This might be the future of journalism:
I decided to try a little experiment. Instead of lining up an assignment from an editor to cover Northern Iraqi Kurdistan, I struck out on my own without asking permission from anyone. Almost all my material was posted directly to this Web site. I wanted to see if the amount of money I can raise from readers competes with the industry's going rate.
It does.
I raised more money from you to cover Iraqi Kurdistan than I've made covering any other country on paid assignments. I also had a lot more fun publishing my own material here instead of somewhere else. It is so much nicer to have the freedom to write whatever I want without any oversight, without any rules or restrictions, without any word limits, and without any delays.
The "mass market" model we've all been working under has depended on a relative handful of gatekeepers trying to figure out what the most people are interested in and getting big-bucks advertisers to foot the bill. The new model -- in an era where people pursue narrower interests and advertisers are more interested in niche markets -- is likely to be the individual pursuing his own passions and getting likeminded people to pay for it. Think of Pay Pal as Public TV or Radio pledge week, but on a much smaller scale.
