Reporters to be financially rewarded if readers subscribe to site and reach certain number of page views

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The News Corp tabloid newspaper the Herald Sun is offering journalists a financial bonus of between $10 and $50 for driving digital subscriptions and traffic through their own stories.

If readers land on a paywalled story and they decide to subscribe to access the full story, the reporter will be financially rewarded after a certain target is reached. Some reporters will be receiving hundreds of extra dollars in payments per week, sources told Guardian Australia.

The data on individual performance is available via a proprietary analytics platform called Verity.

Most major digital publishers use analytics platforms, including Guardian Australia which has a tool called Ophan.

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According to News Corp, Verity “empowers our editors, newsrooms and content promoters with real-time information to understand and influence the content for which our audiences are willing to ‘pay & stay’”.

All News Corp mastheads, including the Australian, use Verity and identify staff who have done particularly well each week. But the Herald Sun is believed to be the first metropolitan masthead to hand out financial bonuses to individuals.

“Welcome to this week’s Verity update ... and it’s a call-out to the Melbourne bureau to kick things off, in particular Ewin Hannan, who’s led the news agenda throughout the week on the John Setka/CFMEU story,” this week’s email from The Australian’s digital editor Daniel Sankey said.

“Ewin has brought in almost 150,000 subscriber page views (as well as four subscriptions) on his own in the past week with his coverage of the story, with a dozen stories providing regular splashes and lead pictures for the website, m-site and app.

“Also out of the Melbourne bureau, Rebecca Urban has brought in five subscriptions on stories including why children of Asian migrants do better at schools and Australia’s school bullying problem.”

The new three-tier system at the Herald Sun will reward reporters who reach a certain number of subscriptions via their bylines. They will earn more cash each week if the number of paying customers goes beyond a targeted number and if those subscribers reach a certain number of page views.

The idea is to get people to subscribe and then keep them reading, a source said.

The danger of a rewards scheme based on popularity is that sensational stories and stories on crime and entertainment are often better read than policy or political analysis. But reporters were told management would not target people across the board and allowances would be made for the popularity of rounds.

The reporters at Rupert Murdoch’s Melbourne tabloid were briefed on the “incentive scheme” last week. They were told it was a measure to encourage reporters to think about “selling” their stories to readers and being more “proactive” across the website and social media.

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The trial is confined to news and sport reporters in the first instance but may be extended to other staff, if successful, a source said.

A News Corp spokeswoman said tools like Verity were best practice in modern newsrooms globally.

“Verity is an analytical tool which provides real time data to help journalists understand what content people are reading, what videos, graphics and the type of issues and stories which drive subscriptions,” she said.

“The Herald Sun has launched a three-month trial of an incentive program for reporters in news and sports to help them better understand how this tool can complement their journalistic insight and intuition to drive digital subscriptions. It is not cash for clicks.”

The company has revealed to advertisers that Verity has already led to its recent focus on true crime content.

“True Crime Australia, launched in July, packaged crime content within its own branded vertical,” the company said in a presentation.

“Verity integrates multiple big data sources covering content, customer subscriptions, web analytics, social and promotional channels into a simple and intuitive platform for both mobile and desktop.”

Earlier this month the company made 55 editorial staff redundant, targeting those without digital skills.