When biz journalists become their own brands

Lou Carlozo of NetNewsCheck.com writes about business journalists who have become so successful that they create their own brands.

Carlozo writes, “As the Great Recession turned the heat on newspapers up to hellish levels, Julia Scott found herself in an enviable position. Her staff job at the Los Angeles Daily News seemingly secure, she had a surprise hit on her hands with ‘Bargain Hunter,’ a blog that turned readers on to shopping deals. Readers weren’t the only ones digging it: a major syndicator came along and offered to take on her column — for 10 years.

“‘It just floored me that they saw 10 years of potential in this,’ Scott says.

“But where any other reporter would have embraced the security of a decade-long deal, Scott did the counterintuitive thing: She turned it down and left her job at the Daily News in January 2009. ‘I know a lot of people would’ve stayed, but I saw the flip side: ‘This column has so much potential that someone wants to tie me down for 10 years,” she says. ‘They saw the brand as valuable.’

“So did Scott, who hastens to add that in this case, the brand wasn’t just the column: It was her.

“As the face and force behind BargainBabe.com, Scott today pulls down more money than in her days as a staff journalist, in the ‘six figures’ when readership numbers and ad revenue run strong.”

Read more here.