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The media decline started over a decade ago with the transition from the physical publications to online. It turned out, the limited space and the delay of pri

The media decline started over a decade ago with the transition from the physical publications to online. It turned out, the limited space and the delay of printed issues forced the editors to prioritize. The newspapers were competing on quality content. With the advent of the attention economy, the model changed to competing for the strongest emotional response, so the newspapers split into rivaling camps, churning out low-quality online publications made to enrage people, while selling their attention to the highest bidder on the ad market. I hope people will eventually realize that their attention has become a commodity [0], and will start watching it better. If most people are smart enough to not give away their money to the first person asking for it, we can find a way to do the same with our attention. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_economy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_economy

kordlessagain 4y ago
Six words: Turn off, tune out, drop in.
- wsinks 4y ago
  Ha! Clever reversal. I like the idea of 'drop in' lately, since that's akin to office hours - the time when stuff can really get done because it's not the performative lecture.
tootie 4y ago
It's not just that. Newspapers had much more predictable revenue and loyalty. If you wanted news, you pay for a paper to be delivered and/or you tune in to channel 2 every evening at 11. Now it's all search and social. Anyone can post a headline that gets clicks. It's easier than ever for low-value aggregators like The Hill can summarize anyone else's reporting and steal their SEO. Or worse yet, people getting news second hand by watching hot takes on TikTok. I don't mean to sound like a grump but it's a real problem and it's incentivizing the wrong things.
Goronmon 4y ago
The media decline started over a decade ago with the transition from the physical publications to online. Was the transition to online the root of the problem, or was the root of the problem that drops in readership and revenue of physical publications that led to decisions to focus in online content? Or to put it a different way, would media be in better shape now if they had stuck to physical publications? Or would they have just died off and been replaced with online publications?
Animats 4y ago
The transition to online came with a transition from subscription to ad-supported. There used to be a lot of "advertising throwaway" newspapers, found in free racks and dropped on doorsteps. A few are still around. Their news content was just filler to get people to read the ads. "Real newspapers" cost money and competed on content. Online "newspapers", after becoming ad-supported, were downsized down to the advertising throwaway level. Just PR, news service content, punditry, and an occasional local story to give the impression of being for real.
MichaelCollins 4y ago
My personal recollection is that local newspapers went into sharp decline about 20 years ago, which is about when Craigslist became a mainstream brand, ruining local newspapers that relied on selling classified ads. The demise of classified ads made newspapers increase their subscription prices, which subsequently lost them subscribers. With fewer eyeballs to sell, newspapers could no longer charge as much for advertising, gutting what revenue they had left. Local newspapers started dropping like flies in the 00s. This is how I recall it, and more or less what wikipedia describes on their page about the decline of newspapers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_of_newspapers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_of_newspapers That page also mentions that TV had been hurting the newspaper industry since the 50s. But I think the real decline started roughly 20 years ago. 24/7 cable news, starting in the 80s, probably did a lot of damage too. It's hard for a newspaper to compete with all the fancy sound effects and animations that television news use to mesmerize viewers.

kordlessagain 4y ago

Six words: Turn off, tune out, drop in.

wsinks 4y ago
Ha! Clever reversal. I like the idea of 'drop in' lately, since that's akin to office hours - the time when stuff can really get done because it's not the performative lecture.

tootie 4y ago

It's not just that. Newspapers had much more predictable revenue and loyalty. If you wanted news, you pay for a paper to be delivered and/or you tune in to channel 2 every evening at 11. Now it's all search and social. Anyone can post a headline that gets clicks. It's easier than ever for low-value aggregators like The Hill can summarize anyone else's reporting and steal their SEO. Or worse yet, people getting news second hand by watching hot takes on TikTok. I don't mean to sound like a grump but it's a real problem and it's incentivizing the wrong things.

Goronmon 4y ago

The media decline started over a decade ago with the transition from the physical publications to online. Was the transition to online the root of the problem, or was the root of the problem that drops in readership and revenue of physical publications that led to decisions to focus in online content? Or to put it a different way, would media be in better shape now if they had stuck to physical publications? Or would they have just died off and been replaced with online publications?

Animats 4y ago

The transition to online came with a transition from subscription to ad-supported. There used to be a lot of "advertising throwaway" newspapers, found in free racks and dropped on doorsteps. A few are still around. Their news content was just filler to get people to read the ads. "Real newspapers" cost money and competed on content. Online "newspapers", after becoming ad-supported, were downsized down to the advertising throwaway level. Just PR, news service content, punditry, and an occasional local story to give the impression of being for real.

MichaelCollins 4y ago

My personal recollection is that local newspapers went into sharp decline about 20 years ago, which is about when Craigslist became a mainstream brand, ruining local newspapers that relied on selling classified ads. The demise of classified ads made newspapers increase their subscription prices, which subsequently lost them subscribers. With fewer eyeballs to sell, newspapers could no longer charge as much for advertising, gutting what revenue they had left. Local newspapers started dropping like flies in the 00s. This is how I recall it, and more or less what wikipedia describes on their page about the decline of newspapers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_of_newspapers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_of_newspapers That page also mentions that TV had been hurting the newspaper industry since the 50s. But I think the real decline started roughly 20 years ago. 24/7 cable news, starting in the 80s, probably did a lot of damage too. It's hard for a newspaper to compete with all the fancy sound effects and animations that television news use to mesmerize viewers.