Power Brokering A New Media Democracy

Associated Content thinks the crowd should benefit, too

Saba Kennedy Washington interviews Luke Beatty, founder of Associated Content

The Denver-based media company Associated Content solicits and publishes knowledge-driven content from its users. Associated Content pays its producers, on average, between $3 and $20 for the news, essays and opinions the site accepts, plus royalties based on the number of page views the content generates. Some of the content is also syndicated to the company's partners, but the site mostly relies on advertising for revenue.

Luke Beatty, the founder and CEO of the company, told the Denver alternative weekly newspaper Westword that Associated Content was not yet making money, but it has expanded to 20 full-time employees and approximately 55,000 content producers since its 2004 founding. In May, 2007, Westword reported that Associated Content now "regularly pummels operations associated with the Denver Post, the Rocky Mountain News and other big boys."

Saba Kennedy Washington interviewed Beatty, who was on his way to the airport for a business trip.

Saba Washington: How did your working for the search taxonomy company Wand, and your time in education fuel the concept of Associated Content?

Luke Beatty: Well, I certainly came from a world of search, discovery, directories, and it occurred to me that people have the ability to scour information on the web all day long without any real content. I realized that consumers were looking for information and we needed to build the tools to help them find that information. The whole premise behind AC is that the public can provide information it needs. If we could make a dent in the content base, we could build one big library with everyone dumping into the bucket what they know. My "aha!" moment happened in my office in Silicon Valley.

Q: You have appointed former Rocky Mountain News multimedia producer Tim Skillern as the news director for the site. Does this mean that Associated Content is heading more towards becoming a first-hand news site?

A: News is just one focus to start with, and that is because the news process is very different [from the rest of our content]. With time-lines, it is managed quite differently. Obviously news is useless if it is not on time. That is not to say that we are not looking at other channels, it is just a starting point.

Q: You have said that Associated Content's content producers are ultimately going to be like power sellers on eBay.

A: Of course, I do not expect that all CP’s are going to be that. I do envision that we will have that level of producer that makes AC a lot of their income, their lifestyle and focus of what they do. As an example, I might have sold 60 things on eBay in five to six years, while someone else might have sold a lot more. The same with the CP at AC. There are some that will write hundreds of things while others might not. That is the comparison I am making.

Q: How do you address the criticism that Associated Content is nothing more than a site that publishes stories to optimize Google ads?

A: We use Google, Yahoo and anybody’s ads. We look for the best ad partners for us. We are always going to optimize for good quality ads relative to copy. It is this optimizing that allows us to pay CP’s. We couldn’t do it otherwise. I would say it is just plain good business.

Q: You have said in other interviews that Associated Content is people-driven, not editor-driven. With this in mind, how do you address the practice of content ratings based on content producer popularity as opposed to quality content?

A: There is a fine balance between quality and performance. Right now on the web, humor is the most popular viral content out there. That is not to say that there is a level of quality and that it could not be better edited. It is just popular. Like I say, AC is the picture frame and the content is a reflection of the Content Producer. We don’t want to edit people because then, it would not be "the people’s media company." I think one misunderstanding CP’s have is that if they spend a lot of time on creating a great, spectacular piece, even passing it along to several friends for editing, then it will perform. That is the same idea that people might spend millions on a movie and it doesn’t perform. It does not say they did not put great effort into it, but it might have been poorly marketed, had very little audience or any number of things.

Q: If Associated Content is going to be more news-driven, do you for-see issuing press passes/credentials to the content producers?

A: Absolutely! With that being said, we’re certainly not looking to build a news channel as opposed to any other channel like entertainment or something like that. We are looking at hiring people to cover technical stories, politics, wellness and other areas.

Q: If Associated Content is to be considered a crowdsourcing site, how will you manage the crowd as it grows, and changes your business plan?

A: Good question. At the rate that we are growing, we can certainly say that the crowd could become uncontrollable. Again we don’t want to have to hire police officers or security guards (laughs). We want to create more tools and functionality that will allow the crowd to control the crowd. Like my eBay example, sellers and buyers are self-policing and producing. We will have credentialed people as the idea of social media grows that can help in this capacity. Our "Community" tab is an example of this, where CP’s can teach, inform and help one another.

Q: There have been complaints about the sometimes nominal amount of money made by some content producers. You have obviously made money in content, so how do you address these people, and is there money to be made in crowdsourcing?

A: You have to have a business model or plan. You cannot monetize 1 million people around a water cooler without any real purpose. Ours is that every day, millions of people are searching for information and those page views together with advertising are a big part of our formula.

Q: In an age where information is power, could we consider content producers as part of a new production line?

A: Absolutely! It is a whole new force of information. The more people we have, the more power. We want to create an environment where you feel you are missing out if your information is missing.

Q: Sort of like a new public library?

A: Exactly. It is a new public library with new authors and new producers and others creating a whole new information source. It could be powerful. Take for example the Virginia Tech incident. We rallied 50 CP’s who stepped in to cover the story. This is the kind of thing people want to know.

Q: Would you consider Associated Content an exercise in collective intelligence? And is there, in fact, wisdom in crowd?

A: Yes it is the best wisdom. It is the democratization of media.

Q: Ohmynews.com and Innocentive use the crowdsourcing concept—one for global news and information dissemination like Associated Content, and the other as a product research and development model. Do you believe that this approach is where we are heading in the future?

A: Well, we will experiment with it all. People are coming to us daily for product reviews, and the like and if there is a need for it, we will explore it.

Q: Looking back to 2004, when you first launched Associated Content, can you point to one or two incidents that truly surprised you or that wreaked havoc on your business plan?

A: I would say, just keeping up with the flow of content. You can never predict it day-to-day.
Also, what also ambushed us was the need to educate CP’s. Many want to sign up and might not be web savvy people like you or I who might not think twice about buying a plane ticket, downloading music and things like that. The majority of people might not know so, we have had to do a lot of educating. That is where we rely on CP’s to educate each other. Hey I work for AC (laughing)—whatever I say could be considered baloney. So, the key is to get producers educating and helping each other.

Q: What is your clearest example of how crowd sourcing can benefit our society?

A: I would have to take the Virginia Tech example again. That is the sort of information people want as far as news is concerned. Another example would be if I just bought a plasma screen, and didn’t know how to use it, or the instructions were not clear; I could search out people who have done it before. The same goes for wellness. I might not be able to rely on a doctor in a specific situation but I can accept how someone like me dealt with it.

Q: In contrast, do you see any problems, like perhaps over-saturation of information?

A: No. I don’t foresee this in the near future. At least not in the future I’m looking at. We always have calls for a variety of information.

Q: Is it possible that with the current model, consumer and product could become a blur, or one and the same? If so, is there a danger?

A: That is a really, really good question. I don’t have the clear answer on that , but I would think it would be a safer environment for the consumer. It is more to their advantage if you can find FAQ that analyzes or discusses the use of a particular product. From the product side probably not so good.

Q: And that goes back to the idea of the crowd policing itself?

A: Yeah, I would say so.

Q: With the diverse pool of content producers, you have a wide range of professionals at your fingertips. Do you foresee tapping content producers to work within the company?

A: I’m not sure if every CP would want to work for AC (laughing). I will say we intend to use CP’s a lot more to improve quality and market the site. We did hire a CP recently.

-----

Edited by Kevin Lerner