Media Outlets Using Freelance Mines That Pay As Little As $5 A Story

From Ad Age's Media Works:

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- More major media companies are looking for ways to find cheap content. Thomson Reuters, Cox Newspapers and Hachette Filipacchi have run articles supplied by Associated Content, one of several companies, such as Demand Media and AOL's SEED, that mines reporting from masses of freelancers for as little as $5 a story.

Hachette is using Associated to supply some content for its Woman's Day site. Thomson Reuters experimented with Associated for a limited period of time last year but plans to ink similar deals in the future, whether with Associated or another content provider. And Cox's Atlanta Journal-Constitution published a handful of articles from Associated last summer; it is now running regular articles supplied by Demand Media.

Such partnerships further the ongoing shift among established news operations to capitalize on the availability of cheap content, such as USA Today's recent deal with Demand Media, which is using its network of freelancers to supply pieces for a new Travel Tips section on USA Today's website. More.

Note to Advertisers: Print is Not Dead

An excellent blog post from Folio on the advertising climate for print magazines and how advertisers--once again--are missing the point:

Some of the biggest players in consumer magazine publishing kicked up a lot of buzz earlier this week when they announced the launch of “Magazines, The Power of Print.” The seven-month campaign is expected to roll out with the May issues (April 5 for weeklies) of nearly 100 print magazines and their Web sites. The purpose? To remind readers, and especially advertisers, that the print magazine medium is still very much alive, and kicking.

Since posting our news story about the campaign, I’ve heard a number of valid questions asked about it. First off, why now? To some, this sounds like an attempt (a few say a desperate one) to cling to a shrinking medium.

That’s not so, says Hearst Corp. executive vice president and publishing director Michael Clinton. In addition to Hearst, the campagin was formed jointly by Time Inc., Condé Nast, Meredith Corp. and Wenner Media. “It is a misperception that print is a shrinking medium,” Clinton told me this morning. “It is a growing medium—audiences are growing, subscriptions are growing, etc. The magazine business, collectively, has said that we have this incredibly dynamic medium that consumers love and spend money on, and we need to tell that story in a bigger way. MORE

Mag Alum Tanner Stransky Covers Broadway

Tanner has what sounds like a fun job, but there is work involved, like watching Broadway plays. (Seriously, writing for a weekly can be highly stressful.) Here is Tanner's review of Stuffed and Unstrung on ew.com.

Mag grad Amanda Hein makes Oprah.com

Planning a wedding? Check out Oprah.com's guide, complete with photos by Drake magazine grad Amanda Hein.

Top Magazines Prove Print is Not Dead--Just Connected

People magazine Leads Media Week's Top Ten Magazine Hot List 2010, followed by Women's Health, Cosmopolitan, Men's Health, The Economist, Sports Illustrated, Runners World, family Circle, More, and Parent and Child. Solid mags all, clear about their audience and mission, proving once again that print is not dead. Most, however, also harnessed social media and some-—People, Women's Health, Men's Health--jumped on the apps bandwagon effectively. As Media Week editors write. "People magazine's brand seems to be everywhere." Others made their case successfully to readers and advertisers, maintaining a healthy bottom line in a year of economic turmoil that bumped many titles off the map. Parent and Child, for example, a Scholastic magazine, now has ads from CVS and Olay, for a 9.7 percent ad increase in 2009. Read more here.