Mum, I want to thank you for the slinky and the pocket radio

The hot topic issue for journalism right at this very moment is how we're all going to get paid, and it's probably one that weighs heavily on the minds of most budding journalists.

Shrinking newsrooms,the rise of citizen journalism, dwindling coverage of current events. these are the ghost stories told around the campfire at a journalist student's retreat, and unlike the escaped lunatic for a hook with a hand, they're problems journalists cannot simply run away from.

But the main problem with journalism in the 21st century is that it is free. If a crisis happens anywhere in the world, a quick google (or Bing if you're that way inclined) search will find you all the information you'll ever need, in real time and living colour, at no cost.

The Australian has embraced paywalls with gusto

So what was the initial solution? Charge the bastards.

Paywalls have come in to several newspapers in Australia over the past few years. News Limited's The Australian became the first general newspaper in Australia to introduce a paywall in 2011.

Charge people to read the news online, and all of a sudden, we're back and booming. And ignoring the obvious problems of a relatively homogenous product being sold at a price when readily available elsewhere for free, it has worked in some respects. If we look internationally, the New York Times' paywall has certainly succeeded.

There's just one minor problem, which is that not every newspaper in the world is the New York Times.

Blogger Mathew Ingram makes the point that "the NYT is an outlier in almost every sense of the term, and therefore isn't a good benchmark for all papers."

As such, despite many paywalls being financially stable around the world, the newspapers aren't attracting any new readers. Michael Wolff wrote in the Guardian about this underlying problem that there is "An extraordinary indifference, if not utter lack of interest, on the part of younger people to news brands and to news habits, a development that established news organizations have been unable to address, stall, or even fathom."

So no people are subscribing to your paper, only middle aged people. That sucks. And it gets worse.

Because generally speaking, revenue from newspapers hasn't come from readers buying copies. It has always come from advertisers attracted to subscription and circulation numbers. So with paywalls stalling growth in the newspaper market, it's no surprise that online advertising sales are stalling just as quickly.

That is way scarier than any ghost.

So if paywalls aren't the answer, what is?

Crowd Sourcing Journalism has been nominated as the next big thing by some pundits around the world, and Richard Aedy's interview with Joe Verdirame, head of crowd sourcing site Vourno. points toward a little bit of excitement in the industry for grass roots, freelance journalism. You propose a story, post it up for 30 days and have people donate to see the story covered. I'll admit, even I got a little excited when I heard of it. Until Aedy pointed out a major issue:

"What I'm maybe not clear on, is why anyone would fund a 22 year old kid who hasn't really done anything compared to someone who's maybe 38, has spent maybe 15 years in the business and already has this strong track record?"

That is what they call a bingo.

Verdirame admits this is the million dollar question, and then proceeds to say something which broke my heart. He proposed that young journalists were going to have to try extra hard and maybe rely on friends and family to fund their stories. Yes, you read that correctly, getting your mum to fund your career as a journalist through crowd sourcing.

It remind me of when the MS Read-a-thon would come to my school, and you would need to go and find sponsors to donate money to see you read a whole bunch of books and cure multiple sclerosis. Once you'd raised a certain dollar amount, you'd get a prize. So for 20 dollars, it was a slinky, for 30 it was a little pocket FM radio with fluorescent colours. It was great.


Only my mum wasn't comfortable with her 10 year old son going doorknocking around the neighbourhood for change, and just decided to drive me around to different Auntie's houses to have them sponsor me, or just outright give me money herself.

So it was less a charity drive and more just my mum buying me slinkys and radios and sticker books. And that is what Verdirame made it sound like to me.

Still, its an idea to rescue a failing industry. and I certainly can't think of anything better.