@T: ALWAYS THE TWAIN

In the media space, the debate continues about whether, how and when the paid content model will take shape. The emerging consensus seems to be in 2010. The first link is Lionel Barber, editor of the FT’s, speech at a Media Standards Trust event on the need to rethink the content revenue model. It’s a MUST-READ article:

· http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=43985

· http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jul/19/online-media-adfunding-newspapers-industry

· http://www.alwaysthetwain.com/blogs/2009/07/08/paid-content-on-sun-valley-2009-agenda/

I was thinking about it all weekend (yes, whilst making spring rolls, gyming, trouble-shooting little Eva and watching Red Cliff).

Why?

Well, Lionel Barber noted the distinction between bloggers and trained journalists:

“On the other hand, most bloggers do not operate according to the same standards as those who aspire to and practise crafted journalism. They are often happy to report rumour as fact, arguing that readers or fellow networkers can step in to correct those “facts” if they turn out to be wrong. They are rarely engaged in the pursuit of original news: their bread and butter is opinion and comment. Their web-driven culture of immediacy means they are more often consumed by the need to be first than right. And there is a good reason for that. In the words of Michael Arrington, the influential tech blogger in California, “first is cheap, right is expensive.”

It made me think not only of blog sites where I’ve seen countless mistakes passing as facts because they don’t cross-verify sources and ensure integrity or independence of that source on a par with qualified journalists (who are also subject to tighter legal frameworks and the threats of lawsuits), it also made me think of the millions of comments on threads.

Here’s the thing. Whilst some of those thread comments are no more than random, disjointed rants or “trolling”, there are others where the commentator has provided due care and attention in their analysis and included important links to verifiable and reputable organizations and original source materials. For example, on threads involving government policies to deal with the global financial crisis they’ve linked to Whitehouse.gov, Bank of England, IMF, Bloomberg, FT, RGEmonitor (Nourbini’s site, btw), banks and other appropriate sources.

In this way, the commentator has actually contributed to increasing the perspective, context and analysis available to the reader beyond the site’s staff journalist. Yet the commentator is unpaid.

Now, if media sites move towards a subscription model will that mean that commentators will effectively be paying not only to read the site’s official content written by staff journalists but ALSO paying for the privilege to make their own comments?

Plus does it mean that if they decide not to subscribe to the site, they’ll be locked out from viewing comments that they previously made? Comments that they may want to refer to because when they originally posted it, they were treating the media site like a free, quasi-knowledge depository of associated content and links.

Another important consideration is this: WHAT INCENTIVE IS THERE FOR PEOPLE TO CONTRIBUTE COMMENTS / CONTENT TO A PAID SUBSCRIPTION SITE? Just as subscription means that they’re allowed access to N articles per month / quarter / year, will it also mean that a certain subscription means they are only allowed to make X comments per month / quarter / year?

This isn’t some random and disconnected element. My reasoning has a precedent and a logical basis in traditional media and it needs to be answered whether it will migrate to the paid online model.

Over the weekend in a PRINT supplement of a major UK newspaper I saw two separate adverts offering:

(1.) GBP 50 for any reader whose photo on their pets doing something unusual was published.

(2.) A family holiday for four for each of the 5 readers who submit winning 500-word accounts of this summer’s memorable holiday. Categories covered: adventure, beach, eco/green, family, UK.

So……….in the print model, content contributors were financially or money-in-kind incentivized……….

I’m also aware that women’s magazines will pay anywhere between GBP200-1,000 for women to share real-life stories such as: I met my husband on safari! My plastic surgery almost cost me an arm, a leg and my life! The doctors said I was barren and now I’ve had three sets of twins! How I beat cancer SIX times!

[No, not my style but still useful to know for paid content comparison.]

So whilst media sites consider their paid content models, they’ll also need to assess the situation from the content generator’s side. What’s THEIR motivation to provide comments and post original content if they have to pay for site access and are giving over the IP and copyright of their ideas, thoughts, comments, drawings, photos, etc.?

Of course, I’ve given this considered analysis over the years.

During Web 1.0, the dotcom where I worked was a joint venture with the FT and the M+A content we generated (I was responsible for 15-country coverage) was paid for by customers in the form of batch and bundled searches and seasonal subscriptions for designated numbers of account access holders.

Then when I co-managed the Strategic Investments portfolio in the bank, each one of the 50+ platforms charged differently for their services and content. Later, in the corporate finance boutique, the revenue model was a classic financial services one: introduction fee, retainer, transaction percentage, success fee and management fee (if an investment trust was involved). I also know exactly how film production models work and the breakdown of how each party earns which revenue stream generated (box office, DVD sales, syndication rights, on-flight entertainment sales, associated book sales, computer game sales, etc.)

More recently, with the disappointing user experience of the SemWeb play and its less than intelligent management team, I’ve been reminded about content value and the payment model not only chargeable to customers but also the one needed to PAY THEM FOR CONTENT, particularly content which contributes to making the site branded, distinctive and in possession of community values and an identity.

Content generators themselves need to pay attention because if the company decides to be less than intelligent, decimates their content or locks them out of their account………..Then it means the content has zero value and their time will have been wasted by the site.

All of this distilled knowhow is why in the business plan for Project ART it crosses elements of fremium with cumulative payment to content contributors.

Ahead of the curve?

No, just makes strategic sense and is a win-win. We like those.

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GOOD BUSINESS VERSUS GOODWILL

An important lesson I learnt from the SemWebco experience is that it is NOT worth giving goodwill or time to tech start-ups out of some hope that your contributions will advance or catalyze someone else’s ideas and revolutionize the Web for the greater good. Particularly if the techco insists on repeating its mistakes — as I noted before, “less than intelligent management” — and treats its users with contempt like closing user feedback and decimating their content.

It makes a lot more business sense to own the IP+copyright and have free and complete access to your content, end-to-end.

It makes even more business sense to conceive and execute a revenue model where I’ll have personal sign-off about how payments to content contributors is structured and works.

We like this.

The week opens with the Conservatives in the UK trying to present the case that THEY rather than the Labor government have the sensible solutions to reform of the financial sector:

* http://www.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2009/07/Our_plan_for_sound_banking.aspx

Needless to say, Labor and the Liberal Democrats have been on all the broadcast channels to criticize the proposals in the same way the Conservatives did the Labor and LibDem suggestions.

TWAIN’S TRUTH

None of the political parties have it right or are remotely close to it. Reform proposals which are written without the insights and direct experience contributions of corporate strategists (who have actually worked in banks) are, frankly, a waste of paper and consultancy fees. Unless we know exactly how the balance sheet is structured, all the business unit line items in the accounts, all the in-house developed risk management techniques and, therefore, how capital adequacy provision requirements are satisfied, then the reforms are mere academic conjecture rather than pragmatic prognosis.

In each bank, there are probably no more than a dozen people who are allocated the responsibility of looking through the blueprints of the bank’s financial positions. The blueprints — rather than the published annual report and analysts’ notes — are what really matter and the insights on how the bank maintains / improves its competitive position relative to its peers.

I know this because I had access to a blueprint.

It’s a document no journalist, accountant, management consultant, government policy-maker, academic or politician would ever gain access to. It’s a document (or series of documents) not even some of the Global and regional heads of banks have clearance to view.

So when I read all the politicking from the main parties about “deep and wide-ranging” reforms, part of me LOLs. It’s not depth nor width that’s needed. It’s whether the reform is SPOT-ON and appropriately CALIBRATED. It’s like gold / oil. There’s no point digging a wide, deep hole to drill when the oil source is actually somewhere else.

Anyway, instead of becoming skeptical about the human ability to learn from mistakes let’s concentrate on what we humans are capable of when we are our smarter and more aspirational selves. The inspirational people for this week are without peers in their daring and conviction towards a journey unknown.

There’s a scene in Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade which perfectly captures the concept of leaps and of belief:

It may seem like a strange connection, but whether in the Hollywood dream factory or in our historic reality our species is driven towards search+discovery, adventure+risks, reaching out to others+unknowns, and philosophy+belief. This is true regardless of what our professional callings may be.

They’re qualities true of the inspirational people this week.

NASA + THE MOON MISSION CREW

* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFKUq-L590s

And purely for fun, here’s a TheOnion spoof, showing the NASA simulator prepping astronauts for a Larry King interview:

A LITTLE GIRL CALLED EVA: an inspiration towards motherhood?

Today I also want to write about something extraordinary and coincidental that happened to me yesterday: I got my first-ever maternal twinges.

It should be noted that my mother is 60 this month and she’s the only one of her friends who has no grandchildren. Her friends are scattered all over from China to LA and, regardless of the socio-political environment they exist in (liberal / one-child policy, feminism / equivalence, patriarchal / matriarchal)……..they ALL have grandchildren.

She’s asked all the time about me and my “situation”, aka a euphemism for spinsterhood — LOL. Then she has to endure all their boasting about their grandkids. I remind her that not a single one of her friends has a daughter who was top of school or has ever worked in CEO-Chairman’s Office of a Tier 1 bank. Besides which, she knows I’ve always been more oriented towards my to-dos than in the opposite sex. At our end of junior school dance, I was asked by 5 different boys to be their date and I only went AFTER I’d finished making the centerpiece paper maché mermaid. The dance had a different theme every year: cowboys + Indians, dinosaurs, the ocean, farmyard, etc. Ours was the year of The Ocean.

I have 0 regrets about my choices.

I don’t regret beating the boys in school in the exams (including the so-called “male” subjects of maths, physics and chemistry) because I will never regret making my parents proud and, in reciprocation of respect, for all the time-knowledge they and my teachers gifted me. I don’t regret turning down 3 marriage proposals because my logic knew the guys were incompatible — despite their desire to get married to satisfy parental / societal demands; I believe in marriage based on genuine compatibility. I also don’t regret not believing one ex-manager who sat me in a private room and said, “We were destined to meet. I really really like you.” He soon proved to be someone incapable of “walking the talk” whilst I earned my promotion into CEO-Chairman’s Office through hard work.

Funnily enough, he once said that men must be scared to ask me out. I still say, “XLNT!” because, right there, is an automatic Twain brain filter for all the wrong guys like him. LOL.

[Hint to female readers: a man who is genuinely a man's man, has real cojones, is secure in himself, truly loves and respects you will help you become CEO of the world's biggest and best company if that's what your aim is. If your aim is to be a stay-at-home mother whilst he's the primary breadwinner, he'll happily help you realize that too. A real man won't try to turn you into arm candy, his PR support or less than the person you are.]

Anyway, all about little Eva…………………..

So I went for a swim at my gym and in the ladies’ changing room I happened across a 4-year-old American girl called Eva. She was a complete stranger and I only discovered her name because her two older sisters kept calling it.

There was something special about Eva which I’ve rarely seen in other kids (and they’re everywhere, kids). She was self-possessed, assured and took no prisoners. I didn’t see her at first as much as HEAR her. I heard her vociferously defending her rights to be left to do it herself and for them not to try and take her swimming cap away from her. Then I heard the pitter-patter-shuffles of her feet as she ran round the corner into the area where I was.

Oddly, she reminded me of me at that age. She had dark, bobbed hair and watchful eyes. Everything about her made you pay attention. Not in the way that bawling babies and cheeky, dimpled smiles do. It was in her aura. There was quite simply……..a fully-formed CHARACTER to her. A big personality for someone so small and young.

Then I saw her clamber up onto an alcove about 2 feet up and she disappeared from view. I had to walk past where she was to reach my locker and as I did, I noticed that she was sitting in the alcove — legs crossed, comfortable in her own space — and completely concentrated. Her towel was neatly folded and she was trying to figure out how to stretch out her new swimming cap before putting it onto her head………OVER HER SHOES. The shoes kept slipping from their vertical positions but, when they did, even more determination sparked up in her little face. After a short while, she decided they were easier to manage when they were horizontal.

I thought this was cute, funny and ingenious, and left her to her mission. I could have told her to try stretching the cap over her knees but I didn’t want to startle her since she was by herself and I was a stranger.

Later, as the gym and ladies changing room was closing, I heard and saw her again. She was handing over a towel and asking one of her older sisters to wrap it around her “just like Mommy does”. The poor sister, who must have been about 8, complied and said, “It’s not as good as Mommy’s but it’s okay for now.” She’d wrapped the towel around little Eva’s waist and rolled the top to secure it. However, this didn’t satisfy little Eva at all. She scrunched up her face, shivered slightly and started to sulk-sob, “But I’m still cold! It’s SO cold!”

By the look of despair on both of her sisters’ faces it was fairly clear that they didn’t know what to do and that little Eva was on the verge of a full-blown bawling session. Uh-oh. We all know that when kids start to cry they’re almost impossible to stop. The sheer momentum of their frustration, confusion and lack of emotional tools to handle it means it often just snowballs from a few sniffles into “WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! Nobody cares!!! WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!”

There’s about 10 seconds between a child sniffling and the bawling. The smart parent is the one who stops them from damaging their vocal chords and suffering emotional distress, imo.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a spare clean towel without any owner. I went over to it, picked it up and walked over to little Eva. I handed her the towel and reasoned with her calmly, “Well, if you’re cold, do you want to maybe use this one?”

She glanced up at me through her fringe, a little shy and apprehensive at a stranger speaking with her. Then she nodded slightly and took it.

“If you wrap it round your shoulders that’ll make you warmer, hmmn?” I suggested. Again a nod, bolder this time. So she wrapped the towel around her shoulders with some help from her older sister.

“Now are you warmer?”

“Yes,” another little nod.

“Good.”

“Thank you,” her poor older sister said. Then little Eva just beamed like she’d been given Supergirl’s cape and it was hers, ALL hers.

I smiled, finished packing my gym bag and left. Half an hour later, I was in a cinema watching John Woo’s brilliant Red Cliff, which tells the classic Chinese story of the battles (military, philosophical, political and literary) between the Kongming- Zhou Yu alliance against Cao Cao.

Completely my kind of movie; as I mentioned in a previous post, I rarely pay to watch romantic comedies because they’re usually not well-scripted, too saccharine and not witty — unlike the romantic comedies of old. In fact, there was more romance and humor in Red Cliff than in any recent romcoms. Hollywood could learn a lot from Chinese action-dramas.

Now, even after the film I thought of little Eva. It’s difficult to explain or to pinpoint how it happened but in the instant I handed her the towel and reasoned with her I felt a surge of what must be maternal instinct. It was really odd.

I’ve babysat my much younger cousins in Canada and, yes, felt that sense of adult responsibility of showing them how to cross roads safely, remove bones from their fish and push them on swings high enough where they shriek with glee but not go white with fear that they’ll flip right over the bar. However, I didn’t feel any maternal twinges.

Little Eva……..most unusual…….