Wreckless Narcissism.. Udorse CEO - CNBC.com

Udorse CEO - CNBC.com

Script Idea: There's Something [Mythological?] About Journalism Online, LLC

If a warped Broadway producer were to stage old media's struggle to monetize content as a re-imagination of the Trojan War, then Steve Brill would not be on the callback list to play Heroic Commander of the Army.

Yet this is precisely the role Brill is auditioning for. The man who brought us CourtTV [think COPS; need I say more?] wants to be recast as the savior who'll preserve quality journalism. He deigns to do this by building a wall; by charging users who are willing to pay a small monthly subscription fee for content that's currently free. Enter Journalism Online, essentially an outsourced digital wall-building company for content publishers too small or scared to try it on their own. When it comes to subscribers, the thinking is that if Brill builds it, some of them may come.

Much like Brill himself, Journalism Online is a new media start up that is jarringly "of" the old media on every level. This almost deliberate oldness extends even to their logo, which appears as if it was slapped together in a few seconds by someone playing around with Aldus Pagemaker circa 1985.

Supporters of Journalism Online's model point to iTunes as an analogy. iTunes managed to get some of the "free music toothpaste back into the tube" [to paraphrase Brill himself in a recent address to the OMMA Conference]. Why can't the same be true for news online? The same can't be true because the analogy is fatally flawed; "good enough" music is a far more scarce resource than "good enough" news and is thus far easier to monetize online. There are a limited number of talented artists producing a limited number of catchy songs that listeners want to hear. There are an innumerable number of good enough content creators publishing good enough free content online, and their ranks will only continue to increase exponentially.

Brill's recent track record is one of ideas that are brilliant on a micro level, but fail because they are somehow wholly out of step with the larger macro picture. Clear, his latest failed effort, addressed a real consumer need at it's time of founding early in this decade: Passing airport security took way too long. However, Clear wrongly bet that this dynamic would remain true for enough people long enough to turn a profit. Earlier, Brill's Content rightly believed that a subset of consumers of information were hungry to know which sources of media were trustworthy and which weren't. Yet Brill cast as Universal Media Watchdog didn't play very well with a key faction in the equation: The Media.

In the long run, nobody can stop the relentless decentralization of journalism. Brill vs. Free Content: It's just bizarre enough to possibly work on a limited scale for a limited period of time. Short of most old media institutions willfully embracing a painful march toward obliteration, I don't have a a better idea. There are a lot of desperate old media people perched high in decaying wood paneled offices: That Journalism Online has received so much pre-launch press is a testament to just how desperate they are.

The American business landscape is filled with unlikely heroes, and I certainly admire Brill's moxy. But ironically, even if Brill ends up as Hero to Media Plutocrats, his quest will be viewed in the opposite light by the media consuming masses. Will he avoid Priam's fate?