I think you're right to some extent, but only because publishers have been absolutely rigid about their business models for the past 20 years and have consistently ignored building a high-quality digital product in favor of the "easy" solutions that Google provided. I see plenty of opportunity for digital and news publishers to thrive by
- understanding that websites are not newspapers, focusing on topic authority rather than quick answers and chasing "trending" searches or the Google News section instead of holistic website health
- doubling up on audience research and connection and moving away from prescriptive news values and bad practices from the 20th century (i.e., crime blotter)
- ending the copycatting of digital products and actually thinking strategically and creatively about what audiences want from media, rather than throwing up hands and bemoaning the education system every time someone reports that audience trust in news is declining
- Rebuilding the frickin local classified ads in the model of Craigslist, but working to provide a better experience than Facebook Marketplace, zillow, apartments.com, and other national aggregators
- Conducting original reporting about what's happening in the real world-- and how circumstances are changing over time-- rather than jumping on trending topics and entertainment news.
- Reducing the salaries of executive and easily automated sales roles across the board and creating a more distributed, equitable model that sustains quality content and local (not programmatic) advertising.
I'm already seeing changes at my local newspaper (Minneapolis StarTribune), whose new publisher is a former Google exec. There's been a palpable shift away from frenetic crime reporting and toward local stories that have real, longitudinal impact in the past couple of months.
As an SEO expert who looks at hundreds of real analytics accounts, there's no "Google discoverability crisis" as 404 Media puts it-- I'm certainly not seeing any decline in search traffic with my global clients who have solid, connected content strategies focused on original content and audience needs along with discoverability. When you look at the numbers, the same amount of people are still using search, and people who are using it to find information rather than quick answers are still doing the work of searching the blue links.
The news industry is so quick to declare everything is "dead" and "in crisis" that they don't reflect inward on how that very action undermines their own credibility. It's not dead; it's just shifting. Companies that are not doing well are the ones who are following in the footsteps of spammers and focusing on tactics that went out of date 5-10 years ago, wringing their hands at conferences about the change instead of actively revisiting their systems that might, y'know, change things.
I think you're right to some extent, but only because publishers have been absolutely rigid about their business models for the past 20 years and have consistently ignored building a high-quality digital product in favor of the "easy" solutions that Google provided. I see plenty of opportunity for digital and news publishers to thrive by
- understanding that websites are not newspapers, focusing on topic authority rather than quick answers and chasing "trending" searches or the Google News section instead of holistic website health
- doubling up on audience research and connection and moving away from prescriptive news values and bad practices from the 20th century (i.e., crime blotter)
- ending the copycatting of digital products and actually thinking strategically and creatively about what audiences want from media, rather than throwing up hands and bemoaning the education system every time someone reports that audience trust in news is declining
- Rebuilding the frickin local classified ads in the model of Craigslist, but working to provide a better experience than Facebook Marketplace, zillow, apartments.com, and other national aggregators
- Conducting original reporting about what's happening in the real world-- and how circumstances are changing over time-- rather than jumping on trending topics and entertainment news.
- Reducing the salaries of executive and easily automated sales roles across the board and creating a more distributed, equitable model that sustains quality content and local (not programmatic) advertising.
I'm already seeing changes at my local newspaper (Minneapolis StarTribune), whose new publisher is a former Google exec. There's been a palpable shift away from frenetic crime reporting and toward local stories that have real, longitudinal impact in the past couple of months.
As an SEO expert who looks at hundreds of real analytics accounts, there's no "Google discoverability crisis" as 404 Media puts it-- I'm certainly not seeing any decline in search traffic with my global clients who have solid, connected content strategies focused on original content and audience needs along with discoverability. When you look at the numbers, the same amount of people are still using search, and people who are using it to find information rather than quick answers are still doing the work of searching the blue links.
The news industry is so quick to declare everything is "dead" and "in crisis" that they don't reflect inward on how that very action undermines their own credibility. It's not dead; it's just shifting. Companies that are not doing well are the ones who are following in the footsteps of spammers and focusing on tactics that went out of date 5-10 years ago, wringing their hands at conferences about the change instead of actively revisiting their systems that might, y'know, change things.