Clickbait, paywalls and the future of journalism
In a media landscape increasingly dominated by clickbait articles, the credibility of news is in sharp focus at the Storyology 2018 festival.
US Investigations and Projects editor at Buzzfeed News Mark Schoofs has confidence in his readership and their quest to pursue the truth.
“There’s tonnes of news out there and it’s never been easier to access… people have been choosing quality news for generations and that isn’t going to change,” Mark said.
However, Mark also acknowledged the importance of genuine entertainment articles in the media and said it’s a matter of balance.
“People love a good entertainment story, and there’s always going to be an interest in that side of things,” Mark said.
“News is only one part of a broad media landscape that runs all the way from Hollywood to investigative reporting.”
Mark noted paywalls do not necessarily separate quality journalism from clickbait stories.
“We [Buzzfeed News] are committed to remaining a free platform using ad revenue and selling our content to other platforms… however I’m aware other platforms use a paywall system and I can understand that model works for them,” he said.
“I’m not for or against that [paywalls]; whatever keeps great quality journalism out there in the public is something I support.”
The Guardian Australia editor Lenore Taylor builds on this with reference to the Guardian’s anti-paywall strategy.
“We [Guardian Australia] are pursuing a model asking readers for voluntary contributions… this means we can align the best of what we do with the financial rewards,” she said.
“If you’re entirely reliant on ad revenue, you have to use clickbait to get the maximum reach possible… we don’t want to have to rely on that revenue so we don’t use clickbait.”
Lenore did not rule out a paywall system for her publication in the future, but believes in giving all of The Guardian’s readership an opportunity to access their content.
“Part of what we want to do is give voice to people who are less fortunate… in a recent series of ours covering five Australians living below the poverty line it would be wrong if they could not access their own content,” she said.
“As long as we can make this model work I’m really keen on it.”
