Kathlyn Clore

Whenever I go to media conferences, people always cite “cats and pets” as the silly topic many Westerners network about online.

For me, it’s food. I’ve been trying to improve my cooking abilities for a few years now - although much more so in the last year since I moved in with my boyfriend, who is wonderful in the kitchen. He’s also a good dancer… Which gives me a lot to work on!

While I don’t yet have a profile there, my favorite social networking site by far is AllRecipes. And yes, I have been using it since it started appearing in advertisements for iPhone Apps.

My favorite parts of the site are the reader comments that accompany each recipe (and I love that the site organizes itself so that the review voted “most useful” pops up first) and the ability to search recipes by ingredients.

I am especially interested in cooking Thai and Indian cuisines. Especially since I’m “just a white girl from the Midwest”, the user reviews are key.

I also found a fantastic recipe for Greek omelets called My Big Fat Greek Omelet, which my boyfriend asks me to make every other weekend (if not more often). The user reviews told me to add in some garlic and onion… Which totally makes the dish drool-worthy.

Just today I realized how the site makes money. In addition to hosting advertisements, the site also charges a subscription fee for users to do “extra” things around the site. I discovered it while printing out a simple Pad Thai recipe with some really helpful reccomenations.

I discovered that while it’s free to print out a recipe (you can even print on a 3 inches x 5 inches notecard, in case you keep your recipes organized in that way) … if you want to print out the user reviews, you have to have a monthly membership.

Clever!

Are you a provider of online news content bending over backward to find new business models? Consider Yoga Journal.

I found the brand while living in the Netherlands because my Dutch is not very good. I have a basic understanding of the language and of yoga, but when I took a weekly local Iyengar class I really had to focus hard on the language to understand the teacher’s instructions.

Side note: Doing yoga in a foreign language is a great way to practice body-part words, verbs and directions. As well as relaxing words… I will never forget my teacher’s instructions during Savasana … “Ademhalen… Laanger… Zachter… Dieper… Ahhhhdemhalen” (But remember: words like “Savasana” don’t translate. So don’t stand there like an idiot wracking your brain trying to figure out what your teacher is saying in Dutch when she’s in fact using yoga words!)

Anyway, I would do Yoga Journal videos at home in between classes to practice and also enjoy the chilled-out yoga vibes which are easier to find when following a course in your native language.

They’re free, as is all of the content on the site.

I liked it so much that I recently subscribed to the magazine. That’s right: I PAID to receive content at my home.

But I still use the free videos.

I’m also considering purchasing yoga videos or attending yoga seminars, other products Yoga Journal produces.

Don’t tell me mass media providers couldn’t replicate this model. First off, that raises the point that few newspapers truly are “mass” anymore: If they’re newspapers at all worth their ink, they’re producing local content and not much else. And that makes them niche.

This dynamic brand would be is good inspiration for local news content creators. The model shows that some content can be free, and some content not free. Also, it’s possible to sell “side” products. Many newspapers produce Newcomer’s Guides or Christmas Gift Guides. Maybe they should further expand this kind of product range and thus support their newsgathering operations.

Right now, the overwhelming majority of online journalism is free.

A lot of publishers, journalists, bloggers and editors would greatly prefer that news content not be free. For a lot of reasons, the most important one being that these people like to eat. And sometimes - contrary to popular belief - they even like to eat food other than Maruchan Ramen noodles.

The need to eat unites all people. As does the need to drink (water, not beer, although the need to drink beer also unites many people).

Tim Windsor of Nieman Journalism Lab recently wondered if news content online could be monetized in the same way water has been monetized. After all, water is a commodity people once could access for free (and still can, in some instances… depending on tax situations and how you consider environmental impact).

According to Wikipedia, though, the global rate of consumption of bottled water “more than doubled between 1997 and 2005″. In the United States alone, consumers purchase “8.6 billion gallons for 28.9 percent of the U.S. liquid refreshment beverage market, exceeding sales of all other beverages except carbonated soft drinks, followed by fruit juices and sports drinks.”

Clearly, this is a big business.

Windsor wonders “Why is it that consumers cheerfully pay more for thirst-quenchers than we do for the fuel that moves our vehicles and our economy?”

I also wonder about this. And also must point out that many young adults, after consuming so much Green living propaganda, are loathe to buy bottled water. My boyfriend and I, for example, each purchased bottles of juice a few months ago when we first visited the local grocery store in our new hometown. We chose carefully, selecting juices we would each enjoy. But the ultimate factor in our decision of which juice to buy was about the bottle size: Would it be useful to reuse as a water bottle at the gym? Size of the mouthpiece was the most important - when you’re on the treadmill and you need to pick up your water bottle, you want something that’s easy to drink out of.

Regardless of our thriftiness, I agree with Gina Chen’s assessment that the reason people buy bottled water is convenience.

She concludes:

“If people are paying for convenience when they buy bottled water, charging for news content will only work if readers feel they are getting something else — not just news. Something they want desperately. Something that makes their lives easier the way grabbing a bottled water from the fridge does.”

I agree. And I think this is becoming an argument for a subscription model. After all - I don’t pay for YogaJournal videos (which I highly recommend) online, but I do pay to have the magazine come to my house. That way I can read it whenever and wherever I want. In short, I’ve bought into a trusted brand whose offerings I can experience in several ways.

Lately I have been starting to do some work for a local newspaper in California. The editor who is working with me told me that the paper is currently pulling back from its practice of just “throwing everything online” and is waiting until they figure out how to make money with the web to use it.

Can’t say I agree with this logic - why not participate and build up the brand until such time as there is a way it can be successfully monetized?

To me that’s sort of like saying “I won’t go to the gym until I know I have the perfect bottle of water to take along.” Or some other lame excuse people (I) make when they don’t quite want to exert the effort it takes to go to the gym.

Just get on the treadmill already!

Perhaps considering the treadmill is more useful than considering bottled water when thinking about business models for journalism.

We get on the treadmill because we think it is good for health (or how we look), right? And we pay for that treadmill, either to have it in our home or to have it at a gym we are allowed to access.

Obviously, we could run outside. Man has been doing so for thousands of years… (women maybe for fewer years But now we go to the gym, acting like gerbils on a running wheel as we pursue health and beauty.

We read stories because they’re also good for our (mental, social and sometimes economic) health. Same thing.

BONUS: “The Ramen King and I” podcast on Ramen noodle wisdoms.
Iconic Noodle Celebrates 50th Anniversary, from NPR