Jim Lichtenstein was packing for a business trip when the biggest news story in a generation captured the nation’s attention.
Just an hour after Tuesday’s attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Lichtenstein’s five-person news operation had an Internet page up and running, packed with information sought by news organizations around the world.
Lichtenstein’s Chicago-based AssignmentEditor.com didn’t have exclusive footage of the crashes but instead offered links to Web cameras operating in New York and Washington as well as seating charts and fuel capacities of a variety of jet aircraft. The site also offered background and pictures of the leading terrorist organizations around the world.
“The pictures from [Tuesday] were dramatic but not exclusive,” said Lichtenstein, the chief executive and founder of AssignmentEditor.com. “So much of it was happening live that there was no way to get exclusivity. Everyone had everything and was sharing everything.”
AssignmentEditor.com is literally a news source for newsrooms. Started more than a year ago by Lichtenstein, the former managing editor of WBBM-TV, the site is a page of links to about 7,000 other sites of interest to news organizations. They range from informational pages like TV sweeps dates to where to register if a TV photographer’s camera gear is stolen.
The site has “breaking news guides” like catalogs of tornadoes, train crashes and wild fires. There are 14 political information sites at AssignmentEditor.com, “cop stuff” sites and a link to synchronize newsrooms to the atomic clock.
Early this summer, AssignmentEditor.com received $1 million in venture funding from local investors. On Sept. 3, the once-free portal switched to a monthly subscription model.
The terrorist attack was the first major test of whether people would pay.
According to WebTrends, an Internet tracking service, more than 80,000 discrete viewers came to the main site on Tuesday, and about 1,000 subscribers hit the “Terrorist Attack on U.S.” page, Lichtenstein said.
Those subscribers had access to everything AssignmentEditor.com offered on that special page, from the background on suspected terrorists to Web cams stationed around Manhattan. Of those 1,000 subscribers, Lichtenstein didn’t know how many news organizations used those tools.
The firm’s original model was that of a broker of news, selling breaking news pictures and videos. Amateur videographers and professional video stringers would deliver breaking news pictures to AssignmentEditor.com. The company would offer the video to news organizations to use for 48 hours for as little $150 and as much as $2,000. AssignmentEditor.com would split the profits with the freelancer.
Although AssignmentEditor.com seeks additional revenue through its subscription plan, the sharing of fees for sold materials remains the backbone of revenue potential for the site.
However, since the revamped site was launched in April, there have been few major national stories to attract videos and, therefore, revenue.
Still, the firm got video from a martial arts competition in Florida in the spring where one participant ignited himself with flaming nunchucks; the company sold that to Fox Sports Network. In March, through word of mouth, they acquired video of the rescue of 11 Americans from Antarctica and syndicated that to San Francisco TV stations. And just weeks ago they made a big sale to NBC’s “Dateline” and ABC’s “World News Tonight” of freelance footage of 24 Cubans landing in Florida on a speedboat.
“We still haven’t gotten that one great video,” Lichtenstein said. When AssignmentEditor.com was free, it had an estimated 90,000 monthly users, 20,000 of whom were registered users. As of Sept. 3, premium users pay $9.99 a month, and standard subscribers are billed $4.99 a month. Lichtenstein declined to say how many of those 90,000 monthly users have since become paid subscribers.
Lichtenstein knows some free subscribers will drop out because of the charges. “My goal is to keep 10 percent of those [90,000 monthly users]. I’ll be happy and profitable,” he said.
Lichtenstein has had to keep a tight rein on expenses. Getting the Antarctica video meant working with a New Zealand TV station and satellite feeds costing around $2,000.
But he contends the reality of a “free” Internet is changing.
“Some people just won’t pay. People who are good with the Internet don’t want to pay and think it should be free forever. Others know that the Internet will not be free forever.”
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Gary Ruderman is a Chicago-based freelance reporter.
