A lot has been written about the collapse of the advertising-based model for journalism. I’ll say this: I don’t miss the 90s. Do you remember being swamped by a daily deluge of ads for fake breasts, Viagra or time-share condominiums?
The fact that today we see ads for products that are actually relevant to us is a testament to how far the industry has come with its targeting.
Yet, no matter how good the targeting is, publishers have known for a while now that the law of diminishing returns is in play. No amount of 'autoplay' can pay for the news.
At inkl we predicted that a downward trend in the viability of the ad-based model would not only continue, but accelerate.
In recent years Californian giants Facebook and Google have laid claim to an alarming (and growing) share of online advertising revenue. Now we're seeing Menlo Park make the (largely self-interested and prudent) decision to de-prioritise news content and it's revealed a deep faultline running through the industry.
All of a sudden the so-called "legacy" news organisations - those who have built diversified revenue streams and are not 100% reliant on ads - are looking a whole lot sturdier than many of their self-proclaimed disruptors. These publishers have already made the shift to a new user-generated revenue model. Those that haven’t will do so post-haste.
There is a multitude of ways in which publishers can sustain themselves with user-generated revenue. It doesn’t always have to be a paywall. Many great online publications are experimenting with a mix of subscriptions, tips, soft-paywalls, micropayments, memberships, donations and pledges. Those brave enough to experiment with new models will be the most successful.
As for those on the other side of the faultline, the future looks bleak. The bevy of smaller digital news (or, perhaps commentary) websites will suffer. The competition for clicks will become even more desperate. Some of these sites will double down on video and others will fold.
How does all of this affect our filter bubbles? This is something that goes well beyond news and merits far more discourse than it receives. Comfort is the enemy of good. Ideologically we valorise those who ‘get out of their comfort zone’. Most of us yearn for this quality in ourselves. And yet our latest technological thrusts seem designed to do the opposite - to ensconce us in deep unquestioning, unthinking comfort. I’m not sure when we all agreed that labour-saving technologies should be everywhere. Smart fridges order our milk, smart toasters ensure we don’t burn any bread, and now smart toilets accept verbal commands. So it should come as no surprise that smart platforms build algorithms to feed us information and replace the effort needed to develop critical insight or nous.
Enmeshed within an endless feed (designed by poker machine specialists) the news today become as transitory and valueless as another video, another ad, another post. If this latest chapter in the news saga can move us back toward seeking out quality publishers rather than being spoonfed by social media platforms, I say: fantastic.
Gautam Mishra is CEO of trusted news curator, Inkl