Thread by @GeorgeOsborn

The discussion about pay in video games journalism appears to be bubbling back up again.

So here's me attempting to give some thoughts on a) why pay is so low and b) some thoughts on how to change the situation.

The base level analysis of it is that writing/creating content about video games is a passion project. Therefore, it's easier to pay less (or not at all) because there are loads of people out there willing to do it.

This, I think, is partially true. When I started out, I was willing to take an absolute pittance for a few thousand words to get started out.

However, I think that is a pretty limited way of viewing the problem. It's also compromised by other factors (e.g. how bad was the pay versus entry level roles) that hinder its usefulness as an explanation.

Instead, the challenges facing video games journalism online are the same challenges facing just about any online media site that's reliant principally on advertising revenues.

The big problem is that, in general, ad spend is being directed away from advertising networks and more towards social channels/sites with enormous quantities of user information.

i.e. roughly 55% of all ad revenue online goes through Facebook/Google variety.com/2018/digital/n…

Some of that revenue is able to come back to online web publishers by placing ads from these companies on their sites (e.g. Google's Display Network).

But vast majority of revenue going directly through these sites platforms (e.g. Facebook in feed ad units).

This means for the most part that ALL traditional online publishers are competing harder with those platforms for both audience and ad revenues.

What does this mean? Answer: a big ol' fashioned squeeze on the traditional ad funded model.

Take banner ad cost per mille (CPM). If you're using Google's Display Network, the CPM was about $2.80 for a single banner ad.

That's barely a cup of coffee for every thousand views an article gets.

And while average CPMs creep upwards every year, the number of people on a site vs, say, checking news in an FB feed/watching a Youtube video is under increasing pressure.

So with fewer people coming to the site, the solution most ad funded sites take is to a) put more adverts on each page and b) use rich media formats (e.g. video) that generate a higher cost per interaction.

But that, in turn, damages readership. Why? Because ads disrupt the user experience, both by increasing load times and by getting in the way of users.

This often leads to ad blocking, which leads again to reduced views.

And while this is happening, smaller content creators who go directly to Youtube/Instagram benefit from a) bigger audience and b) higher comparative share of ad revenue.

They also have fewer overheads in comparison to media sites too, giving them a further edge.

So, traditional online publishers across the board are suffering (e.g. Buzzfeed lay offs last year).

And with many video game journalism sites following the same model, this means the 'hobbyist' pay rate comes under further pressure.

If this all sounds quite depressing, it's because it potentially is for lots of purely ad focused publications.

But going back to my own experience of industry pay, I've worked for a number of publications that do pay well (especially for freelance).

So, where's the disconnect?

The answer is that sites that have broken free of being solely reliant on ad revenues OR have taken greater direct ownership over them have been able to have a stronger position in the market.

Commonly, publications who have worked out how to monetise their biggest fans (e.g. merch, running events, subscriptions) in a manner similar to service led games/software models have been able to sustain themselves.

Additionally, those that took the time to invest in their own ad tech and drive ad sales through it have been able to benefit much more directly from ad revenues.

Also, media sites that have built personalities and allowed them to create content on social channels to draw on revenues generated there.

So, what does this mean for video games media? Well, if your model is built on "let's whack five third party ad units on a single page and churn out loads of content to drive views", then you're going to rapidly reach a limit on how much revenue you can generate (and pay).

But if you instead seek to diversify, learn how to monetise your biggest spenders (Tip: look at well designed F2P games for tips) and work out how to generate revenue from content on your social channels, it's possible to succeed while paying a fair rate.

There's still a huge appetite for video games content. And if anything, that appetite is growing both in size and in quality it expects.

But traditional pubs need to change their models to a) capitalise on that demand and b) attract people capable of creating for that market.

Tl;dr - online journalism industry has changed, but ad funded model has been clung on to for too long.

Pubs need to change approach to succeed across board.