How the coronavirus crisis is punishing indie YouTubers
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How the coronavirus crisis is punishing indie YouTubers
Chris Stokel-Walker published an article about how YouTube’s algorithms have been configured to essentially punish any independent YouTuber who so much as acknowledges the existence of coronavirus. Basically, out of abundant caution to stem the spread of medical misinformation, YouTube is making it difficult for most coronavirus videos to appear in search results or receive monetization. Instead, it’s steering viewers to the channels of established news outlets like CNN and BBC.
On the one hand I’m sympathetic to YouTube’s position. It’s been on the receiving end of lots of criticism about its slowness in clamping down on conspiracy theory content, and this is the first time that it and several of other large platforms have actually attempted to get ahead of the curve in stopping that kind of content from gaining a foothold.
On the other hand, this is part of a much larger trend that I’ve written about in the past: YouTube discriminates against its independent creators in favor of mainstream media outlets, and it’s especially cruel that YouTubers can’t so much as acknowledge the current crisis that’s affecting their lives. According to Stokel-Walker, they’ve actually been reduced to using code words as stand-ins to deceive the YouTube algorithm.
I don’t accept the notion that there’s no middle ground, and I think it’s within YouTube realm of expertise to create much more precise filters to catch the worst of the medical misinformation uploaded to its servers. Given the hardships the media is already facing in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, saddling indie creators with even greater hardship should be one of YouTube’s highest priorities.
Why Cameo is such an innovative media company
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Why The New York Times bought a text-to-audio app
This is my latest article for What’s New in Publishing. In a world where podcast networks are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on individual seasons of narrative podcasts, are consumers really all that hungry for listening to someone simply read a text version of an article? In a word: yes. [link]
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Did you know that companies hire me all the time to come up with their content strategy and execute on it? White papers. Ghost written thought leadership articles. Podcast production. Check out my full list of freelance services here. [link]
Should we let newspaper chains die?
That’s a provocative question asked by Ben Smith in a New York Times column titled “Bail Out Journalists. Let Newspaper Chains Die.” The argument is pretty simple: large newspapers chains, for reasons both outside and within their control, have failed to adapt in modern times and are currently being dealt a death blow by the coronavirus shut down, and instead of spending billions of dollars to bail them out, that money should instead go to funding the journalism startups that can rise from the ashes and operate in a more nimble, 21st century fashion.
I mostly agree with his argument. Private equity firms have saddled many of these chains down with debt, and so any industry bailout would likely be funneled directly back to these firms, leaving the chains just as weak as they were before the current crisis. Many of the newspapers within these chains have tried to adapt to the digital age, but it’s always been with one arm tied behind their backs. I don’t see that changing post-crisis.
Several weeks ago, before the lockdown, I wrote an article titled “Why laid off journalists should launch their own media companies.” In it, I argued that, when a media outlet announces a mass layoff, its departing journalists should band together to launch publications that compete with their previous employers. With the federal government’s newly passed stimulus bill, many of these laid-off journalists will find themselves with more-generous-than-usual unemployment benefits, and while it’s perfectly reasonable for them to cast about for new full-time jobs, I could also see a scenario in which many of these journalists view those unemployment checks as a form of startup capital for them to launch their own media ventures.
Most journalism only requires a computer, an internet connection, and a phone. With such low overhead and plenty of free monetization tools like Patreon and Substack, the cost to experimentation is low. It’d be wonderful if one brightspot to emerge from this crisis is that we saw the launch of thousands of new media startups and the resurgence of a blighted industry.
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I have a secret Facebook group that’s only promoted to subscribers of this newsletter. I try to post exclusive commentary to it sometimes and have regular discussions with its members about the tech/media space. Go here to join. [link]
Other news
A cool story about a medical news publisher that's thrived in the era of Covid. [link]
"In March, new subscriptions to Bloomberg Media grew by 86% compared with February.” [link]
There are a lot of musicians who are pivoting to live streaming, but it's hard to say at this point whether this is translating into real revenue. One upside is that you can cut out a lot of middlemen and give more directly to the musician. [link]
Just about all content -- not just news content -- is in some way connected to coronavirus. It's the elephant in every piece of journalism. Travel. Lifestyle. Fitness. Sports. Entertainment. All are touched by the virus and the content reflects that. [link]
Podcast downloads "have dropped about 10 percent since the start of March, according to data from Podtrac, which follows trends and usage in the space. Total unique listeners also dropped roughly 20 percent in the same time frame." [link]
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Simon Owens is a tech and media journalist living in Washington, DC. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Email him at simonowens@gmail.com. For a full bio, go here.