It seems the trend with online journalism is to pay for interviews and footage. TMZ.com is one website that has created a lot of buzz for their exclusive audio of O.J. Simpson. The website also features exclusive photos of Britney Spears, Kate Moss and Courtney Love. These types of stories attract a younger demographic that doesn't read the newspaper or watch the news.
TMZ.com is willing to pay for stories which allows them to gather exclusive content unavailable to other members of the media. But is it really journalism if you are paying for a story?
Online news websites,with the abilty to post a new story at any time, make it harder for print and broadcast to compete. Other online news websites share this abillity, but it seems that people are drawn to exclusive content. Unless print or broadcast journalists decide to pay for exclusive content, their ability to compete with online news websites will continue to diminish.
Shawna Abbott
1 comment:
By Raul: Very good point. More mainstream media outlets (such as CNN and the four big networks, not to mention newspapers) have a policy of never paying for interviews. I wonder if TMZ's success will force them to reverse this long-standing policy.
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