Mr.
Matt
Spangler

Interesting interview with Charlie Senate in regards to the future models for newspapers and his role in Global Post.  I’ve talked about this in the past and am very interested in this discussion.  Its an example of the more aggressive pay for content stance that Rupert Murdoch has taken recently. The Times ran a piece on the new site. Its a microcosm for industry change in the evolving digital world and its a discussion that is highly relevant to the music business where solutions continue to remain elusive.

Despite the interesting business approach, I personally feel the site won’t go far with the current design.  They need to move quickly to improve the user interface if they want to win over those who are ready and willing to pay for better journalism.

Some interesting points and quotes from the interview:

1. Resurrecting the notion of “super-stringers”, where if you’re a journalist who wants to cover the world, you need to treat your job like a business, but you also need a home base because working as a freelancer is hard
2. Offering significent shares to correspondents
3. “Great journalism is expensive…but it also has value”
4. 65 correspondents in 50 countries file a story once a week
5. Membership that allows for participatory journalism including conference calls with correspondents and the Global 10, which gives you business trends in undercovered markets that are emerging business markets
6. “Those entrepreneurial streaks that run through reporting can apply in a business community and within a business model”