I subscribe to the NYT, Atlantic, Bulwark and the FT (pdf version only). I quit my Wapo subscription last year in disgust. If it weren't for the investigative reporting by Maggie Haberman and others, I wouldn't subscribe to the NYT, as i feel duty bound to support to a daily fourth estate function reporting. I value Bulwark and Atlantic op ed way more than NYT editorial which i find too echo chamber-y and provincial, especially when they try to talk about the small part of the United States that lies outside of the five boroughs. None of the above U.S. publications covers business news well (NYT financial news is really lifestyle news) so I back fill with the FT.
AI can retrieve and summarize. But can it “do journalism?” So if it can’t “do journalism,” where does it get its “content” if there are not journalists doing journalism?
I decided to keep the Washington Post and cancel Amazon Prime and cease buying anything from Amazon when they did not endorse Harris. I really like Carolyn Hax so they better hold onto her. I also subscribe to other newspapers; the NYTimes among them. I stopped watching network news 20 years ago and went with newspapers instead. It's sad to experience the Washington Post going downhill.
One thing that struck me about the way people read (to the extent they read) is they're certainly not reading everything that interests them within a certain media outlet/site. It's what I see on social media or see discussed elsewhere. I personally follow the Bulwark and the Atlantic through RSS (so I at least see the title of everything they publish), but I also see stories from dozens of other sites being discussed by pundits, in Google news on my phone, just shared on social media. I think that's normal. If anything I'm odd in following even a few sites.
The payment model's not set up to support that. I've long wondered if news sites could use a bundle approach: I pay a certain monthly fee that covers the NY Times, Vanity Fair, WaPo, Slate, etc.; and if say 40% of my clicks were through the Times at the end of the month they get 40% of my fee.
Probably the bigger problem is people just aren't willing to pay for something they think should be free. And words on the internet do fall into that category for most people, at a cultural level. It's sad: good journalism is so useful but clearly costs money to produce.
This is so insightful. Thank you. That's what we subscribe to Bulwark for. I also recall watching the slow decline of the Post in the last years of the Grahams' ownership. They loved the paper but, rather than invest in the product, as the Sulzbergers did, borrowing a lot of money, then taking a huge investment from Carlos Slim, to build the company you see today, the Grahams kept cutting until they sold to Bezos to try to preserve the Post. Their board, and business advice, was dominated by Buffett, who believed that classified ads were key to the paper's financial survival, not quality, not content. Having business advisors, or investor/owners, who do not fundamentally understand the product and the brand inevitably wrecks a business. I've seen it so often.
The brand was quality, trustworthy journalism and information content of multiple kinds. So when one content feature and revenue generator, like want ads, becomes commoditized, replace it with other useful information, quality content. For the Times, that was games, or recipes, "well." That takes creativity, some risk taking, insight (into your customers and your market.) Do you recall how quickly the Times grabbed Wordle, at a pretty modest price -- and then, as it took off, built on it? As Josh Marshall's essay that riffs on JVL's post, tech guys just understand scale and fast answers. The only real brand in tech is Apple, which charges for quality, design, reliability, distinguishing from every other tech company. Interesting that Emerson is behind the Atlantic. By the way, I wonder if "ripple" wasn't an attempt to copy substack without understanding what makes substack work.
Background: NOVA resident for my entire life except college and law school. Multi-decade Post subscriber. Bigtime admirer of the Katherine and Don Graham. I grew up on this paper and its accomplishments which are legion.
I also am one of the at least 200,000 plus people (see below) who cancelled the minute they announced they were pulling Harris endorsement.
Fun fact: I took a screenshot of the cancellation and posted it that night on FB despite being out of town on vacation. Dozens of my local friends immediately replied that they had done the same.
Second fun fact: the Post did not process the cancellation. When I saw it still on my bills, I needed to fight with them for months to get them to process the cancellation. They even tried to claim it was still active AFTER I SENT THEM THE SCREENSHOT. This tells me they are cheating and their numbers are even worse than they have admitted.
There are very few sites or authors that I read on the regular where I learn something new. Maybe adding a few details, nuance, and context, but not really enlightening me. JVL manages to teach me something with every column. That's worth the price of subscription.
I often what the necessary numbers are. I see a little over a thousand likes on this JVL story. How many of us read this? 10,000? 20,000? That doesn't seem like anywhere near enough, but the Bulwark is clearly making this shiz work. Was journalism always supported by a tiny percentage of the population?
I am glad to have finally get to this piece, a rarity as I read it within hours of publication. AI generated news terrifies me. One of the ill effect is hallucination, when contents sound authoritative but otherwise made up. We are already a nation of confused but overconfident people, what else can go wrong. The last paragraph on where the Bulwark may go does uplift my spirits a bit.
To sum it up (in my mind as a manufacturer/engineering/business organizational effectiveness consultant):
1: No way to overcome bad management other than getting rid of them or educating them ( see TV’s Bar Rescue program). It appears that Bezo’s hires are like him; know-it-alls who won’t learn and change.
2. Infrastructure must be lean and streamlined I.e. no bottlenecks, offshoots, etc. that compromise speed, quality of product and ability to scaled to volume required.
3. Having a great product that customers love today and in the future coupled with even greater marketing leads to kickass sales and revenue. Anything that gets in the way needs to be jettisoned from the group/organization ASAP.
Well said piece JVL. Marty Baron wrote a great book on what happened to the WAPO once Bezos bought it. It's decline is tragic in many ways. Bezos as has been said, knows nothing about the business and his decisions since have been poorly arrived at. Me thinks he is a bit distracted by his artificial wife. His decision to purchase the Post will go down in history as a huge failure.
I subscribe to the NYT, Atlantic, Bulwark and the FT (pdf version only). I quit my Wapo subscription last year in disgust. If it weren't for the investigative reporting by Maggie Haberman and others, I wouldn't subscribe to the NYT, as i feel duty bound to support to a daily fourth estate function reporting. I value Bulwark and Atlantic op ed way more than NYT editorial which i find too echo chamber-y and provincial, especially when they try to talk about the small part of the United States that lies outside of the five boroughs. None of the above U.S. publications covers business news well (NYT financial news is really lifestyle news) so I back fill with the FT.
AI can retrieve and summarize. But can it “do journalism?” So if it can’t “do journalism,” where does it get its “content” if there are not journalists doing journalism?
I decided to keep the Washington Post and cancel Amazon Prime and cease buying anything from Amazon when they did not endorse Harris. I really like Carolyn Hax so they better hold onto her. I also subscribe to other newspapers; the NYTimes among them. I stopped watching network news 20 years ago and went with newspapers instead. It's sad to experience the Washington Post going downhill.
Yeah, could not have happened within an existing legacy organization. The WP editorial and opinion has really become pathetic.
Very insightful, as always, JVL.
One thing that struck me about the way people read (to the extent they read) is they're certainly not reading everything that interests them within a certain media outlet/site. It's what I see on social media or see discussed elsewhere. I personally follow the Bulwark and the Atlantic through RSS (so I at least see the title of everything they publish), but I also see stories from dozens of other sites being discussed by pundits, in Google news on my phone, just shared on social media. I think that's normal. If anything I'm odd in following even a few sites.
The payment model's not set up to support that. I've long wondered if news sites could use a bundle approach: I pay a certain monthly fee that covers the NY Times, Vanity Fair, WaPo, Slate, etc.; and if say 40% of my clicks were through the Times at the end of the month they get 40% of my fee.
Probably the bigger problem is people just aren't willing to pay for something they think should be free. And words on the internet do fall into that category for most people, at a cultural level. It's sad: good journalism is so useful but clearly costs money to produce.
This is so insightful. Thank you. That's what we subscribe to Bulwark for. I also recall watching the slow decline of the Post in the last years of the Grahams' ownership. They loved the paper but, rather than invest in the product, as the Sulzbergers did, borrowing a lot of money, then taking a huge investment from Carlos Slim, to build the company you see today, the Grahams kept cutting until they sold to Bezos to try to preserve the Post. Their board, and business advice, was dominated by Buffett, who believed that classified ads were key to the paper's financial survival, not quality, not content. Having business advisors, or investor/owners, who do not fundamentally understand the product and the brand inevitably wrecks a business. I've seen it so often.
The brand was quality, trustworthy journalism and information content of multiple kinds. So when one content feature and revenue generator, like want ads, becomes commoditized, replace it with other useful information, quality content. For the Times, that was games, or recipes, "well." That takes creativity, some risk taking, insight (into your customers and your market.) Do you recall how quickly the Times grabbed Wordle, at a pretty modest price -- and then, as it took off, built on it? As Josh Marshall's essay that riffs on JVL's post, tech guys just understand scale and fast answers. The only real brand in tech is Apple, which charges for quality, design, reliability, distinguishing from every other tech company. Interesting that Emerson is behind the Atlantic. By the way, I wonder if "ripple" wasn't an attempt to copy substack without understanding what makes substack work.
This post is so accurate and makes me so sad.
Background: NOVA resident for my entire life except college and law school. Multi-decade Post subscriber. Bigtime admirer of the Katherine and Don Graham. I grew up on this paper and its accomplishments which are legion.
I also am one of the at least 200,000 plus people (see below) who cancelled the minute they announced they were pulling Harris endorsement.
Fun fact: I took a screenshot of the cancellation and posted it that night on FB despite being out of town on vacation. Dozens of my local friends immediately replied that they had done the same.
Second fun fact: the Post did not process the cancellation. When I saw it still on my bills, I needed to fight with them for months to get them to process the cancellation. They even tried to claim it was still active AFTER I SENT THEM THE SCREENSHOT. This tells me they are cheating and their numbers are even worse than they have admitted.
There are very few sites or authors that I read on the regular where I learn something new. Maybe adding a few details, nuance, and context, but not really enlightening me. JVL manages to teach me something with every column. That's worth the price of subscription.
its obvious in the modern mass media environment - the vital historical role of the press... is not working fully.
I often what the necessary numbers are. I see a little over a thousand likes on this JVL story. How many of us read this? 10,000? 20,000? That doesn't seem like anywhere near enough, but the Bulwark is clearly making this shiz work. Was journalism always supported by a tiny percentage of the population?
I am glad to have finally get to this piece, a rarity as I read it within hours of publication. AI generated news terrifies me. One of the ill effect is hallucination, when contents sound authoritative but otherwise made up. We are already a nation of confused but overconfident people, what else can go wrong. The last paragraph on where the Bulwark may go does uplift my spirits a bit.
After months of consideration, just cancelled.
To sum it up (in my mind as a manufacturer/engineering/business organizational effectiveness consultant):
1: No way to overcome bad management other than getting rid of them or educating them ( see TV’s Bar Rescue program). It appears that Bezo’s hires are like him; know-it-alls who won’t learn and change.
2. Infrastructure must be lean and streamlined I.e. no bottlenecks, offshoots, etc. that compromise speed, quality of product and ability to scaled to volume required.
3. Having a great product that customers love today and in the future coupled with even greater marketing leads to kickass sales and revenue. Anything that gets in the way needs to be jettisoned from the group/organization ASAP.
I am thankful for The Bulwark everyday. Keep up the excellent work!
We live in a mirror universe where virtue is its own punishment, where the liberal media is dying and Murdoch media is flourishing.
I'd really like the headlines to be "Fox News on its last legs".
Well said piece JVL. Marty Baron wrote a great book on what happened to the WAPO once Bezos bought it. It's decline is tragic in many ways. Bezos as has been said, knows nothing about the business and his decisions since have been poorly arrived at. Me thinks he is a bit distracted by his artificial wife. His decision to purchase the Post will go down in history as a huge failure.