Om Malik
@ommalik
As someone who has been part of the ecosystem and seeking change and embrace of the internet forever, most of media industry’s problems are self afflicting and that is why they always blame others for their problems! They embrace change long after the change has made things irrelevant.
m_j_r
@m-j-r.eth
@saymore how many points stick out to you?
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dcposch.eth
@dcposch.eth
⭐ Threadstarter
Still can't believe Bezos bought the Washington Post for 0.005 twitters (less than one of his boats)
A big underlying reason why journalists are so mad at everything, and at tech especially, is that the economics of news are terrible
dcposch.eth
@dcposch.eth
Pre-internet, most of college-educated America subscribed to a newspaper. If you didn't, you'd be last to know important things.
Trouble is, information is a non-excludable good. Post internet, no matter who gets the scoop, we all see it ~immediately. The rails are efficient.
Subscribing is strictly optional now:
dcposch.eth
@dcposch.eth
What happens? Darwinism. Most outlets that make it adapt to an ad-based model, changing from a recurring revenue business (sticky, trust based) to an entertainment business (bursty, hit based; a single viral story pays more clicks than a year of good-but-boring local journalism).
dcposch.eth
@dcposch.eth
One side effect is Bad Vibes in journalism land. Trust fund NYU kids doing unpaid internships; postgrads writing for $35k/year, cancelling each other. Crabs in a bucket.
Om Malik
@ommalik
Aka don’t get me started or I won’t stop
dcposch.eth
@dcposch.eth
Another is the new reliance on the Current Thing. Something you can keep milking for clicks for months. Far more valuable than a one-off story!
Trump was the ultimate repeat-star Current Thing. First his campaign, russiagate, muller report, second campaign, etc. Saved a bunch of news outlets from bankruptcy.
davisshaver.eth
@davisshaver
Agreed. Short-term fix but long-term pain. I’ve tried to do the opposite with my local news site and it seems to be working. Still a long way to go before it’s sustainable though.
dcposch.eth
@dcposch.eth
Not optimistic about trad news until they find a new funding model.
All current ones seem bad.
- Subscribers. ⬇️
- Ads. See above.
- Donors. For local papers, this means local honchos... which the paper will then have a hard time criticizing objectively.
- Get bought by an individual. I guess it depends who...
July
@july
i agree the importance / impact of trad media in general is undervalued compared to its importance
the only places i see it succeeding more are in east asia where media tends to go hand in hand with government, and there's a clear ROI on propaganda - both directly (china) and indirectly (japan, korea, singapore, etc.)
July
@july
postscript: in japan (believe it or not), yahoo japan is huge (thanks softbank) and even excite (lycos!) still exists somehow
July
@july
the rest of the world: what are you doing in japan excite?
excite japan: unbothered. moisturized. happy. in my lane. focused.
vincent
@pixel
Heh, interesting, could be because the culture is resistant to change? If I'm not mistaken, they're also big on CDs right?
dcposch.eth
@dcposch.eth
Circa 2000, Japan had a ton of early adopters in their 20s. Early to mp3s, early to CDs, early to the www.
And now that big young cohort is pushing 50 and many still use cds and lycos. (The other big cohort is now in their 70s.)
Connor McCormick q/dau
@nor
just gotta figure out how to fund public goods and it will come roaring back (maybe not newspapers, but journalism)
Mike
@mc
Counterfactual:
print FT is best digest of things that actually matter
Most of tech is irrelevant
If you read print FT, you will know more about what matters, and by not scrolling the internet, will come to your own views, which will make you interesting to talk to and thus more ‘successful’
Mike
@mc
Also, most people who hate ‘the media’ don’t know how to read a newspaper
Mike
@mc
(Don’t know if this was actually counterfactual)