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My perception of old media is that they are doing exactly this, writing click bait things to get clicks and subs. This is true across the board from CNN to NYT
by zpeti 6y ago
My perception of old media is that they are doing exactly this, writing click bait things to get clicks and subs. This is true across the board from CNN to NYT to Fox.
At least with substack the incentives are not there for daily churn articles, the journalists have independence to publish when they want to, how they want to, worst case they lost subscribers. I think those incentives make them a lot less likely to make everything about clicks and controversy actually.
- ceilingcorner 6y agoAgreed, old media already does this. The question is: does switching to an individual-focused model actually address the underlying issues?
- carlineng 6y agoI would argue that yes, the fundamental incentives are different. Traditional media relied on an advertising-based revenue model, that needed to maximize eyeballs to be attractive to advertisers. Substack relies on subscriptions, which can operate at a much smaller scale. Matthew Yglesias's 10k subscribers is not nearly enough to be attractive for an advertiser, but more than enough to support a single writer's subscription business. Through Substack, writers are incentivized to write things they think that people will pay for, not just things they think people will click on.
- rchaud 6y ago> the journalists have independence to publish when they want to, This is the same thing that was said about Youtube creators vs network/cable TV shows that follow a regular schedule. Before too long, it became clear that channels needed to post at least one video per week to keep up with their competition and boost subscriber numbers. I expect the same thing to happen here.