The outsourcing of news content continues apace, in this case with the venerable Ladies’ Home Journal.
From Advertising Age:
Ladies’ Home Journal Lets Readers Write the Magazine
Crowdsourcing has been common in advertising for some time, but in a highly unusual move, it’s now vaulting the wall at the venerable Ladies’ Home Journal, which is planning to turn over many of the pages in its 128-year-old publication to work written by readers.
The magazine will still use fact-checkers and include experts in fields such as medicine and beauty, but it will start with consumers where it can. “We really flipped this model,” said Editor-in-Chief Sally Lee. “Usually content creation begins with an editor. We have content creation that begins with a reader.”
Of which Ladies’ Home Journal has 3.2 million. That’s a really big crowd-sourcing.
And, the AdAge piece notes, “[u]nlike the Huffington Post, where many bloggers post without pay, Ladies’ Home Journal won’t tell its amateur writers to settle for the exposure. ‘We are going to pay them our professional rates,’ [Editor-in-Chief Sally] Lee said.”
Speaking of the Huffington Post, here’s its take:
The new approach is a huge shift away from LHJ’s tradition of offering professional advice on fashion, relationships and health, and interviews with cover ladies like Ann Curry and Robin Roberts.
The reaction to such a radical step has been fairly skeptical. “Ladies’ Home Journal is about to find out, in the harshest way possible, just how bad it can be,’ Fishbowl NY’s Chris O’Shea wrote. What do you think? Tell us in our poll below.
HuffPo’s vote: Definitely! No!
But it’s the AdAge subhead that really tells the tale:
Venerable Publication’s Bid to Attract Younger Audience May Cause Ripple Effect Among Mass Titles
To wit:
While other publishers have dabbled in the practice, its adoption by Ladies’ Home Journal, a title that guarantees advertisers an average paid circulation of 3.2 million, is significant since it is the largest traditional media brand to commit to so much user-generated content on an ongoing basis. If it’s successful, other mass-circulation titles may follow. “I’ve been asked a lot about whether we foresee this becoming a model that other magazines will start to implement,” said Diane Malloy, publisher of Ladies’ Home Journal. “My answer is, ‘Gosh, yes, I think everyone is going to sit up and take notice.'”
Is this good news for newslovers?
Gosh, no.
Here’s a different way of configuring the list, with links to the groups and related news stories:
