Text Tree: A Week of Interviews on New Media v1.? – BONUS ROUND!

Aaaand we’re back folks. Though we claimed the week of interviews to be over last Friday with Philip Kollar’s (somewhat inflammatory) thoughts on emerging media and the monetization thereof, we’re here for a special ‘bonus round’ interview today with Joystiq.com’s Justin McElroy. Known for his eloquent vocal stylings on the Joystiq Podcast — not to mention his burgeoning career as lead singer of Robin and the Stiqers — Justin has been entertaining millions for quite some time now. Today, he’s here to entertain/educate entertainicate you, fellow Geekadelphian.

The question for you readers is, after a week of reading these interviews, how do you think we are going to monetize these emerging forms of media? What’s going to allow for this stuff to not just survive but to thrive? Please let us know how you feel in the comments sections below!

(GEEK): As host/creator of the Joystiq Podcast, could you explain why you think podcasting is an important approach for journalistic coverage, and more specifically, games journalism?

I think that the most valuable service is that it forces journalists and critics to defend their opinions.  I find that my opinions aren’t nearly as well defined when I don’t have to defend them to Chris and Ludwig. I think there’s also value in getting opinions that are completely unfettered by writing or a lot of ponderous thoughts. There are also so many discussions to be had about games that don’t fit in the context of a review, preview or feature. Those are important conversations to have, and I think podcasts are a good place for them.

(GEEK): In your time as a games journalist/games enthusiast, you’ve seen games writers laid off or resign for other ventures (be they game-related or otherwise). It could be said that the cutbacks we’ve seen budget-wise in games journalism are symptomatic of changing business models that are effecting journalism on the whole. In that regard, do you believe Joystiq or, maybe more importantly, all publishing entities in the games journalism industry are adequately adapting to changing business models?

I don’t think I could possibly be less qualified to answer this question, Ben…

But I will say this: Some of the new forms of media you’re discussing like podcasting and videos still aren’t profitable. You just saw UGO dispense with pretty much all of 1UP’s media generation, partly (I’d imagine) because they didn’t have a way to monetize them. Someone still needs to build a good model for people to get paid for the increased amount of time and effort podcasts and videos take to create, and I don’t think that’s there yet.

(GEEK): What else do you believe we should be doing, as journalists, to pursue better coverage going forward? What should we be doing better?

I would like to see us push even more to open up direct lines of communications with developers. I think there’s such a firewall there, and it’s not going to disappear without a lot of pressure from our side. I also would like to see us spend a little more time with indie devs who don’t have the muscle to get their games into the public eye. The problem is that there’s almost too much indie media, and separating the wheat from the chaff is a time-consuming and not terribly profitable process. Not sure I have a good answer on this either, except to say that I think it’s a place where smaller blogs could really find a niche.