Mediagazer: Why is Seeking Alpha paying its contributors? (Reuters)

7:25 AM ET, January 17, 2011

Top News:

Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:

Why Two Sites This Week Decided To Start Paying Their Writers — We hear all the time about sites debating whether to charge consumers for content but whether to pay people to create that content is something they're also tinkering with. If you needed any proof, there were two examples this week.

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Reuters:

Why is Seeking Alpha paying its contributors? — Seeking Alpha has finally started paying its contributors — but I'm not convinced that this is a welcome development. — CEO David Jackson announced “three new initiatives” this morning: revenue sharing, a new leaderboard system, and access to statistics.

Discussion: paidContent and IR Web Report

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Man Bites Dog! Web Publisher Pays Writers

Discussion: VentureBeat

Emili Vesilind / All The Rage:

The Golden Globes gifting suites — the freebie fests evolve — A three-stop tour of this year's Golden Globes gifting suites proved that companies — OPI as well as Fancy Feast — are still dying to get their products in the hands of celebrities. — And by “celebrities” we mean a slew of B-listers and a couple of bona fide stars.

Discussion: The Big Picture, Gawker, Speakeasy, Moraes on TV, The Wire and Daily Mail

Peter Sciretta / /Film:
2011 Golden Globe Award Winners

Discussion: Mediaite, Gawker and CNET News, more at Techmeme »

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

Blog Fight Rules Of Engagement — Blog fights happen. Sometimes for attention, but most of the time because someone is really pissed off about something. And don't count out big media, they jump right in too when they feel it. — No one's ever written down any rules for blog fights that I know of.

Discussion: New York Times and SAI, more at Techmeme »

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Piers Morgan Sets Himself as Larry King's Opposite — Fifteen minutes into the taping of his interview for “Piers Morgan Tonight,” the radio personality Howard Stern has already talked about his “King of All Media” bluster, his search for approval from his father, and whether he is …

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

Exclusive: SnagFilms Snags $10 Million in Funding at $50 Million Valuation — SnagFilms, the online video distribution site for professional documentaries, has nabbed $10 million in funding from Comcast's investment arm and New Enterprise Associates, and will also now be distributing fictional independent film releases.

Discussion: paidContent, The Wrap, Media Decoder, Thompson on Hollywood, SAI and Pulse2

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Google Issues DoubleClick AdEx Report Card, Promises Big Lift To Publishers — It's been 15 months since Google (NSDQ: GOOG) formally linked AdWords to DoubleClick and launched its display Ad Exchange. Thanks in part to DoubleClick's established hold on ad dollars, plus an ad recovery …

more at Techmeme »

Frédéric Filloux / Monday Note:

The Uncertain Future of Free Dailies — There are signs. Not necessarily good ones. At ten in the morning in Paris, you still find piles of free dailies at almost every distribution point. At four in the afternoon, in the business district, outside one of the busiest subway stations …

Arthur S. Brisbane / New York Times:

Time, the Enemy — JIM ROBERTS, the assistant managing editor who has helped create today's NYTimes.com, likes to call it the 1440/7 news cycle — 1,440 minutes every day, seven days a week, each one of those minutes demanding news for delivery to a networked world.

Nancy Franklin / New Yorker:

Oprah Winfrey's new cable channel. — Who is Oprah Winfrey and what does she want? What does she want that she doesn't already have? And what does she want for us that we don't already have? None of these questions are new, but, with Winfrey having embarked on an extraordinary venture …

Verne G. Kopytoff / New York Times:

AOL Bets on Hyperlocal News, Finding Progress Where Many Have Failed — SAN FRANCISCO — City council meetings, high school football games and store openings may seem like small town news, but they are critical to AOL's revival effort. — Over the last year and a half, AOL …

David Carr / New York Times:

Publishing, Without Publishers — In the not-so-distant past, a luxury brand like Richemont, the Swiss company that owns Piaget, Dunhill and Montblanc, would have killed for even the slightest attention from Jeremy Langmead, the editor of British Esquire. — Now, he works for them, building a menswear e-commerce site.

Edmund Lee / AdAge:

IPad Users Prefer Advertising to Pay Model for Content — Whopping 86% Said They Would Watch Ads in Order to Receive Free Content Such as TV Shows, Mags — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Media companies everywhere gleefully glommed on to Apple's iPad when it launched in April …