Open Access Anthropology

Online Journalism Review (from the Annenberg Center For Communications) is running an long and interesting piece today on the top mistakes made by new online publishers . The author, Robert Niles, if bully on the possibility of making money by publishing online. However, he points out that some of mistakes that people make when going on line are intuitive, and that avoiding them involves some careful thought. Consider, for instance, what he considers to be the number one mistake that online publishers make: doing it for the money

Over the past year, I’ve spoken with at least a dozen newspaper-dot-com executives who’ve expressed frustration that their organizations are now playing “catch-up” to amateur niche media due to their company’s obsession with maximizing profits, in part by not funding new projects without immediate revenue attached. That policy’s left too many newspapers with seemingly “safe” but overly broad, voiceless websites that fail to engage the reading public, just like their print parents.

Another mistake is throwing money at your site

When I talk with people who have had success making money from online content, I see a common attribute: an independent writer who leads a strong community that generates hundreds, if not thousands, of pages of informative, compelling content.

What I don’t see is someone who first hired a staff, including editors, reporters and ad reps. Nor do I see someone with a large marketing budget, buying advertising in offline media to draw attention to their site. In fact, when I speak with people who followed that path, I inevitably hear complaints about how “no one’s making money online,” and a series of excuses for why their venture failed.

What lessons does this have for anthropology’s attempt to go digital? The first and most obvious point is that making your content as open as possible is not a mistake however, running your website on the principle that it absolutely must pay the bills is. As Niles puts it,

On the Internet, passion trumps professionalism. Yes, smart, disciplined online publishers are making money. It’s to be expected, with the billions of dollars advertisers are now spending online every year. But that can’t be the dominant reason you publish.

We as scholars know what good content is, and we are passionate about reading and writing it — no problem there. But are we being equally innovative in thinking about how to make money? This article, clearly, is about newspapers going digital, not scholarly societies. But even if scholarly publishing’s business model differs from that of online journalism, the principle that Niles enunciates are still relevant: the way to finding a sustainable business model for anthropological publishing must come through innovation, not trying out the same old analog tricks in a new digital space. And restricting content is, unfortunately, the oldest trick in the book.

Tags: Economic Issues1 Comment