The relationship between a news organization and the community is what advertisers bank on when they place their notices. It's what special interests bank on when they provide information to get their messages out.
It should be no surprise, then, that the consummation of deals as a broker might seem attractive in the time ahead. Michael Skoler, writing for the Reynolds Journalism Institute at University of Missouri, posts on exactly that.
He's noticing the rise of firms like Groupon and Living Social as services offering audiences deals through newsletters. In exchange for establishing newsletters to communicate deals, the news organizations get a piece of the transaction.
Skolar believes that, if news organizations asked audiences what they want, they could then broker deals.
Clearly there are some ethical issues in trading audiences for access, but the newsletter concept is a way of putting sufficient distance and respect into the mix. As organizations look for new streams of revenue, Skolar expects this will be one way forward.
This is a really compelling business models for newspapers I think.
In fact, I just received an email newsletter from Pegasus News announcing that they would be doing this starting from Monday. They are working with Sieze the Deal, a Groupon competitor. Pegasus is online only, but I can only hope some print papers will follow suit.
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