There is no Pulitzer prize for web content.

I am not talking about an award with the same prestige — web content might be a wee bit too young for that. I am speaking about context. There is no body on the web that celebrates exceptional content, not necessarily journalism but the type of content that moves society forward and changes our perspective on the world.

That’s just not what we do around here.

Think about it.

The value proposition of the web is built around infotainment. We encourage, if not require, our content to be short, punchy and “share-worthy.” Anyone whose taken “How To Make Milli0ns Blo0ging!” down at the airport Hilton knows that. Save your dissertations for your professors because the second your content extends past three thousand words, there’s a pretty good chance no one is going to read it.

People think reading words on a computer screen is hard, and frankly I am no exception. It takes more than a little motivation to read anything over a few hundred words at my screen, let alone a piece of content that is actually trying to say something beyond the daily weather updates we accept as information today.

Also, there isn’t any money in it.

Eyeballs equal dollars for content producers. It doesn’t matter how long those eyeballs stick around, all that matters is that they show up and keep clicking. That’s why the news magazines of the Internet break up their long form content into so many pages, the only reason to write it at all is that separating content over ten pages sure bumps up the pageviews. If they were only paid on the first click, and they knew that by writing a long piece they were reducing their readership hand over fist, what would be the point?

There is a cost to all of this.

Writing and writers are commoditized on the web. We’re all conduits and filters, which is trendy these days but also telling because according to my A/C guy I should be replacing my filter about once a month. Sure, some of us are more clever than others and that bumps up our price per word but the dirty little secret is that most writers on the web are on the content churning treadmill, hoping that one day they will be able to develop a strong enough personal brand to stop taking the pittance they are being paid and move on up the ladder to publisher. The prestige isn’t in making meaty content, it’s in aggregating entertaining stuff.

Unfortunately, few writers have the opportunity to really flex their skills on work time. The format dilutes their work down into 500 word bites, making the type of content that builds careers and changes minds nearly impossible to write.

That’s not going to change anytime soon, nor do I believe anyone really wants it to. Like I said, reading pages and pages on the web makes my head hurt.

But with the way things are it’s not likely you are going to see the Walter Cronkite or Neil Sheehan of the web anytime soon. The talent exists but the economic drivers don’t. Investigative reporting, long-form content is hard, expensive and takes a long time produce. The 40 post a day schedules that the major blogs stick by and the fact that investigative posts wouldn’t bring in extra ad dollars means that they won’t exist. It’s simple supply and demand. People will do it because they want to but right now they can’t do it because it’s economically viable.

With this model intact, the power will always be squarely in the hands of the blog publishers and the writers, poor writers, will always just be great conduits and filters.

Is this an indictment against the web? Not a chance. I love the web and I write tens of thousands of words for it every year. This is a whatif exercise for your Monday morning commute. Has the web turned writing and writers into a commodity and if so, do we really care?

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