Funding for news outlet TalkingPointsMemo. I'm interested in the bsuiness of online journalism, indeed, in proving that there even is one. So to hear "between $500k and $1 million" in angel funding going to TPM, with the niche outlet interested in monetizing its audience of savvy professional news junkies with high incomes. They're hiring, and have had 200 applicants for 7 positions. Founder Joshua Micah Marshall noted, "They are the best group of applicants I have ever seen...when I see some of their applications, I think I should be applying to them.”
So what business besides invetsing that angel cash in commodities is going to pay these 7 lucky hires? I ventured over to the site for the first time in while (I think during the presidential election I mostly visited the TPMuckraker Youtube channel) to find out.
I've never seen a stronger argument for micropayments. I took this screen shot of the TPM home page using Aviary, and have highlighted in red the ads for THE SAME teeth whitening or work at home garbage in FIVE different configurations and placements on the home page. Really TPM? Is that the ad that's going to engage your audience of "affluent, educated ...influentials" in your audience of 1.6million monthly visitors?
I think not. These ads are the same ignorable garbage that the internet is filled with. Scary.
Get thee to a subscription model, or something close to it, and FAST. While we may all contribute our comments, our stories, our attention, and even our dollars via paypal, we of the online influence probably won't do much for TPM's business seeing those kinds of ads all together. Sigh.