Payment Model for An Ultramodern Media Publication of the Future

Angry Journalist #8554:

#8551: Talk up a decent paycheck and maybe you’ll get names.

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AJ 8554:

Here's what I'm thinking in terms of compensation..

Base pay would be about $52,000 a year per full-time employee, with four weeks paid vacation for each employee. That's about $1,000 per week, or $200 per day of work per full-time employee.

Every employee would receive the same base pay, however, each employee would receive ad revenue profit-sharing for any exclusive content they create that is published through this publication or syndicated via iTunes. For example, say you write a story that has ads running with it, you would get a cut of that revenue in addition to your base pay. If you produce better content that gets more views (or more downloads from iTunes) then you get more pay, in addition to your base pay.

As for what percentage this will be, that has yet to be determined. However, I believe it should be at least 20 percent. This will provide more merit-based compensation to employees that perform better.

If the content you produced was co-produced by others, that cut of the profits must be divided between the contributors. This process will all be automated by computers and the royalty checks will be automatically printed every week, with no room for mistakes or inefficiencies that are the result of human error.

In addition to producing news, this publication will also produce music, entertainment, humor, cartoons, educational programming, iPhone applications, advertising production, et cetera. Larger revenues made from music and iPhone applications will go towards subsidizing the production of other media such as news production, which may not earn as much revenue as other media.

This organization will adopt more of a newer, matrix-type organizational structure rather than the traditional top-down hierarchical structure. This matrix-type structure will allow for more adaptability than is normally allowed through more traditional business models, as well as increase productivity and decrease inefficiencies. I can't go into more detail about this particular organizational structure here, however, because it is the secret to this organizational model that I have developed that will essentially drive the success and profit of this hypothetical publication.

I would also like to provide benefits to full-time employees, but the range and scope of these benefits would be completely dependent upon how much startup capital I could acquire for the initial formulation of this company, as well as the kinds of profit margins that materialize.

Much of the work would also be produced by freelancers, who could expect to make more than current freelance rates for media production.

I am also considering a merit-based system that would provide my top producers with "merit points" that could be applied toward acquiring partial ownership of the company, as well as towards promotion within management of the matrix cells of the company's organizational structure.

Because base pay would be the same for all, then any "raises" would thus be tied and proportional only to performance and merit, rather than favoritism or nepotism. Moreover, the relatively higher cost of compensation would help ensure that only the relatively best would get hired in the first place, at least for full-time employment. Any increase to base pay would be applied equally to all employees at the same time.

Anybody who works hard enough towards the success of this company could become partner or work their way up through management. Managers who have stopped performing, however, could just as easily be demoted to dynamically make way for better talent to replace their positions of authority within the matrix structure of this organization. That way, the company always gets better, more innovative, more efficient, and more profitable over time, without being stagnated in the long-run by cronyism or prima donnas.

Thoughts?

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Update:

Also, if I might add one more critical detail without giving too much information away..

This publication will be heavily oriented towards providing services for individuals. Products will be produced, yes, such as computer programs or iPhone applications, but there will also be a strong emphasis on service-oriented tasks which may include but are not limited to:

Transferring people's old home movie films to video,
editing videos for businesses and consumers,
providing/organizing focus group marketing research,
producing news stories on-demand,
helping to co-author books or autobiographies for clients,
providing affordable educational workshops,
trade/vocational training - licensing - testing - and certification services,
renting recording studio space to musicians,
producing high-tech super interactive multimedia classifieds that are produced on-demand,
producing high-tech interactive expositions of real estate properties on-demand at a cost to the consumer,
et cetera et cetera et cetera.

This is necessary I think because there is essentially more scarcity of services than there is scarcity of digital media. There are also many people afraid of computers who are willing to pay decent money for computer or digital-related services, that may not be willing to pay nearly as much money for digital media that they can more easily pirate or view for free. Providing more service-related resources for consumers may also bring in more readers/viewers for the media that is published through this hypothetical publication.

Revenues generated from these services will help sustain the operational costs of the media production, and the media that is published - produced - and viewed - will help bring light to the various production services that are also directly available to viewers through this hypothetical company.

It's all about diversification here, essentially, as well as making full use of what this kind of high-tech media publication has to offer.

Fund me. Pretty please. Fund me and help save journalism. Now.

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Update 2:

I for one am tired of watching the journalism industry flop around in a slimy goo of failure. It could do so much good in the world, help so many people, but instead it continues its kamikaze death march towards oblivion. I feel I have answers, and solutions, to help prevent the dystopian future that is most likely going to be an unavoidable reality after the current flawed leadership of the media industry takes its last breath of zombie death. If you know somebody that has money who wants to help curtail the moral and intellectual degradation of society then please let me know.

Thank you.