The New York Observer has instigated a new cash reward scheme for its staff. There are five categories: pageviews; posts; Twitter followers; comments; and external pickups.

In each of the five categories there will be a $500 dollar bonus for the staffer with the highest number, and $350 for the runner up.

According to AWL, “The tips for “pageviews” included using Google Trends and Twitter and other web tools to see “what’s buzzing” on the web, so as to write about more popular things”.

AWL puts the scheme into context: “Annualized, the bonus pool of $48,000 could hire two extremely junior reporters with no benefits or a single rather senior one.”

Follow this link to read David Amerland on Journalism.co.uk last month discussing performance-related pay in journalism.

Full story at this link…