Yet another media company has followed my advice and snapped up one the Web sites on my list of top prospects. News Corp. recently announced its purchase of religion-focused Web site, BeliefNet.com

News Corp. was one of three major media companies bidding for ownership, according to the New York Times.

Earlier this year, JupiterMedia bought MediaBistro.com, another of the list-makers.

Perhaps it's time you all took a serious second look at my list?

During my break from blogging, I stopped checking for references to this blog as they happen out on that crazy network of tubes, the Internets. And I missed quite a dust-up about, of all things . . . me.

A while ago, I agreed to participate on a University of South Florida panel for journalism students that asked the ages-old question, "Are bloggers journalists?" It appears some local folks turned that question on its head and the topic became more like, "Are journalists bloggers?"

Their verdict? A "Sticks of Fire" contributor named Tommy Duncan started the roe by alleging the panel on blogging didn't include any bloggers. He was quickly corrected when folks let him know I've had this here blog thing for a while. (As a side note, I've launched many blogs at the Herald-Tribune and now am part of an effort to generate community bloggers for our user-generated Web site, PortCharlotteVoice.com. So knowing about blogging is good-sized part of what I'm paid to do.)

Still, here's one of the debate's particularly sniping comments by Ramajama:

I agree that bloggers can be journalists. And it doesn’t make sense to have a panel about bloggers that doesn’t include bona fide bloggers. Somehow, journalists that happen to also have a blog doesn’t quite cut it.

Ouch. OK, I'll concede I might be a D-List blogger, in homage to my fave Kathy Griffin. We have no shame. Thankfully, after having seemed to allege journalists aren't bloggers, the Sticks contributor, Tommy, offered this correction:

I have NEVER said “a journalist automatically cannot be” a blogger. (I often suggest that many media corporations, newspapers, magazines, PR firms, ad agencies and the like are generally unsure how to move about in this new age of media.) Anyone - anyone - can start a blog/be a blogger. There are no rules.

Since it seems I qualify as "anyone," which only solidifies my life on the D-List blogs, let me also shamelessly thank a fellow blogger for coming to my aide and defending my honor with this comment. On Wendy Withers' list of reasons for attending the panel, she listed me kindly as No. 4 most important.

Duncan asked bloggers to attend the event, which I did, but for motives other than Duncan’s suggestion. I (1) am a blogger; therefore, I am interested in topics related to blogging . . . And, I (4) respect Lucas Grindley and tend to try to catch what he has to say in his blog and at speaking engagements.

No. 4 isn't such a bad spot, right?

Wendy summarized the panel discussion and hit the proverbial nail on the head with this observation:

The question of whether or not bloggers are journalists was answered right off the bat. The consensus between the panel members was this: bloggers are journalists when they’re reporting news. Not all bloggers are committing journalism all the time, even if they’re journalists in real life. Blogs come down to conversation; sometimes the conversation strays from reporting.

And we'll chock up this argument to just another blog conversation.

Despite my numerous warnings, newspaper companies continue to sign partnerships with the likes of Google and Yahoo that put their market reach in jeopardy. So here's the really tough question: Would you partner with Craigslist?

Let's say, just for the heck of it, that Craigslist is interested in upselling their advertisers into your printed publication. If you agree to the partnership, thousands of people who now place free ads online would be given the opportunity to pay a fee to appear in the printed pages of your newspaper.

It's a revenue-share plan, of course. But it obviously means the newspaper will have to promote Craigslist and its free advertising options within the printed pages of the newspaper. If the deal falls apart one day, the free marketing could leave irreparable effects in your local market.

Tough choice. I know. But you know what they say: "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."

The premise to that ages-old expression should be taken seriously. It says IF you can't beat them. To start the discussion, let me say that I'd consider partnering with Craigslist if I worked for the underdog in the market whose real target was the larger newspaper(s). Get scrappy.

Otherwise, I've never believed it's impossible to beat the national competitors in the classifieds market. Obviously, newspaper executives disagree with me, having inked deals with numerous competitors. I'm sure these same folks would be all too eager to join hands with Craig Newmark.

Check out the content of any reverse-published, user-generated publication around the country, and you're likely to find content that is, quite frankly, pretty boring. There's a reason journalists are trained writers. It makes for better storytelling.

The next wave of community journalism will take advantage of experienced editors instead of shunning them. The model should mirror something I tried while in college, where I helped found a student magazine mostly filled with first-person stories that focused on modern issues.

One writer shared how her family dealt with becoming homeless and living in their car after their house burned down. One talked about what it's like to be clinically depressed. I told readers about my struggle coming out as gay, despite growing up as part of a family of born-again pastors and missionaries.

The editing process for these first-person stories was so important. If you're going to share such personal experience, you want to feel confident, not embarrassed. When we combine the experience of users with the experience of editors, then what's created can become a library of shared experiences that can make the world a better place - a more connected place.

Instead of telling the story of the Iraq War via daily stories, tell it in a series of first-person stories gathered and coached to life by knowledgeable editors. Ask the military mom to talk about what it's like with their child in harm's way. Ask the protester to express what it's like for them. What's it like for a person who works to manufacture Americans' weapons? The list goes on and on. And hopefully the comments in response would go on and on, as well.

Bottomline is that by providing a safe way to share life's lessons, people are more likely to do it.

After reviewing a number of online dining guides recently, I realized social networking hasn't broken free from MySpace and Facebook like I expect it eventually will.

Most newspapers still use the old fashioned feedback tool that lets users rate a restaurant between one and five stars. The system tells you how many people voted and calculates an average score. The mindset of a star rating is born from print, where reviewers traditionally offer stars and what-not to rate a restaurant or movie.

Instead, invite users to "recommend" the restaurant to others. They proclaim themselves as fans, a.k.a "friends." The restaurant with the most fans becomes the highest rated and appears highest in search results.

That's sure to boost viral marketing of your dining guide. When restaurants hear that the more fans they have, the higher on the page they'll appear, they're more likely to tell patrons to go to the site and sign up. I much prefer getting the public to do the marketing work.

A business that gets involved in sending fans to the site is also more likely to buy upgraded fields on the dining guide. For example, the restaurant should have to pay to post a menu or photos to its profile page.

Infusing your business guides with social networking is the jumping off point for a lot more functionality. All of my favorite restaurants should appear on my personal profile page. And when the restaurant uploads coupons, I should get an e-mail. Or use the "fans of this restaurant also like . . ." sort of approach.

I was surprised to find that none of the major city guides take this approach. Not Yelp. Not Metromix. Not CitySearch. There must be someone out there doing this?

When I heard the FCC finally amended its rules to allow a newspaper and television station in the same market to merge, I rejoiced at the prospect of how this could become a boon for ailing media.

But in today's story about the change, the Washington Post basically called convergence dead.

Newspaper companies fought hard for the rule change five years ago, but showed less interest in it this time because of changing market conditions in the television business. In the past, newspapers saw the high profits of television stations and envisioned significant cost-saving synergies between the properties. But that strategy was crippled by the rise of Internet video, which ate away at newspaper readers, television viewers, and the revenue of both mediums.

That analysis is short sighted. Just look around the Web at online video produced by newspapers and often what you'll find could benefit from some TV influence. The quality is often so low that it becomes embarrassing. What's worse is producing that crappy video probably required a large portion of the day for an entire group of people. Video is not within newspaper editors' core competency.

And while we spend a lot of time talking about online news video, the other important concern is the terrible quality of locally produced commercials. TV stations come with entire commercial production departments that could immediately help.

The Post is correct to point out that the online strategy affects the convergence partnership, but not that it's negative.

Newspaper Web sites draw significantly more users than TV, having had an advantage all this time on a predominantly text-based Internet. Buying a TV station would equate to buying not only video content but also television advertisers, who could be upsold to a popular Web site.

The Herald-Tribune where I work is one of the few places in the country that already owns a TV station. We got around the rules by creating a 24-hour cable news station, instead of one on the public airwaves. It's called SNN Channel 6 and it has long been integrated with the newsroom.

During the last year, changes to our workflow now mean the SNN staff posts its own video to HeraldTribune.com and the commercial production staff send all of the commercials, which are then scheduled by the online staff. And recently the advertising sales staff was reorganized to report to the same sales manager, positioning the Web site to benefit from commercial sales.

All of this is in response to predictions by Borrell and many others that the potential revenue generated by online video is about to grow exponentially. I wouldn't underestimate the importance of convergence in taking advantage of that growth.

The Nightly News recently debuted Michael Douglas as its official announcer, and Anderson Cooper says the whole thing was his idea first. He's on a search for a new announcer that has apparently spanned some six months of indecision. So I'm offering the services of our esteemed blog readers to offer some real suggestions.

1. Bill Clinton, former president
Nothing beats this voice. It works for serious stories, brights, scandal. Anything.

2. Bob Barker, retired game show host
They might be able to get him if the price is right. (I know, I know.)

3. Rosie O'Donnell, celebrity know-it-all
Anything she says is interesting. And it seems, anything she says is news.

4. Regis Philbin, talk show host
Can you say Anderson Coopa? It worked for Millionaire.

5. William Shatner, actor
He's known for what he says: "Denny Crane!"

Feel free to add your own in the comments. I'm sure Anderson reads this blog. Doesn't everyone?

Not every media co. executive out there has read my list of the best Web sites they should buy, but with another of the companies in the midst of a "deal," everyone should consider taking a look.

Budding Web site mogul Henry Blodget, who is famous for his lifetime ban from the securities industry, made what sounded like a tongue-in-cheek offer for a "reverse merger" with CNET earlier this week, before he realized what that term meant.

We originally referred to this proposed transaction as a "reverse merger." We have been advised that, in some circles, this term has a very specific definition that would not apply in this case. Thus, we have stricken the term from our offer.

And it's apparently a real offer. The Reuters MediaFile blog said they contacted Blodget, who "emailed us to say it’s a serious offer." CNET hasn't commented anywhere that I've seen.

Blodget might have a bit more work to do before convincing anyone he's serious. Portfolio's daily brief reported it this way:

In an indication of his festive mood, Blodget today announced a "friendly" merger offer for CNET: The tech news giant would buy SAI (Blodget's site, Silicon Alley Insider) for $50 million, and then Blodget and crew would take over the executive suites and presumably cure what ills CNET. It's nice to see that Blodget hasn't lost his sense of humor.

The bottomline in all of this: Even if this offer is a hoot, my list is for real.

Related posts:

• News Corp. takes my advice, buys BeliefNet


• Company plucks one from my list of best sites to buy


• List of businesses newspapers should buy

The latest edition of PRESSTIME includes a Q&A; with Web entrepreneurs who get nearly all the answers wrong. Thankfully, I'm here to set these millionaires straight. There's so many things to correct that this entry is the first in a series.

PRESSTIME: What parts of a traditional newspaper site would you discard completely? Which traditional elements do you think hold the most promise?

Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of reddit.com responded first. In my print copy, I wrote in pen next to his answer, "load of crap!" Here's what he said:

The first thing that comes to mind is classifieds, which I know would be tricky to discard, as it'd be an admission of defeat - and the loss of a dwindling cash flow. But CraigsList won, and nothing is going to change that.

Regular readers of this blog know better than to get me started on CraigsList. The topic brings on an overwhelming competitive fever. I've written more about Craigslist than anything else, and it can't all be repeated. Please re-read my strategy for beating CraigsList and consider it for your market.

What I want to say to Alexis is: The war isn't over. Innovation isn't a one-act show.

Sure, CraigsList has an effective product now. But what is the next model? There will always be a newer, better cell phone. Consider Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Its counterpart for product development is explained in "Universal Principles of Design," a must-read.

1. Functionality
First, your Web site must work correctly. Not meeting this most basic need is a barrier to entry for users. Remember the fall of Friendster, which hadn't planned enough server capacity.

2. Reliability
The site has to get the job done for users. That means when I run a search, it must return what I'm looking for 100 percent of the time. For classifieds, the site needs listings. And after one year in a market, CraigsList is usually competitive in total volume of posts.

3. Usability
So your Web site works, but how well? There's a difference between getting the job done and getting the job done easily. CraigsList excels at simplicity.

4. Proficiency
Going beyond usability, how helpful is your site in getting things done for its users? Your Web site must be an expert, the most proficient in its coverage area. Tools are one way to do that. Small innovations such as RSS feeds and e-mail alerts are helpful to job seekers. Sites such as Monster excel at this in classified niches. If this seems a hopeless battle based only on price, then ask yourself why the likes of Monster and HotJobs are able to compete against free CraigsList.

5. Creativity
I equate this to Maslow's "self actualization," the last on his hierarchy of needs. If all sites are equal in functionality and proficiency, then more important is the question of whether they help users feel part of a community. Does your site engage users? Surely, CraigsList does this but not as well as it could. LinkedIn is an example of a competitor on this level.

See Alexis, all is not lost.

I overheard a group of ad reps chatting outside my office yesterday. One said: "Pain is only temporary; giving up lasts forever." He'd read it on the back of another runner's t-shirt during a marathon. In this metaphor, it's newspaper executives who are reading the back of Craig Newmark's shirt.

COMING NEXT: My answer to PRESSTIME's question

Using Caspio's database software, HeraldTribune.com became the first newspaper in the country to post a newly released government database of punished teachers. Here's how the Associated Press reported it:

A confidential, nationwide list of 24,500 teachers who have been punished for a wide array of offenses was made available to the public Friday by a Florida newspaper.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune created a searchable database of the teachers' names after waiting for years to gain access to the list. The paper began seeking the material as part of its earlier reporting on teacher sexual misconduct in Florida. It obtained the list from the Florida Department of Education.

The list, gathered and maintained by the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification, does not provide any information on why any of the teachers were disciplined. Sexual misconduct, financial misconduct, criminal convictions and other misbehavior all can bring disciplinary actions against teacher licenses.

The credit for getting the database posted goes to several of the same people who brought you the Broken Trust series, which was named as a Digital Edge finalist last week. The investigative team at the Herald-Tribune is very aggressive, and my successor as Content Manager, Maurice Tamman, comes from the investigative team.

The database is linked now by the Drudge Report, so the traffic is big, of course.

RELATED LINKS:

• New national searchable database


• Herald-Tribune analysis of database


• Original Broken Trust series

PRESSTIME asked: "What parts of a traditional newspaper site would you discard completely? Which traditional elements do you think hold the most promise?"

With this question, PRESSTIME is searching for a specific project to shoot with a silver bullet. But there just isn't any single feature on all newspaper Web sites that is worth killing in every case.

I'll concede that a lot of worthwhile ideas are being poorly implemented. Take for example almost any "shopping" section. Using these sections often only solidifies in users' minds that newspaper Web sites are the wrong place to find bargains. With some concentrated effort, though, a local shopping deals section has great potential.

The best way to identify parts of your Web site that should be discarded is to check traffic. Find those things that require the most time to produce yet garner the fewest page views. Check out my formula for calculating the importance of projects.

Chris Tolles, CEO for Topix.net, clearly hasn't read or doesn't agree with my formula because his answer to PRESSTIME's question trashes one of the highest performers. He said: "I wouldn't put AP content online. I would use content as the start of a conversation as opposed to a definitive product."

Posting Associated Press content is usually an automatic process that requires zero effort to maintain. And yet it consistently generates a significant amount of traffic for local newspaper sites. Users of AP content on local sites aren't looking for the best national coverage, they're looking for local stories and happen to bump into interesting national news. What's wrong with answering that lower-level need?

If you ignore what its CEO says and instead do as Topix.net does, then the most effective use of AP content is to package it contextually with related stories and topics where readers are likely to find it passively. AP content can effectively fill out the long tail if the site's technology helps users find only the stories they need.

Sorting the gems from the trash requires first understanding that effective long-tail content not only takes minimal effort to produce but also must be easily found.

COMING NEXT
Will focusing on hyperlocal content pay off?

PREVIOUS ENTRY IN THIS SERIES
PRESSTIME, here are the right answers

PRESSTIME asked: “Many newspaper sites have begun focusing on hyperlocal content. Do you think that approach will ultimately pay off?

Billionaire and famed dance aficionado Mark Cuban got this answer right when he said, “They don’t have a choice. It’s a checklist item – if it’s not there, they fail.”

Remember what the Suburban Newspaper Association found in its far-reaching study of the best local sites. Respondents said breaking news is the No. 1 reason for visiting these sites. Any newspaper.com must cover breaking news or it won't be used.

The same goes for hyperlocal coverage, which is just another way to say “relevant” coverage. The more relevant your news coverage is to readers, the more they will depend on your site.

The question shouldn’t be whether hyperlocal will ultimately pay off since it’s not actually part of playing offense. It’s a defensive strategy for most newspapers.

But the smart strategist realizes that whoever controls breaking news coverage and hyperlocal content can control any market, even those outside traditional boundaries. For example, Yahoo’s decision to create a newspaper consortium proves it understands the competitive advantage of being considered the most local.

And it picked up on the second part of Cuban’s answer; “What also has to be hyperlocal is the salesforce. It’s the one thing no national Web site will ever have.”

Well, not “ever.” Through its consortium, Yahoo is already co-opting newspaper salesforces to sell its job postings and banner inventory. Those newspapers that join the consortium post all of their local employment classifieds to Yahoo HotJobs and then give Yahoo a cut of the profits. Aren’t those newspapers lucky?

And when someone in your market logs on, Yahoo will even let you sell the banner impressions generated by their visit. Wow, so nice of them.

But it doesn’t stop there. Remember the importance of breaking news? If you partner with Yahoo, they’ll let you post all your breaking news directly to the personalized Yahoo Local home page.

It’s almost as if Yahoo has hired local sales people and local reporters, except that newspapers pay for the privilege of working.

COMING NEXT IN THE SERIES
Chris Tolles calls reporters lazy, overpaid

PREVIOUS ENTRY IN THIS SERIES
How to discard parts of a newspaper Web site

PRESSTIME asked: “With online news often described as a commodity product, where does traditional newspaper content fit?"

To which, Topix.net CEO Chris Tolles seems to agree with the premise that news is nothing more than a commodity and then makes a pretty thick swipe at traditional reporters and editors.

“I don’t think you’re going to have the same kind of stories that you’d have in traditional papers. Your site should have 100 stories a day, not six. Journalists are going to have to work longer, harder and for less money. Think about blogs – you’re going to have to write 12 stories a day at $25 a pop.”

In my world, most journalists already work long hours. They work hard, and they’re not getting rich. The idea that Tolles would implement worse work-life conditions is baffling. Even worse is Tolles suggestion for how to accomplish this feat of 12 stories per day, per reporter.

“You can change your standards a bit – you could make fact-checking an option and brand it. It’s not expected on the Web anymore.”

Once again, billionaire Mark Cuban gets it right in his answer.

“What is defined as news has been changed to fit the Web. Allowing that to happen may have been the newspaper industry’s biggest mistake. Wire service aggregation passes for comprehensive news, and papers print the same stuff. That’s stupid. In addition, they are letting blogs pass as reporting. The industry has made no effort to brand its differences from online. [It] should be paraphrasing Crocodile Dundee – “That’s not news, this is news.”

In other words, if news is a commodity, then it's a valuable one.

COMING NEXT IN THIS SERIES
Social networking starts with a profile

PREVIOUS ENTRY IN THIS SERIES
For Mark Cuban, hyperlocal is do or die

Scott Karp questions the value of being linked from Digg, and I couldn’t agree more. As regular readers know, I question the value of being linked by the likes of Google News. Aggregators are not sending you potential longtime users. They’re sending drops in the bucket that generate what I call “empty page views,” which aren’t valued by local advertisers.

A new game from Politico.com aggregates the wisdom of the crowds by letting us average folks play pundit and predict the winners of the presidential primaries.

The game is aptly titled, Kingmaker, and is from the makers of Fantasy Congress, which is also cool but not as easy to play. I've created a league that anyone is free to join if you'd like to compete against fellow journobloggers.

Oh, and what are the crowds saying? At the time of this post, Huckabee and Obama were predicted to win in Iowa (R|D); Romney and Clinton are ahead in New Hampshire (R|D). But just a fraction of a percent separate Clinton and Obama there.

None of you should bemoan the fact you didn't launch this great idea first. After all, the Readership Institute suggested a very similar thing long ago (2004), and Politico is the first to try it.

PRESSTIME asked: "Where do you think newspapers should stand in the social networking universe? How would you mesh community and traditional editorial content?"

Most everyone on PRESSTIME's panel got this question right, but very few newspaper sites do any of what they suggest. And there's a good reason.

Newspapers (and some others) are still missing the infrastructure that lets social networking happen. The backbone is an effective profile page. When newspapers started registering their users years ago, they often didn't ask people for their names. Instead they asked uncomfortably personal questions like, how much do you get paid? Stop feigning market research, and use registration to start social networking.

I love the school of thought that equates user participation with leading people up a ladder. At the lowest rungs of participation, users might respond to a poll with a yes or no vote. They might recommend a story. Basically, they'll do things that require one click.

After answering the poll, they might read a comment that sparks them to reply. Suddenly they've moved another step up the ladder of participation.

One-click feedback and commenting should become the gateway drugs of user participation. But often newspapers miss the opportunity to build on these activities because they lack an effective profile page.

Whenever I answer a poll, or recommend a story, that feedback should be remembered on my user profile page. It would be nice if the system then compared me to other users and said, for example, I'm 80 percent similar in responses by Jane Doe. But newspapers do nothing with all of this feedback.

Building a successful profile page would lead users to try more advanced forms of participation that we see on MySpace and Facebook. Users might become a "fan" of a restaurant because their picks appear on their profile page. A community group might post more events and jobs because their listings appear on their profile page, and then perhaps smaller groups will use the profile as a surrogate Web page. And if enough groups create pages, then perhaps other users will name themselves as "friends" of these groups. The list goes on and on.

But it all starts with a profile page that aggregates your users' feedback.

COMING NEXT IN THIS SERIES
Could any online strategies or features breathe new life into a newspaper's print product?

PREVIOUS ENTRY IN THIS SERIES
Chris Tolles calls reporters lazy, overpaid

This is the time of year for predictions, so here goes. During 2008, at least one newspaper will collapse its daily standalone sports section into the rest of the paper, conceding that it can only compete on local coverage and scrapping all national sports coverage.

The foreshadowing of this event was written about in the New York Times, which noticed that the likes of ESPN and Yahoo are hiring top talent away from newspapers. Amidst all of the job cutting, the papers can't justify paying to retain high-priced sports writers.

Some print publications, notably Sports Illustrated, have selectively tried to keep up with the lucrative ESPN and Yahoo offers, to retain some of their writers or attract new ones. But for the most part, newspapers, though they are being forced to raise some salaries, cannot keep up. Several say they are suffering through the worst talent drain their editors can recall.

“My counteroffer usually comes down to asking them what kind of cake they want at their goodbye party,” said Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, assistant managing editor for sports at The Washington Post, which has lost three writers to ESPN in the last year and a half. “The numbers they throw around are out of reach.”

The reason newspapers will eventually have to shed national sports coverage isn't that they don't have good reporters and columnists. It will be because ESPN just trounces them. Fans will read Yahoo or SI. Regional newspapers won't be able to keep pace. Local newspapers will be relegated to covering only local teams. And they won't need a standalone, daily section to do it.

If newspapers are no longer able to keep pace with the big players for salaries, then maybe we'll have to start offering a new way of paying reporters and columnists. Pay extra based on the number of page views that stories generate.

Jack Lail over at Random Mumblings responded to my post about the race to hire the best sports writers by suggesting that advertising CPM rates might dictate reporter pay. But there are a lot of holes in that, starting with the absurdly low CPM rates still found online and the inevitable truth that what is popular is not always easy to sell. I agree with Patrick Beeson's response, which says it's too early to pay exclusively on CPM rates. (And I doubt we should ever follow solely that model.)

But I have long supported a bonus structure based on the number of page views generated by a reporter's or columnist's stories. Business 2.0 tried this model and it seemed effective. Those folks who do extraordinary work generating page views are rewarded and, hopefully, the entire newsroom starts to think about what attracts readers. That will help online, but it sure can't hurt print circulation numbers either.

Editors are always struggling with government reporters to tell stories from the human perspective, and they're right. When issues are explained via their effect on real human beings instead of in numbers and figures, the stories are often more popular online.

Page view bonuses do not account for the hard work of some people, such as analysis and investigations that don't pan out but were worth exploring. Continue using traditional means to reward those valuable people.

I totally disagree with the old commission model reportedly in use at Gawker Media, which paid $12 per post, according to NYT columnist David Brooks. Brooks isn't a fan of that or a new plan.

". . . Gawker is an information-age sweatshop. The bloggers on staff are compelled to produce 12 blog posts a day, and under the old compensation system they were paid the munificent sum of $12 per post. Now it’s worse. Owner Nick Denton is going to pay them per page-view. No views, no food."

The old Denton plan favored quantity over quality. The new one isn't much better, since it doesn't value time-consuming, in-depth reporting and might favor sensationalism. A page view bonus structure favors neither quantity or quality more. Sometimes cranking out posts creates the most page views, and sometimes writing one really good post can do the same.

The point is a bonus system doesn't hurt anyone. But it might help retain top talent while also increasing page views and audience.

UPDATE: Check my post in the comments to find the particulars of Denton's new plan, which it turns out is perfect. It should be the model going forward. A must-read. -Lucas