http://kentridgecommon.com/?p=4456
The Kent Ridge Common, 14 Jul 2009, Christopher Ong
TOC - Stranded?
The Online Citizen (TOC) recently appealed to its readers for financial support, urging them to come forward in making a donation to help move the popular socio-political site forward in calibrating their reports from mere commentaries or analysis to an active, on the field reporting.
Andrew Loh, the site’s managing-editor, is currently the only full-time staff of the TOC team. According to this public appeal, the estimated cost needed for TOC to operate sustainably would be between $15,000 – $20,000 yearly. The appeal further explains that “the biggest expense” go towards a monthly stipend as a form of remuneration for Andrew in order to justify his working on the site full time. Other parts of this revenue will go towards paying part-time reporters — the most intrepid, according to the site, of which are students — transport and simple meal allowances while covering stories. The residual revenue from this will then be used to address costs involving site administration and maintenance.
Given that a major part of the operating costs will go towards paying Andrew a monthly stipend, the gap between the estimated costs needed to sustain TOC is glaring. The estimated range of operating cost stretches over a gap of $5,000, which is a third of $15,000. A reader suggested “rounding-up” the expenses to $24,000 — which further extends the gap to $9,000.
Difficult Issue – “Reasonable” Pay
The difficult issue that confronts readers as they dip into their pockets for a donation to TOC is this: What truly constitutes a “reasonable” pay? An economist may say that the best judge of this would be the best opportunity cost that an individual would have to sacrifice in order to commit himself full-time to this task. Another may determine this by the extent of his contribution: how many of the popular articles that attract the most readers does he write? Should revenues factored in from ads from Google be considered, and who is pocketing it? The appeal has omitted this point. This is, of course, amongst an eternal list of factors.
Of course, the intent of this commentary is not to preach the yardstick by which a ‘reasonable’ remuneration should be considered against, but to suggest that the fiscal model certain socio-political sites adopt is not feasible.
Firstly, the exact role of a ‘managing-editor’ remains hazy and unclear. In fact, certain socio-political sites such as Wayang Party have contrary suggestions about the role of a managing-editor. Is it possible for any one individual role — no matter how significant — to gradually diminish, and allow a socio-political site to truly operate on its own with minimal interference, a true reflection of “citizen journalism”? Otherwise, wouldn’t it be just an ostentatious collage of “citizens” bandying under the banner of “citizen journalism” when in reality its views and ideas are as much moderated as in the mainstream channels?
Another factor for the request of public donations is to pay for site maintenance and administration costs. Given that one could draw from the fact that since both the design and layout of The Online Citizen have not changed very much since its inception, no web designers have been hired to edit or spruce up the site — such costs may therefore be safely omitted.
How much does it cost then to register and host a website?
Taking the example of the Kent Ridge Common itself — registration took a mere USD$9.95 from GoDaddy.com a year. Furthermore, hosting plans are staggeringly cheap on the net these days. For instance, JustHost.com hosts a site with unlimited hard disk space and bandwidth for just USD$3.95 a month. This means that you can store as many files as you want on their servers and have 10, 20 million people visit your site a day at that price. This is of course no where near the few thousand dollars needed as ‘operating costs’ for a website.
The last cost should not be even addressed. The appeal itself states that token sums of money will be given to student reporters as a ’symbolic’ gesture to cover their transport and simple meal allowance, which should not morph itself into an exceedingly high figure every month.
Uneasy Notion
Even if the socio-political sites manage to raise enough donations to meet their operating costs of $15,000 – $24,000 a year, what next? It may be an uneasy notion for a site to survive year-in year-out on readers’ donation.
The idea of soliciting and receiving public funding in the range of $15,000 to $24,000 is also not without its legal ramifications. Certain readers have highlighted this issue. Others have called for a transparent accounting for the sites expenditure should public donations be received.
Is there a way out for TOC? Yes, there is a rope out of this financial pithole it has itself claimed to dug. But certainly not the rope fastened by the threads from the clothes of its readers.
--------------------------------
Latest update @ Singapore News Alternative:
1. Asian Investors Flocking To Australian Property As Markets Like S'pore Faces Oversupply
2. Singapore Retail Sales Declined 10.3% in May as Wages, Tourism Fell
3. Economists: 20% Jump in Singapore’s GDP is only one-off
4. Singapore Govt Official On Learning Trip To Brunei Prisons
5. Singapore Tourism Board targets 9m visitors
6. Singapore Dealer Is First in Asia to Carry the Modbook
7. STPB focus on cruise tourism to attract more Indian tourists
8. The Online Citizen (TOC) - Stranded?
Latest videos added:
1. Construction Collapse On New Delhi Metro
2. Peter Schiff's Vlog Report - 14 Jul 2009
.
The Kent Ridge Common, 14 Jul 2009, Christopher Ong
TOC - Stranded?
The Online Citizen (TOC) recently appealed to its readers for financial support, urging them to come forward in making a donation to help move the popular socio-political site forward in calibrating their reports from mere commentaries or analysis to an active, on the field reporting.
Andrew Loh, the site’s managing-editor, is currently the only full-time staff of the TOC team. According to this public appeal, the estimated cost needed for TOC to operate sustainably would be between $15,000 – $20,000 yearly. The appeal further explains that “the biggest expense” go towards a monthly stipend as a form of remuneration for Andrew in order to justify his working on the site full time. Other parts of this revenue will go towards paying part-time reporters — the most intrepid, according to the site, of which are students — transport and simple meal allowances while covering stories. The residual revenue from this will then be used to address costs involving site administration and maintenance.
Given that a major part of the operating costs will go towards paying Andrew a monthly stipend, the gap between the estimated costs needed to sustain TOC is glaring. The estimated range of operating cost stretches over a gap of $5,000, which is a third of $15,000. A reader suggested “rounding-up” the expenses to $24,000 — which further extends the gap to $9,000.
Difficult Issue – “Reasonable” Pay
The difficult issue that confronts readers as they dip into their pockets for a donation to TOC is this: What truly constitutes a “reasonable” pay? An economist may say that the best judge of this would be the best opportunity cost that an individual would have to sacrifice in order to commit himself full-time to this task. Another may determine this by the extent of his contribution: how many of the popular articles that attract the most readers does he write? Should revenues factored in from ads from Google be considered, and who is pocketing it? The appeal has omitted this point. This is, of course, amongst an eternal list of factors.
Of course, the intent of this commentary is not to preach the yardstick by which a ‘reasonable’ remuneration should be considered against, but to suggest that the fiscal model certain socio-political sites adopt is not feasible.
Firstly, the exact role of a ‘managing-editor’ remains hazy and unclear. In fact, certain socio-political sites such as Wayang Party have contrary suggestions about the role of a managing-editor. Is it possible for any one individual role — no matter how significant — to gradually diminish, and allow a socio-political site to truly operate on its own with minimal interference, a true reflection of “citizen journalism”? Otherwise, wouldn’t it be just an ostentatious collage of “citizens” bandying under the banner of “citizen journalism” when in reality its views and ideas are as much moderated as in the mainstream channels?
Another factor for the request of public donations is to pay for site maintenance and administration costs. Given that one could draw from the fact that since both the design and layout of The Online Citizen have not changed very much since its inception, no web designers have been hired to edit or spruce up the site — such costs may therefore be safely omitted.
How much does it cost then to register and host a website?
Taking the example of the Kent Ridge Common itself — registration took a mere USD$9.95 from GoDaddy.com a year. Furthermore, hosting plans are staggeringly cheap on the net these days. For instance, JustHost.com hosts a site with unlimited hard disk space and bandwidth for just USD$3.95 a month. This means that you can store as many files as you want on their servers and have 10, 20 million people visit your site a day at that price. This is of course no where near the few thousand dollars needed as ‘operating costs’ for a website.
The last cost should not be even addressed. The appeal itself states that token sums of money will be given to student reporters as a ’symbolic’ gesture to cover their transport and simple meal allowance, which should not morph itself into an exceedingly high figure every month.
Uneasy Notion
Even if the socio-political sites manage to raise enough donations to meet their operating costs of $15,000 – $24,000 a year, what next? It may be an uneasy notion for a site to survive year-in year-out on readers’ donation.
The idea of soliciting and receiving public funding in the range of $15,000 to $24,000 is also not without its legal ramifications. Certain readers have highlighted this issue. Others have called for a transparent accounting for the sites expenditure should public donations be received.
Is there a way out for TOC? Yes, there is a rope out of this financial pithole it has itself claimed to dug. But certainly not the rope fastened by the threads from the clothes of its readers.
--------------------------------
Latest update @ Singapore News Alternative:
1. Asian Investors Flocking To Australian Property As Markets Like S'pore Faces Oversupply
2. Singapore Retail Sales Declined 10.3% in May as Wages, Tourism Fell
3. Economists: 20% Jump in Singapore’s GDP is only one-off
4. Singapore Govt Official On Learning Trip To Brunei Prisons
5. Singapore Tourism Board targets 9m visitors
6. Singapore Dealer Is First in Asia to Carry the Modbook
7. STPB focus on cruise tourism to attract more Indian tourists
8. The Online Citizen (TOC) - Stranded?
Latest videos added:
1. Construction Collapse On New Delhi Metro
2. Peter Schiff's Vlog Report - 14 Jul 2009
.
