Twenty years ago today, Randy Shaw founded Beyond Chron, inspired by national blogs like Daily Kos that revolutionized online media. I was the managing editor of Beyond Chron for many years until I left 11 years ago to work for Daily Kos. A month ago, I and about 15 other employees were laid off from Daily Kos. This is part of a larger trend in political media and digital activism, and a warning for years to come. But I still believe the Internet is a force for good, one that Howard Dean once called “the most empowering and democratizing invention since the printing press.”
Conventional wisdom holds that all progressive groups online are struggling and that this is part of the story. After Joe Biden became president, those who grew up in the Trump era began to realize that they could not retain the same number of employees. MoveOn, like other companies, has made layoffs.
But Daily Kos has also been hit hard by two funding streams: disruption to its lead generation business (read Marcos’ story to find out what that means), and declining advertising revenue.
The latter has long been a problem for independent blogs. Ad revenue puts them at the mercy of big tech companies—whether it’s Google Ads or Facebook’s ever-changing algorithms.
Beyond Chron survived because it received funding from the Tenderloin Housing Clinic. Unlike the first decade, it no longer has a few paid employees. It now airs new stories every week, rather than almost every weekday like it used to.
If online media relies on advertising revenue to survive, then websites must grow cautiously in good times.But they also need to do more than just chase traffic: independent blogs need Build an audience They keep returning to sites that provide them with quality products.
As Taegan Goddard said last month political line: “Media companies that focus solely on finding traffic are at the mercy of social media platforms or search engines. They change articles to have a better chance of going viral or ranking in search results… [But] Building an audience takes time and patience. It’s hard work and requires a daily commitment to launching great products. This means listening to your readers’ feedback. “
Ten years ago, when Randy asked me to write a 10-part Beyond Chronth Anniversary, I say blogs must evolve and adapt. At that time, Facebook was a boon to Daily Kos’ traffic.
But then Facebook changed its algorithm, deprioritized political content and now charges pages to “boost” posts. Progressives still have to be present on social media because that’s where the people are. But to gain traction, you have to get your readers to reshare your content organically. Again, you can only do this if you proactively build your audience.
As for artificial intelligence? Artificial intelligence is artificial, but it is certainly not intelligent. There is a real danger that quality media will be overrun by bots. Human nature is lazy, so I can only imagine this crap flooding the internet – whether we like it or not.
But we also need real people to control the quality of the products produced. If news sites focused more on building audiences rather than just chasing traffic, legitimate articles written by humans could continue to be effective and impactful.
What will all this mean 20 years from now? Don’t despair about the rise of big tech and artificial intelligence The internet remains the most democratizing invention since the printing press. By building online communities, we can still learn the truth. Now, let’s get busy.
Paul Hogarth is looking for a job where he can (a) have a huge impact on the upcoming election and (b) help build progressive political infrastructure (online and offline).look at his Profile on LinkedInyou can also send him an email: paulhogarth78@gmail.com
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