Comments on: Blogonomics: Syndication

By: MrRFox

MrRFox — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 13:43:16 +0000

@Flippant – thanks – good to know that we are on the same “page” in more ways than one.

By: flippant

flippant — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 18:44:06 +0000

@MrRFox, I’ve just signed in to tell you that I’m recommending your comment.

By: Curmudgeon

Curmudgeon — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 11:19:06 +0000

I should do something for Wired one of these days; the drink sounds like a good deal.

By: MrRFox

MrRFox — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 07:51:31 +0000

“As for commenting, we know. We’re working on it.” (FS ^ ^)

Please do exercise caution – ‘it’s harder than hell to un-ring a bell’.

This “plain vanilla” blog site is a bit of a pain for search, extended discussion and editing. Still, its lack of features may be the deterent that keeps away a crowd that IMO neither you nor the crew that does post here cares to have here.

By: FelixSalmon

FelixSalmon — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 20:20:31 +0000

Yes, I’m a full-time employee of Reuters, and the rights to these posts are owned by Reuters. But, Reuters is nice enough to let me give other permission to run posts on a case-by-case basis. I don’t get paid in such cases, although Wired did buy me a drink once.

As for commenting, we know. We’re working on it.

By: revelo

revelo — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 19:27:19 +0000

I agree with MrRFox that disjointed comment streams are not a problem.

BTW I find reuters to be unfriendly for commenting, which is why I don’t comment often here though I read your column regularly. First, the sign in popup box jumps up in a very annoying way on the small screen I usually use. I sign in with Google, but Reuters won’t remember that sign in.

By: Dan_K

Dan_K — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 18:35:59 +0000

Asking for clarification related to Curmudgeon and GregHao: Felix seems to get paid (potentially quite nicely) for syndication of his work. I have the impression Ryan was not paid (though the economist might be). This seems to be a bigger deal, though one that’s negotiable in Ryan’s contract, than pure control of the context where the work gets seen.

By: GregHao

GregHao — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 18:31:26 +0000

Building on top of Curmudgeon’s point (and this was something I thought about as I reread this post), how does Felix’s reposting work? Was it a “front of house” decision to republish these blog posts on Seeking Alpha/BI/etc? I assume Felix is considered a full time employee of Reuters and therefore don’t the rights of these blog posts belong to Reuters?

By: Curmudgeon

Curmudgeon — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 17:46:21 +0000

I’m curious about rights. Most of my writing has been as an employee, or as work for hire as a contractor. The publishing side typically owns the rights and sydnicates at their convenience, and you’re right, editorial rarely if ever finds out. But under such arrangements it is not my call on whether something can be reprinted or reposted (although I have occasionally given permission that was probably not mine to give).

I assumed that Felix, Ryan, et al were also employees under similar arrangements, yet it sounds like at least Felix is not, or has arrangements other than work for hire. I’ve done work where rights revert back to me after a set period (typically 3-6 months), but most of what I write, and most of what economics bloggers write, ages rapidly and is often not usable later on.

By: MrRFox

MrRFox — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 06:19:42 +0000

Congratulations, FS – looks like you’ll be a 1%’er yourself in like no time at all. Well done, lad – take the money and post.

About your concern #2 – disjointed comment streams. Seems like that would be a virtue rather than a problem. Cross-contamination of the threads is IMO a far larger concern than its opposite. Blog-commenters are a self-segregating crew – and like it that way, IMO.

By: flippant

flippant — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 03:23:44 +0000

I read Ryan Avent’s twitter feed. I don’t agree that he “sparked a storm in a Twitter teacup” though… more like a storm in a Felix Salmon blog post.

By: ShafqatIslam

ShafqatIslam — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 01:02:08 +0000

Thanks for the post Felix and glad you are bullish on syndication. You capture our vision and the reason we come to work each day with this line: “it’s a very democratic and decentralized vision of what journalism can be.”

Obviously, you’ve also baited me into addressing a couple of your points:

1) We try and work with both the editorial side and biz dev side where possible. Some organizations are just so big that internal communication is challenging. With that said, we don’t try and “invade from the lower reaches of the business side.” I think our content partners would take offense to that since some of the BD and Syndication teams work really hard to build a new and significant revenue stream for their businesses. In the case of the economist, both the MD and the CEO of the Economist group know about our deal and are supportive. But we will certainly try and spend more time with editors to make sure they are as comfortable as their bosses or their business counterparts.

2) Our content providers’ articles ALWAYS appears first in search results. We ensure that. If you search for the title of the post (Alternative jobs-report summary), the Economist article is first. You searched for a random phrase, and if you google it now, THIS POST (yes, yours) now shows up higher than the Economist as well. So something awkward going on with Google/Economists’ main domain.

With that said, I think your overall point and the first few sentences sum it up well. We really do think we can help this industry not just survive, but thrive. And the significant revenues (millions of dollars) that we are providing to our content partners is testament to that.

By: GregHao

GregHao — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 00:30:49 +0000

Does Felix know that meetings can happen not over meals? Felix, you should do it like FT and post the menu.

But on a semi serious note, who usually stump up for these meals?