Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Philly TV station paying local bloggers to stream news content

An interesting twist on the blog-monetization debate is occuring in Philadelphia, where CBS channel 3 is offering local bloggers the chance to make money by streaming their content. The station is giving bloggers the chance to add an embeddable widget to their blogs which will stream breaking news as well as headlines from top stories:
In line with delivering breaking news, CBS 3 will supply the widgets with real-time news feeds of local headlines and images to ensure updated content on partner sites 24-hours a day. The headlines and updates link back to their full stories and videos, available on the CBS 3 site at www.cbs3.com.


The widgets will also include ads and have a rev-share component so that local bloggers that embed the widgets on their sites can share in the revenue generated from the advertising.

What do you think of this? I've long been a proponent of bloggers being able to monetize their content IF they can find a way to provide added value to their readers at the same time. That 'if' is often the stumbling block to a win-win monetization idea.

But to me, this idea sounds like it could be a winner. By adding the widget, bloggers are giving their readers another source of valuable content. 'Local' blogs aimed at the Philadelphia market are no doubt going to have a readership that's predominantly local. This audience would likely find value in receiving breaking local news. And obviously CBS 3 benefits by increasing their exposure.

Would you offer a widget like this on your site to stream someone else's content in order to get some extra cash from it? If you frequently read local blogs, do you think having a widget with breaking news (and ads) would give you more value, or less?

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As long as I know what the content is (news/sports is fairly "neutral"), and that it potentially adds value, why not? But then again, so few blogs actually have large enough readership that any significant money can be made, which then leads to the question - is it really worth all the trouble and distraction?

Anonymous said...

Good Job! :)