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There are plenty of extremely profitable and growing ad-supported digital media businesses. It's just not the Vices and the Buzzfeeds of the world. Spending a
by eli 9y ago
There are plenty of extremely profitable and growing ad-supported digital media businesses. It's just not the Vices and the Buzzfeeds of the world.
Spending a ton of money up front to generate a huge volume of largely undifferentiated visitors and then selling their ad impressions at very low CPMs is not a winning strategy. And building it on top of the whims of Facebook's algorithm was worse.
- acdha 9y agoDo you have any examples of those profitable businesses?
- eli 9y agoWell, you can check my profile for one :) Skift is another (and if you've been following digital media for a while you may recognize its founder Rafat Ali) These are B2B examples. Consumer media is a lot harder because you have to figure out a way to carve out a niche audience that is attractive to advertisers, but I think it's possible. And I think success is a lot more likely if you bootstrap something rather than load up on VC and debt in a moonshot.
- philipkglass 9y agoJust popping in to say I read Utility Dive frequently. I had no idea anyone involved with it was on HN. I'm not an industry professional, just somebody who's really interested in energy issues.
- acdha 9y agoThe B2B focus seems like a smart move — and it's good to see another local business which isn't focused on the government, too.
- majani 9y agoIndeed. I feel like niche audiences with small operations is the only way to make profit in this business any more. Digital media is now a 'lifestyle business.'