Journo launches tech newswire Delimiter in bid to challenge AAP
Technology journalist Renai LeMay has today launched a news website with a business model which may be a first for the Australian market.
Delimiter is focused on writing about technology in the Australian market.
But rather than being initially advertising supported, LeMay plans to licence the content to other technology publishers who he hopes will treat it as a cheaper newswire alternative than AAP.
He told Mumbrella: “I’ve been a customer of AAP. They may have a technology feed, but they have less than one full time journalist working on it.
“Why shouldn’t they have some competition and have somebody else pushing for that money? I’d love to see them come back against me and hire two or three technology journalists, but I don’t think they will.”
Jointly owned by Fairfax, News Ltd and West Australian Newspapers, AAP is Australia’s main newswire service.
Until recently LeMay was news editor at CBS Interactive’s ZDNet Australia. Prior to that he worked on The Australian Financial Review.
His pricing model sees his content – 60 to 90 items per month – offered to publishers for a flat licence fee of $750 per month.
He added: “When you go to some launches there might be a dozen journalists who will write almost the same piece. It is my hope that taking up Delimiter’s licensing model will allow technology publishers to re-allocate their resources away from covering the basics and towards higher quality content such as investigative journalism.”
LeMay added: “I’m one guy with a couple of monitors and an addiction to technology. AAP have got 200 journalists. I’m not an AAP killer.”
AAP editor-in-chief Tony Gillies told Mumbrella: “The news offering of Australian Associated Press is vastly different to that of Delimiter and doesn’t warrant comparison. AAP delivers general breaking news content – domestic and international general news, sport, finance stories, images, video and data – around the clock to all media.
“It is the skill of our reporters and the expanse of our daily offering that our mainstream customers demand and have come to trust. A cost-effective general news subscription with AAP gives them access to all of this effort.
“Our customers trust what we do, not just because the agency has been delivering unbiased and accurate news for 75 years, but because we actually invest in the development of those stories. We apply our news judgment; we seek out the interviews; and we ensure stories stand up.
“Content providers who are ‘addicts with a couple of monitors’ by implication thrive on rewritten press releases and spin. That’s not our game.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Go Renai..!! (^_^)
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Cool business model
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I do find it interesting that AAP never replaced their former tech writer Darren Osborne.
I reckon Renai could be on to a winner here. Good luck!
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Is this guy actually a journo or a business-type who happens to work in the media industry? Does he honestly believe that resources will be re-allocated to something as specialised, time-consuming and non-profitmaking as investigative journalism? You’ll forgive me if my cynicism-meter is going off the charts with that one. Sounds like he’s just trying to justify his business model. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if that’s the case don’t go and dress it up as something it ain’t. Call a spade a spade and we’ll all be happy. And as far as writing “almost the same piece” goes: it’s called news sense. You’d know that if you actually did work in a newsroom instead of on the top floor crunching numbers.
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Sharon – This stuff is just cut ‘n paste stuff for tech publishers. Dell have a new laptop! Check out Cisco’s new router with Megadoodledongleflops! The investigative stuff is done by the publishers themselves anyway. AAP is just news.
I think it’s a good idea, but his pricing is a bit steep. He needs to sell it to 20 publishers at $300 per month while he is starting it. If he can get 10 paying $300 he won’t starve in the short term.
The bigger question is how the PR’s react to something like this? His output is basically going to be determined by the press releases he receives and the invitations he is afforded.
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More than one monitor? I think AAP’s probably still full of humming 13″ CRTs much less multiple monitors.
Sick ’em, Rex!
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I think Carrob is spot on. Publishers are part of the ‘means of distribution’, therefore what Renai needs to provide is something like ‘means of access’. He will work on connecting PR/tech businesses with news publishers. Doesn’t this rely on tech businesses needing his media nous more than publishers needing his copy? This could be great for the Australian tech industry have a dedicated goto person.
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In my experience Renai’s writing is often a little askew, sensational and lacks depth, but thats his style. I’d be interested to know if he had others working there that could balance it out a little. I also think that model is probably pushing the envelope given most publishers are hesitant to pay out even for quality content.
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Seems nothing new to me – this has been tried several times over the years by various organisations and failed (Hell, I worked for one of them).
All I see is a freelancer who intends to charge on a subscription, rather than per word, basis by churning out a hell of a lot of content.
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Le May’s model has its merit, however it is flawed. Firstly the name of the game today is fresh crisp stories that are new, relevant and unique. Google recognises multiple stories so the concept of multiple publishers pumping out the same story from Le May is not going to work if you want eyeballs to your site.
A lot of technology journalists are full of crap, lack investigation skills and nine times out of ten are too frightened to write a hard hitting story that will actually attract eyeballs because they don’t want to be black banned by a PR company or vendor or miss out on a free product or overseas trip.
You can identify quite easily the tech journalists that are in the pockets of big vendors like Intel, Microsoft or HP by the amount of overseas trips that they get. Le May is not one of them.
What Le May needs to do is develop one off stories and then sell it to the highest bidder. He could do this on a per click basis or a fee basis.
If this model works there is every chance that it could drive others to follow his model. Le May is a good journalist with an eye for an angle on a story.
He does not churn product crap. He is more into issues and performance and goes to events looking for a unique angle. He also asks questions at press conferences, which a lot of tech journalists fail to do.
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