Citizen Paine | Citizen Journalism

Where's the transparency - squared?

The Boston Globe raises concerns in "For a fee, some blogs boost firms" about businesses paying bloggers to tout their products without either party disclosing the relationship.

Blogger transparency is It's a valid issue, but the Globe's piece on Boston.com doesn't offer the ability for readers to post comments, one of the best mechanisms for making journalism transparent. So, unless you go hunting, you won't see that some of the bloggers are responding on their own sites to the Globe's story:

Susan Kaup, a blogger who has some complaints about the story, says on her own weblog, "At least we have our blogs to set the record straight." Whether or not Kaup has legitimate gripes with the story, why not let her respond directly with a post that Globe readers would see?

Jeff Cutler, another blogger featured in the story, also responds on his own site. His blog has the same shortcoming as Boston.com, no ability for anyone else to comment.

More critical comments about the article here at pc4media.

So, the blogosphere is buzzing with discussion about the Globe's article. But none of that discussion is happening on the Globe's site, costing Boston.com some potential traffic. More importantly, should the Globe wish to respond to the criticisms of its article, it doesn't have a visible vehicle for doing so.

The story is not new -- here's an AP story published in January and a post at Micro Persuasion following Country Music Television's deal to hire a blogger recently  -- but it's an important one.

The Globe story quotes Ed Shull, the CEO of USWeb, saying, "'In our opinion, paying bloggers is no different than Tiger Woods getting money to wear the Nike logo."

The difference, of course, is that the public is well-aware of the endorsement deals that athletes have. Most people know that when Tiger Woods wears a Nike cap, he's being compensated to do so. I don't think that most people would assume that a blogger who mentions a florist is being paid for the reference.

It's all about disclosure: that the payment is being made and what, if any, control the business has over what the blogger may say.

UPDATE: Just ran across this Ad Age column via IWantMedia.com. It's worth a few laughs.

Typepad offers text ads for bloggers

Typepad has announced that users of its Pro level of service now can display text ads to generate revenues from their blogs.

Details here.

Steve Outing writes about the new feature at Poynter Online's E-Media Tidbits:

Since a growing number of news organizations' websites now host "citizen bloggers," this might be an idea worth copying. I've been thinking lately about how to pay volunteer bloggers. Here's a way to provide them some financial incentive to keep writing without any cost to the publishing organization.

I agree with Outing that giving citizen journalists a way to make money from their work, even a small amount, is going to be a key element to the future of the grassroots media concept. Tying those payments to hits and possibly even user ratings would be a way to reward quality.

Typepad's Pro level costs $14.95 a month or $149.50 a year. So, for people using Typepad's less-expensive options (I use the Plus level), you'd have to weigh the additional features of the Pro level and your potential earnings from the ads. The latter would be a guess, as Typepad gives no indication of how much ad revenue a blogger could expect.

A related development (via J.D. Lasica's post at NewMediaMusings.com) was the announcement of Current TV's video submission policy. Current pays $250 to $1,000 for videos submitted to its web site that it then selects to air on its television program. (BTW, ya gotta check out Mark Rinehart's BASE jumping video now featured in the first slot on the Current TV home page.)