John Ndege writes that citizen journalism start ups are doomed.
citizen journalism websites, webzines and other online destinations committed to turning a profit purely on user-generated news and editorials will struggle to survive as a business and ultimately will fail.
Refering to what he terms purely sites with user generated content he asks
where is the money going to come from?beacause
Advertising revenues are dropping like a stone, largely due to the increased supply of content driving online advertising dollars down to the point where they are almost meaningless. Slapping subscription charges on a site is not going to work in today's market either, so developers are caught in a Catch-22. Citizen journalism sites need writers to make money but those same sites need money to get writers.
John on the whole makes some good points but at the end it is all about adding value.It is not where the content comes from but what it can provide for a potential audience and adverising.It is unlikely that people are going to pay for content unless it is very niche orientated or specialised.User generated content alone is not a reason for journalism sites to fail.
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