have told Mediawatch and NZ Herald and anyone else who happens to
ask, Selwyn Pellett is providing some logistical and legal support.
One of his assistants helped me put up the wordpress blog (free) and
organise email (free). But I’ve also had help from lots of other
people, including advice on setting up trusts and board structures,
and technical advice on setting up a website.
Just to be absolutely clear. Selwyn Pellett is not paying me. The only money spent on this was NZ$39
for the journalism.org.nz domain and that came out of my pocket. The rest is my time.
Time for you to disclose and explain your interest.
Who are you and why are you interested?
I ask because I have no interest in getting into a partisan blog vs
blog flame war.
I’ve seen them and they’re the most boring and counter-productive exercise.
We’d welcome your help and assistance rather than anything else.
cheers
August 24, 2012 at 2:08 am
Other ways of raising money:
1) Pay per comment $5 and you can comment as much as you like for a week.
2) Pay for a letter to the editor (refunded if not up to quality)
3) Institution memberships
August 24, 2012 at 11:03 pm
I’ve never seen that model work of paying per comment. That would inhibit the discussion and make it difficult to build a community.
cheers
Bernard
September 2, 2012 at 7:30 am
Agreed.
The standard analysis of why micro-payments won’t work is that there are two overheads; one financial, and the other cognitive, and that the cognitive overhead does not scale down as much as the value, for small payments:
http://openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2000/12/19/micropayments.html
August 26, 2012 at 10:48 pm
Hi Bernard,
My first reaction to the idea of paying to comment was very negative, but when i saw your justification that its to help limit the amount of garbage … well I recognise thats a good thing. So if you do go that route then perhaps make it clear thats part of the reason.
Just one question, do you think advertising has any place in this business model?
Count me in for a tier 1.
Cheers,
Brad
August 26, 2012 at 11:55 pm
Brad
Many thanks. Advertising only marginal, and even then more as an incentive to sign up for the ad-free version.
I’ve tried the advertising model. It works OK for very specialist and rich niches such as financial news, but only in tandem with sponsorships, which have their own challenges.
The the advertising rates for online display advertising are plummetting because of the rise of behavioural targeting advertising networks and the move to mobile.
cheers
Bernard
September 2, 2012 at 1:05 am
Hey, I’d pay just to support this so I can read something worthwhile. I don’t care about invites or comments, just some food for thought. H
September 2, 2012 at 1:15 am
I would also pay for digital magazine subscription format.
September 2, 2012 at 7:32 am
Paying weekly by cheque would be silly, and I don’t recommend that you support it.
If I could pay annually by cheque, then I would subscribe to tier two, in order to find out efficiently if I was missing anything.
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September 5, 2012 at 7:47 am
What about the journalism? I think it’s a great idea, but do you have any thoughts on who will be writing the journalism, and where it will be published? Having good quality journalists writing on issues of really strong public interest – and getting the message out widely – will be important
September 6, 2012 at 2:57 am
Nikki
Many thanks. I’ve got a few names and ideas, few of which I can advance until we have a base of funding.
It will be bootstrapped, to an extent.
Welcome your thoughts on who you’d like to see and what sort of writing you’d like to justify (say) NZ$495/yr.
cheers
Bernard
September 9, 2012 at 1:19 am
How about just casual donations? I can live without commenting, but would like to support this cause as and when I have some spare cash knocking about the account.
September 28, 2012 at 10:05 pm
Many thanks. Good idea. We’re building an open donations system.
cheers
Bernard
September 9, 2012 at 1:21 am
(just to be clear, casual donations in addition to the membership tiers of course)
September 18, 2012 at 3:26 am
I seem to differ from most people here in that I have absolutely no interest in comments from the community (yes, I recognise the irony of posting that in a comments field, but this is the vehicle given to us to contribute in this instance…) I’d like to see good, in-depth journalism. I want to read that freely (as in liberty, not as in beer). I’d be prepared to pay for that freedom – not because I want a membership or privileges, but because I support the notion of quality journalism. I’d even pay every year for the same reason. Not everyone is an idealist, but neither does everyone need to be offered baubles before coughing up the dough.
My one piece of business advice, Bernard, is this: have *one* thing that you do *really, really well*, better than anyone else. Focus on this rather than membership tiers and comments, which are a major distraction in my view. Be single-minded about it, the rest will follow.
September 28, 2012 at 10:03 pm
James
Many thanks. Good advice on the focus and point taken on the comments.
cheers
Bernard
September 18, 2012 at 3:29 am
Kickstarter, bro, kickstarter.
September 28, 2012 at 10:01 pm
Unfortunately Kickstarter is not available in New Zealand
November 12, 2012 at 7:56 pm
There are NZ ulternatives to Kickstarter. The issue with these is that they all take a cut. I am sure you can do it without. You have enough reputation from interest.co.nz to get enough people spreading the word through twitter etc.
October 25, 2012 at 10:27 am
All seem to have gone quiet, what is the next step?
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