AOL: Content Will Be King

The “right business model” for the Web seems to be a universal talking point. You can have pretty pictures and stunning graphics at your freelance or company site. But when it comes to attracting and keeping viewers, strong written content still drives traffic.

Fluff works only so long and once your viewers figure out your deal (content mill, for example), they may be off in search of something more intriguing and in-depth, perhaps permanently.

AOL, known as America Online from the early Internet days, seems to understand the stakes with an announcement it plans to hire hundreds of journalists, editors and videographers in the next year as it develops its content-first business model.

David Eun (above right), president of AOL's media and studios division, in an interview with AdvertisingAge, spelled out his strategy that will include grouping all America Online-related sites into 17 "super-networks."

Eun, who recently took over the top job, says he studied the economics and data from traffic across AOL's properties and search, and came to one overarching conclusion: produce more content, faster.

“Our mission at this company is to be the world's largest producer of high-quality content, period," he says. "The content driving our traffic is home-grown, and 80% of it is now produced by folks on the AOL payroll."

AOL has about 500 full-time editorial employees. While Eun says the marketplace will determine the pace of new hires, it is conceivable that number could double in the coming year. "We are going to be the largest net hirer of journalists in the world next year," he says.

The content operation, which includes more than 100 brands, including AOL Health and AOL Autos and brands such as Fanhouse and PopEater, will be reorganized into 17 separate "networks" the company will package to advertisers, according to a report by AdvertisingAge writer Michael Learmonth.

In WMB’s view, anything promoting quality writing-editing and which puts some of the nation’s 15,000 unemployed professional journalists back to work is worth considering.

Talented people from all areas in traditional media – newspapers, TV, magazines, and radio – are sitting on the sidelines today, through no real fault of their own, because of electronic competition and the Great Recession.

It’s tough for traditional media to compete against the Internet because its vast resources are always on and available, especially with the recent boom in new hand-held electronic devices (iPad, for example).

AOL’s plans seem plausible, but the devil’s in the details. Are we talking about AOL journalist jobs that will pay living wages, or simply content mill material commanding pennies on the dollar while polluting the Internet with more junk?

When AOL developed in the early 1990s as a dial-up Internet company, the Web was fairly basic, almost innocent (by today’s standards) as a portal for searching information. The quality then, as now, always was open to question and uneven.

The early information superhighway had very few rules and many companies still hadn’t developed Web sites, or had very simple ones. Sadly, some newspaper owners were the last to hop aboard. They were content to have their heads buried in the sand as they continued to work with a 20th century business model for print.

With few exceptions, who could have predicted at the end of the last century the explosive growth of blogs and social media sites? Who could have anticipated the rise of content mills as successors to shrinking print publications, such as newspapers and magazines?

Still, judging from AdvertisingAge viewer comments, AOL really has its work cut out if the company wants to succeed as a dominant content provider, the Holy Grail which has eluded many, with the notable exception of The Wall Street Journal.

“This is so wrong what they are doing,’’ one commenter wrote of AOL’s plans. “They are lost in the new world of Web 2.0. They need to radically change their business model. Who needs content from their journalists? The Internet is flooded with all kinds of publications, and AOL is trying to build a business model while swimming in this flood.”

Not all were negative.

“AOL is finally making a good decision,’’ another commenter wrote. “Pick up talent from the crumbling traditional media – newspaper guys – and create a model where the information provided is high quality and topic focused so that there is access to well-researched and vetted investigative reporting. Come on AOL figure out the model, there is a real appetite for quality content and God knows we need some real journalism in this world.”

All things being equal, AOL has just as much chance at succeeding as any other company seeking a business model for the Web. Why?

Just look at three cable TV news outlets: MSNBC leans left, Fox to the right and CNN usually down the middle. If cable TV can support such radically different takes on the same news events, why can’t the Net work the same way?

Since The Wall Street Journal has found a way to attract and retain viewers, even with a pay wall for its financial content, AOL, another brand-name player, should get the benefit of a doubt. At some point, the WSJ is going to have legitimate competition as a money-making content provider.

Professional competition, zest for knowing the why of things, and finding where the facts lead are the driving forces producing some of America’s finest journalists, regardless if they’re in traditional media, new media, or both. AOL may be on to something.

As for me, I practice what I preach at writenowworks.com.