Blogger/citizen journalist compensation

Our bad!*

We didn't make it at all clear in our original posting that, with your input and participation, we will be developing a compensation plan for successful bloggers/citizen-journalists posting on the BostonNOW website. We apologize and hope this post clears up some of your questions and concerns.

Over the next several months, we will meet with as many of you as possible to discuss your thoughts about the method of determining who should get compensated, how they should be compensated, and how much.

As no one is doing this yet, we will be breaking new ground and so the more minds focused on the challenge, the better. If you’ve got an opinion about how this should work, we want to hear it. Come to our Bloggers' Summit on March 10th and speak to us in person, comment on this post with your ideas, or email us privately with your thoughts.

Together we must determine what constitutes "success." Page views? Comments? Most e-mailed? A mix? Then we must determine what various forms of compensation attach to various levels of success. There could be a rolling scale ranging from free stuff to cash.

Here are our initial thoughts. Bloggers and C-Js would post for a period of time for no compensation in exchange for the opportunity to gain massive exposure and promotion.

After that introductory period, we would use the "success" criteria and compensation scale to begin rewarding bloggers and C-Js for their work.

As we said, we’re in virgin territory here, so we’re looking for your ideas to help us craft a compensation system that is fair and workable.

John Wilpers
Editor-in-Chief, BostonNOW


* Why isn't there an up-to-date way to say "Our mistake!" that doesn't sound like bad early '90s television? – Regina