Selling News Like Hotcakes (click here)

Can cyberspace change journalism? Or to turn the question around, will journalism change in cyberspace? If profits and technology have anything to do with it, the answer is probably yes. If so, the so-called wall between journalism and commerce will be breached as never before.

Imagine a different kind of news story about the death of John Denver. It appears in both the print and cyber versions of an otherwise typical newspaper. The story reports the circumstances of the singer’s fatal accident and then surveys his career in music. It mentions Denver’s famous hits, “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and “Rocky Mountain High.” It also reports that Denver wrote songs made famous by other performers--”Daydream Believer” (John Stewart) and “Leavin’ on a Jet Plane” (Peter, Paul and Mary). At the end of the cyberstory there is an icon link that reads: “To purchase music online, click here.” Better still, what if this link to a major CD distributor were embedded in the news story itself? “John Denver’s most popular song, ‘Rocky Mountain High’ (click here) . . .” Voila! Journalism reconfigured.

At a time when many newspapers and magazines struggle to be profitable, the idea of a publication receiving a commission for all cyberlinked sales made from its news Web site is not beyond the realm of possibility. In fact, variations of this are already happening. The New York Times, for example, has an agreement with Barnes & Noble whereby the books reviewed in the Times online are linked to transaction pages at the Barnes & Noble Web site. The paper has also allowed the book giant to set up an exclusive Web page with capsulized Times reviews. The Los Angeles Times’ online book section, too, has a link to Barnes & Noble’s Web site. Many other online newspapers and magazines offer similar advertiser links, sometimes through Amazon.com.

Take that online economic principle and extend it. A business section story, for example, might report about the economic stability and strong future earning power of a public corporation. Then, by way of a hypertext link either within or at the end of the story (to purchase stock, click here), readers could go directly to an online brokerage firm. Or what about the entertainment, computer, travel or automobile sections of an online publication? More commercial links mean more money, of course.

The big payoff comes with news reporting, which brings us back to the John Denver example. Impossible, is the retort. Editorial independence would never be compromised in such ways. No? The fact is, it is already well along the road to such compromise. Allowing advertisers to review tables of contents, texts, photographs and the placement of news articles in advance of publication is, if not yet the norm, no stranger to the journalistic landscape. Newspaper and magazine editors--their disclaimers notwithstanding--have long been aware of that crocodile in their bathtub, namely, advertisers willing to yank enormous amounts of ad dollars in response to stories critical of them or their products.

In commercial journalism--and that, after all, is what it really is--there will always be some link between the economic and the editorial. In time it will become a profitable hyperlink. Of course, some explanation, some justification, will be necessary, if only to save journalistic face. The argument might thus go something like this: Links in news stories are not endorsements. They do not represent any particular point of view. They only allow the reader to do more easily what he or she would do otherwise: engage in actualizing a desire. Everybody benefits, and with no demonstrable loss of editorial integrity. So the argument will go.

Think of it. News stories with commercial links about public figures such as O.J. Simpson or Princess Diana, or about events such as the Super Bowl or the Rolling Stones tour. Even stories about the IRS might have links to tax accounting services or do-it-yourself software. And what about stories on the latest Microsoft product or new services on America Online? For that matter, since Internet service providers such as AOL have their own variations of electronic news, they could provide the commercial links and reap the profits themselves. So could the mighty search engine folks, Yahoo!

Profit, profit, profit. Perhaps too much for journalistic virtue and independence to prevail. Should journalism’s professional societies do something? Should reporters speak out? Should the Columbia Journalism Review protest? Of course they should, and with all their virtuous might. But in the end, the rock is big, the mountain steep, and the push to the top absurdly demanding.

News item: God died yesterday (click here). . .