Steemit recently announced the creation of Smart Media Tokens as part of its mission to change the way content publishers, authors, consumers and possibly advertisers align incentives. The whitepaper (https://smt.steem.io) reviews this in detail but may be a bit dense technically for some readers so after reading it I wanted to attempt to break down how I envision the system working using a real world example that is very relevant to my experience i.e. one of my most frequent news media, the New York TImes.
Before discussing this example, I think it is important to first understand the current model from the perspective of both the media consumer, the newspaper company, the journalists and advertisers. I will review the current status of each of the ecosystem as it exists and then later I will discuss how that role would change with Smart Media Tokens.
The News Organization
The New York times is a world class media company that produces quality, insightful journalism. Initially primarily disseminated via print more recently it is primarily consumed online. Monetizing this consumption has proven difficulty. The traffic to its articles come primarily through google search results where it has to compete with both traditional and alternative media providers for a consumer base that does not tend to reward good journalism with consistent loyalty. Advertising revenue is another monetization stream that is tough to harness. Consumers are often turned off by ads on news web pages. Lastly a paywall has also been attempted however users are often unwilling to subscribe just to read a single article and many mechanisms exist to circumvent such a system using modern internet software.
Smart Media Tokens
Smart Media Tokens allow such a news organization to issue a custom token (NYTSMT) via the Steemit Blockchain Platform. The primary advantage of using this mechanism is its simplicity. By defining a limited set of parameters such as number of tokens, inflation rate as well as parameters related to the rewards system, a company can issue a custom token that would be self regulating and not require any development cost. Rather, it would piggyback and mimic the functioning of the Steem token which serves a very similar function. It would also be able to integrate seamlessly with the blockchain and wallet system of Steem making its usage and transaction as well as its entry into the trading market seamless.
For a journalist the token would allow them to be rewarded for producing great journalism by awarding them tokens for articles that are upvoted by a large segment of the community their articles are targeting. Whether its the sports or travel section, journalists that create content that engages readers would be able to reap the rewards of their content thus incentivizing the production of quality content rather than the click bait articles that proliferate today.
For advertisers it would allow them to spend their ad dollars wisely by targeting their advertisements to the particular community it is relevant to and being able to ensure that their ad dollars let their ads be seen by a community of users engaged with the content and not be gamed by the current system that charges them for clicks and does not actually measure user engagement.
For involved readers, the role of curator can be a rewarding one. People who know how to spot good relevant articles would be rewarded for their ability to contribute to the dissemination those articles and making them go viral. This would create a user base of people who have an incentive to promote and share articles to the wider community and increase viewership particularly if those individuals have influence in the community, similar to the way Steem Power grants influence in the Steem community.
For users who may not produce or curate content but can contribute to a lively discussion there would also be some reward for their engagement as the system would reward insightful comments via upvoting and would discourage behavior like trolling. This would make the comments section a meritocracy and create an environment where healthy debate proliferates.
For users who want to simply consume content and not necessarily produce, curate or engage it would create a better experience for them by giving them more access to content through the removal of paywalls or need for subscription or registration systems that would be made redundant via the Steemit Blockchain identity system. It would increase the quality of the content they consume as quality content would be more visible through the incentives for curation. It would also increase the quality of experience by allowing them to be either rewarded with tokens for opting viewing content with ads enabled or to opt out by paying via tokens what would be a trivial fee to opt out of viewing ads. It can also reward such for sharing content on other social media networks and attracting new users via tokens.
These are just a few of the ways that I believe Steemit Smart Media Tokens have the potential to revolutionize how news is produced, consumed and monetized. My main concerns would be how the proliferation of multiple media tokens might affect ease of adoption. It might be difficult for users to deal with having a different token for every news platform they engage in. Imagine a different token for every newspaper you read. Keeping track of them, using them, transferring them or selling them on the market might not be easy for users unfamiliar with cryptocurrency. After reading the whitepaper, it appears that Steem plans to counter this by making those tokens integrate into the Steem system seamlessly. We may see a Steem Decentralized Exchange where I can trade by NYTSMT (New York TImes Smart Media Token) for some WPSMT (Washington Post SMT) when I want to shift the my content curation to a new platform.
Any thoughts on the challenges newspapers would face with deploying Smart Media Tokens? I would love to hear them.