CFN – I should never drink more than two cups of coffee in a day, but there have been some very very long days of late here at CFN central.
So many issues, so little time, and so few resources.
It’s a subject that many media outlets, big and small, independent and corporate face each and every day.
If you listen to Rupert Murdoch the solution is pay walls. IE that viewers have to pay to play or watch content. I get that. I do. I don’t even disagree, but I’m not sure that it’s the way to go; especially for an outlet like CFN that’s so user friendly and dependent on user interaction.
I can’t imagine asking viewers to pay to comment or read a story. And much of what is written; especially our local political coverage is a reflection of what we’re hearing from the public and what their concerns are.
This past year we have endured a boycott by the City of Cornwall and its tentacles into local and regional agencies. It’s probably worse in the big picture than what the Toronto Star has endured via their mayor Rob Ford. I was saddened to see the Star; a fine newspaper, have to cut jobs recently. I know that feeling. Without revenue it’s hard to employ people; expand; cover certain stories. Overheads can be high for a media outlet.
There also has been a push in Canada, and elsewhere, with media consolidation for entities to throw their weight around and lean on media editorially; and that’s a very very scary reality in our industry.
Here in Cornwall for example CFN has been punished by the clique that support our corrupt mayor and council. Too many ties that bind and because we’re a single outlet we’re far too easy to target. Our sponsors are sadly even easier as they have received calls, emails and horribly threats to their business.
It’s as though we live in China! Today in fact we fielded a new call on this. The solution? Well we can’t litigate against every single person that plays those games. And we won’t back down and turn into something like one of our competitors locally that really doesn’t have any news. As a matter of fact it seems that there’s a link between the number of ads in some media and the lack of news which makes so little sense.
When I look at our biggest story today I see times of almost 2 minutes per page view. That’s pretty huge. Our bounce rate today was 8 % which also is quite a feat.
Normally ad buyers and real business people look at the stats and compare value. For over two years now CFN has been the most read media outlet in our region; but has not had anything appropriate to what our market share should be.
I’m not typing these words to whine or look for sympathy, honest.
After consulting a very very wise woman though(always listen to wise women) we have come up with a program to allow our viewers to support us without us doing a money bomb or badgering you, and at the same time create some extra value for our sponsors who need all the well deserved support they can get!
It was explained to me that some of our most ardent supporters do not have businesses that need to advertise. And that as much as our viewers love to support our amazing sponsors they want to help and see CFN deliver its special brand of content and grow.
With that in mind it’s now your chance to be able to directly help CFN!
You will now be able to subscribe to CFN and be a supporter!