Over 200 newspapers now involved in lawsuits vs. Google, Facebook
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Re: Over 200 newspapers now involved in lawsuits vs. Google, Facebook
#2On one hand, if there is a new media outlet via new distribution model that's winning the market, fair. So if an online-only news source is taking away traffic and money away from physical newspapers, there's part of me that'll feel sad, but whatcha gonna do.
On the other hand though, it's a completely different model in my mind to scrape/link/copy/extract somebody else's hard work and news and editorials; and then become the majority/sole recipient of monetization (direct or via ads or other means). It's not good for society, it's not good capitalism either as it'll simply dry out the sources and then nobody can play and have fun anymore.
Re: Over 200 newspapers now involved in lawsuits vs. Google, Facebook
#3On one hand, if there is a new media outlet via new distribution model that's winning the market, fair. So if an online-only news source is taking away traffic and money away from physical newspapers, there's part of me that'll feel sad, but whatcha gonna do. On the other hand though, it's a completely different model in my mind to scrape/link/copy/extract somebody else's hard work and news and editorials; and then b…
Captured my exact sentiments.
How many US tech websites were involved in lambasting decisions by France and Australia to force Google to play nice?
Re: Over 200 newspapers now involved in lawsuits vs. Google, Facebook
#4Newspapers allowed Google and Facebook to drag them to their territory of online ad-monetized business models in which they have no way of competing (because of tech discrepancy).
This then led to deterioration of journalism and its inevitable transformation into sensationalism and entertainment, again driven by the incentives of the ad-monetized business model, because clickbait makes more ad money.
It is a sad state, but hardly it is fair to blame someone else for it.
Own it up, create credible news products, and monetize it like news were monetized for hundreds of years - you pay to read it.
The lawsuit admits that what we call "news" is really entertainment with the goal of producing content, not to inform the public, but to maximize CPM. Fox News already made it official [1]. Now you have to explain it to your viewers/readers too and make life less stressful for everyone.
[1] https://twitter.com/vladquant/status/1454288815049240586
Edit:
I get a lot of value from my local newspaper. It is monetized with (local) ads but they are unobtrusive and non-invasive. The content matters because there is a limit to how much it can fit in an edition.
I can simply skip the pages with ads if I do not want to read them.
And sometimes the ads are the only thing I am interested in, when I am looking for something specific or want to see what is new. That is the beauty of it.
Now compare that to the horror story that is the online news. Content is created by the droves. Ads are everywhere, obtrusive and invasive to user experience, not to mention all the tracking and mining of user data. I never purposefully check the online ads. It is a lose-lose-lose situation for the business, the advertiser and for the user. The only reason it exists is because it is 'free', coming with two caveats. One obvious - we get what we pay for. The other not as obvious - we are what we read.
"I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me." ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Re: Over 200 newspapers now involved in lawsuits vs. Google, Facebook
#5First, there's no mention of the legal theory under which they're claiming damages. Is this something to do with caching, aggregation, AMP, or what? The only thing the article touches on is Google being a monopoly for ads, but that would seem to be a very small part of how Google contributed to undermining the news industry.
Also even if these newspapers are successful, does anyone foresee any of the damages actually going towards reporters' salaries for doing real investigation again? It would seem that the case is really just an attempt at extracting some money for whatever private equity firms are currently feeding on the carrion.
Re: Over 200 newspapers now involved in lawsuits vs. Google, Facebook
#6On one hand, if there is a new media outlet via new distribution model that's winning the market, fair. So if an online-only news source is taking away traffic and money away from physical newspapers, there's part of me that'll feel sad, but whatcha gonna do. On the other hand though, it's a completely different model in my mind to scrape/link/copy/extract somebody else's hard work and news and editorials; and then b…
Fewer than 50% of Google searches result in a click these days. Largely thanks to the helpful (to the user) excerpts they provide ... and (I think) the trashy SEO-focused barely readable writing that you often find upon clicking through.
https://sparktoro.com/blog/less-than-half-of-google-searches...
Re: Over 200 newspapers now involved in lawsuits vs. Google, Facebook
#7That is all fine and dandy, but if Google and FB decide to drop them all-together, and offer you news that isn't "protected", then they are screwed even more then today. It is dying industry, well, the model is dying, not the need for news.
Re: Over 200 newspapers now involved in lawsuits vs. Google, Facebook
#8Newspapers allowed Google and Facebook to drag them to their territory of online ad-monetized business models in which they have no way of competing (because of tech discrepancy). This then led to deterioration of journalism and its inevitable transformation into sensationalism and entertainment, again driven by the incentives of the ad-monetized business model, because clickbait makes more ad money. It is a sad stat…
Newspapers and magazines have derived most of their revenue from ads since long before Google and Facebook. They're lucky to break even on subscription fees.
Re: Over 200 newspapers now involved in lawsuits vs. Google, Facebook
#9Newspapers allowed Google and Facebook to drag them to their territory of online ad-monetized business models in which they have no way of competing (because of tech discrepancy). This then led to deterioration of journalism and its inevitable transformation into sensationalism and entertainment, again driven by the incentives of the ad-monetized business model, because clickbait makes more ad money. It is a sad stat…
News media organisations were forced into bed with Google and Facebook by a tragedy of the commons. Readership was going to go to those platforms as long as any small proportion of media organisations published there. Smaller orgs like the ones involved in these lawsuits had only two options - publish on FB/G or miss out on a large proportion of readership.
> monetize like news were monetized for hundreds of years - you pay to read them
Very, very few news organisations have been sustained only or even primarily on readership spend. Your local paper you paid $1.20 for per issue barely paid for its own distribution with that money, much less the staff writers and freelancers doing the actual reporting. Unfortunately advertising dollars have been paying for news for much longer than FB/G have existed.
Re: Over 200 newspapers now involved in lawsuits vs. Google, Facebook
#10Newspapers allowed Google and Facebook to drag them to their territory of online ad-monetized business models in which they have no way of competing (because of tech discrepancy). This then led to deterioration of journalism and its inevitable transformation into sensationalism and entertainment, again driven by the incentives of the ad-monetized business model, because clickbait makes more ad money. It is a sad stat…
Newspapers and magazines have derived most of their revenue from ads since long before Google and Facebook. They're lucky to break even on subscription fees.
Seriously newspapers spent the entire 20th century charging people as much as $100 for classified ads, job postings, real estate listings, etc. Craigslist murdered them and they deserved it. Everything after that has been sour grapes.