The French intelligentsia has discovered the content farm model, and it’s not happy.

Well-financed, maturing, and in some cases reaching the liquidity climax (Demand Media’s approaching IPO, Associated Content’s acquisition by Yahoo), the content farm model in the U.S. is not without its critics. But as evidenced by Yahoo’s commitment, AOL’s birth of a business unit, or USA Today’s benediction, the model is gaining respect. I suspect this may be thanks to its indisputable efficacy in two areas: i) producing content for genuine pent-up demand, and ii) producing highly qualified and hence highly valuable audience segments for advertisers.

So whether you like ’em or hate ’em, content farms, like reality tv shows or the Pop Idol variants, give the people what they want.

If you’re unfamiliar with the content farm model, it works like this.

1. An algorithm monitors search engine requests from consumers and prioritizes the most sought after themes.
2. Once the most relevant themes are determined (in terms of consumer demand, scarcity of existing online content, and SEO potential), an online RFP is posted for freelancers (writers, photographers, videographers, editors) to write an article or produce a video based on a given theme.
3. The article or video is then edited (by both algorithms and human freelancers) and posted onto a dedicated web site.
4. The dedicated web site for the given content item is then optimized and promoted to the various search engines. Google Adsense or similar advertising widgets are piped in to generate ad revenues based on page impressions and clicks.

This entire process is almost fully automated and takes place in near real-time.

In Europe, our portfolio company GoAdv, which we took public in 2007 on the Paris Alternext, has been steadily building its own content farm activity first stealthily but now more overtly, encompassing today over 1000 content freelancers contributing an average of 15,000 articles monthly.

Wired magazine provides an excellent article in its October 2009 issue describing Demand Media and this model in more detail.

Anyway, back to the French intelligentsia. The whole content farm model is viewed with suspicion and disdain in the country of Charles de Gaulle. Last week’s article in L’Express is not atypical. And it’s true that the model is controversial and raises some valid philosophical criticisms (just like reality tv does) in a country full of armchair philosophers.

Another force at play is the country’s deep respect for the profession of journalist. Journalists in France have a special status. They undergo rigorous training and certifications, and in yesteryear often received near lifetime employment protection not unlike civil servants. Remuneration on a performance or productivity basis is sacrilege.

Of course, journalism and politics have been historical French bedfellows. The recent meddling by President Sarkozy in the imminent take-over of the French journal Le Monde proved a case in point. Le Monde was founded on another outspoken politician’s orders: President de Gaulle created le Monde following the liberation of Paris in 1944. De Gaulle’s instructions in 1944 to Pierre-Henri Teitgen, his Minister for Information, apparently were, « Choose a publisher whose past as a resistant and whose journalistic competence cannot be called into question. Flank him with a liberal protestant and a Gaullist… We need a great newspaper for the outside world. »