What it really means is that online ads simply don't pull in enough money to support journalism, except in weird edge cases-- another business model is needed.
Exactly what that business model might look like is left as an exercise for the reader.
Exactly what that business model might look like is left as an exercise for the reader.
Jeff Jarvis (http://www.buzzmachine.com/) has been pushing papers to jump into marketing packages that go beyond the ad/CPM model. It requires better sales/marketing/ad staff and innovation, and isn't as simple as "We have your target market hostage," but then again, the pay is a lot better.
The problem with web-based advertising is that it is so damned measurable-- it's trivial to see if your ad is working or not (where "working" is defined as leading to a conversion appropriate to the task at hand.)
In the old days, a company might pay $X to run a print ad, and suspect that it was helping business, and then run it again, etc.
Now, it's trivial to know for sure, one way or the other. Which means that ad prices get tied to actual effectiveness, not to some amorphous notion of "prestige".
In other words: a lot of print advertising was horribly overpriced. I don't think a cartel is going to be able to put that toothpaste back into the tube....
I think that Michael_Dorman's largely correct on this issue, however: If they do find they can even legally follow on your suggestions, there is still the next question of whether it's the most cost-effective buy. For some branding purposes (the prestige buy you mention), it might be. But while that is a substantial spend, it's not the majority spend and at the end of the day, cartel or not, the revenues simply won't reach where they need to be to support their businesses.
Those folks have been selling ads for some time. What evidence do you have that they're doing it (significantly) wrong?
Note that all of those publications are losing off-line subscribers like crazy and the on-line numbers aren't growing as fast.
Are there anti-trust implications in your proposal?
I'm sure there are anti-trust implications if done improperly. But "The Deck" advertising network works on the same principle: limit ads to a certain network of blogs with a certain type of content, charging a different rate, having control over the type of ads, and delivering a certain known target market to advertisers. My idea for the big news/media corps is essentially the same.
Meanwhile, the calculations in this post are very conservative. Lots of journalists make more than $300 for a 1000 word article. The financial situation for working online journalists is even more difficult than suggested by the post.