Mark Glaser, PBS' Mediashift columnist, thinks he has this whole pay for page views thing figured out: it's wrong, very, very wrong.

Paying a blogger or journalist based on page views puts the onus on the writer to get traffic and takes away from their main job of research and writing. Yes, we as freelance journalists should create work that has an audience, that people want to read, that resonates with the public. But there's only one result of paying writers by page view: They will pander, sensationalize and go for short-term gain over long-term value. And it does damage the site's reputation.

Instead of being paid for page views, he advocates for something called a "Loyalty Index," which rewards bloggers for building fan bases who return to the site frequently. He prizes breaking news, RSS sign ups, and increased comments above, say, a Scientology video.

On one hand, it's hard to argue against getting 2.8 million page views for one post (we certainly wouldn't complain), but on the other hand, we agree that it would be nice if those people came back.

Of course, Glaser's column sparked 15 comments, well above average.