Who will pay for writing books and large scale journalism?
By Tom Teicholz at 7 April, 2009, 11:36 am
In his column today for the Century Foundation, Peter Osnos discusses “the future of books” in which ebooks, print editions and audiobooks will co-exist in different pricing formats — not unlike the different ways of experiencing movies. As the fulcrum of this discussion he refers to an article by Evan Schnittman of Oxford University Press who is concerned that non-print versions will not generate the revenues necessary to earn back advances paid to authors. A point well taken, as we move from business models that earned dollars to ones that earn pennies — such as the impact of Itunes on artist royalties.
Onos and Schnittman’s discussion views these issues from the point of view of publishers. What is missing here is looking at the situation from the point of view of writers. How does a writer get paid enough to write the story. Some projects are short term and light on research — others are lengthy and require travel and are resource and research heavy.
This is all the more true in journalism. The cost of a large scale investigation, of foreign correspondents, of paying a journalist to sit through an entire trial to sift through mountains of depositions — is costly.
Perhaps this is a good time to recall the success of Harry Evans, when he was editor of the Sunday Times of London. Today, and certainly in the US, Evans is known because of his wife, Tina Brown, whose current enterprise is The Daily Beast, an online journalistic entrerprise.
You could do worse than read Sir Harry Evans wikepedia entry to learn about the large scale investigative journalism he comissioned and funded whie at the Sunday Times. Better yet, I recommend reading his 1984 memoir,”Good Times, Bad Times,” where Evans describes in detail how as editor he took on the role of impressario producing investigative journalism almost as if he were a movie producer, finding the advertising and editorial support and sometimes TV specials to promote and finance the work,
It is this kind of 360 thinking that editors, agents, book publishers and newspaper and magazine editors must engage in to underwrite and support the writers. Because without the writers and journalists able to live and do their work, what sort of business will there be?
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