US paper tells reporters the more stories you post the more pay you get

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/mar/25/digital-media-us-press-publishing

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A US newspaper has told its reporters that their annual bonuses will depend on the number of online stories they file.

The Oregonian, the paper distributed in Portland, Oregon, has demanded that journalists post new articles three times a day, according to internal documents revealed by Willamette Week.

Reporters are also expected to increase their average number of daily posts by 25% by the middle of the year and an extra 15% during the second half of the year.

They are also being required to post the first comment under any significant article on the website, Oregonlive.com, in order to stimulate online conversations among readers.

The initiative further calls for reporters to "produce top-flight journalistic and digitally oriented enterprise as measured by two major projects a quarter," which will include "goals by projects on page views and engagement."

No, I'm not making it up. The demands can be found in the Powerpoint presentation here, "Performance management process overview for employees", produced last month by the paper's owners, Advance Publications, part of the Newhouse empire.

Another of the group's 34 titles, the New Orleans Times-Picayune, is reported to have adopted a similar policy, which states bluntly: "Final performance ratings will determine merit pay."

Previously, merit increases were given to reporters who produced the year's best work, or distinguished themselves for their newsroom work.

Willamette Week quotes the Oregonian's publisher, N Christian Anderson, as saying that web posting will be one of many factors in evaluating reporters.

The directive comes in the wake of other changes at The Oregonian. Its print version is now home-delivered only four days a week. In October, it adopted a "digital first" policy, with all news stories posted first on its website. And the previous month, 49 editorial staff were made redundant.

The Oregonian's online demands provoked the New York Times's media correspondent, David Carr, to comment: "In the more-with-less annals of corporate mandates, this one is a doozy...

"Journalism's status as a profession is up for grabs. A viral hit is no longer defined by the credentials of an individual or organisation. The media ecosystem is increasingly a pro-am affair, where the wisdom — or prurient interest — of the crowd decides what is important and worthy of sharing."

Sources: Willamette Week/New York Times