<story><title>Publishers Haven&apos;t Realized How Big a Deal GDPR Is</title><url>https://baekdal.com/strategy/publishers-havent-realized-just-how-big-a-deal-gdpr-is/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>beojan</author><text>&amp;gt; No, it will basically make a newsmedia site unprofitable. I think it is the EU that has not fully thought this through. Most of the news industry is already sickly, financially, and they mostly have no model other than advertising (with a very few exceptions).&lt;p&gt;We have publicly funded broadcasters in most EU countries. The ad-supported news sites, on the other hand, are generally doing more harm than good.&lt;p&gt;News outlets existed before the web, so they&amp;#x27;re not going to be threatened by breaking the ad-supported website model. If anything, the traditional newspapers will be saved by this, because if free online news disappears, people will start buying newspaper subscriptions again.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; I think either the EU will backtrack on this once they see that Google and Facebook can easily force people to consent&lt;p&gt;They can&amp;#x27;t. The consent has to be for a specific purpose.</text></item><item><author>rossdavidh</author><text>In fact, I think the author is underestimating the impact, right here: &amp;quot;Of course, making this change will have a dramatic impact on your revenue for single-visit traffic, because you basically have to design your ad model to work completely differently from how it works today.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;No, it will basically make a newsmedia site unprofitable.  I think it is the EU that has not fully thought this through.  Most of the news industry is already sickly, financially, and they mostly have no model other than advertising (with a very few exceptions).  The reason all this data got collected, was to try to make the advertising valuable enough that they could sell it.  It may be that it never really worked, but it sure won&amp;#x27;t work without it.  I think either the EU will backtrack on this once they see that Google and Facebook can easily force people to consent (because people consider those websites too valuable to do without), but most other advertising-supported media cannot; or they will see that the long-term impact of this is that it accelerates the current death spiral of newsmedia, as all ad spending goes to Google and Facebook and almost no one else.&lt;p&gt;I leave it as an open question as to whether this would be a good or bad thing.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>davidcbc</author><text>You don&amp;#x27;t see the potential problem if the only media that is able to exist is that which is state sponsored?&lt;p&gt;You may be happy with the state sponsored options now, but will that always be the case? Would you feel the same if you living in the Soviet Union or Germany circa 1940?</text></comment>
<story><title>Publishers Haven&apos;t Realized How Big a Deal GDPR Is</title><url>https://baekdal.com/strategy/publishers-havent-realized-just-how-big-a-deal-gdpr-is/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>beojan</author><text>&amp;gt; No, it will basically make a newsmedia site unprofitable. I think it is the EU that has not fully thought this through. Most of the news industry is already sickly, financially, and they mostly have no model other than advertising (with a very few exceptions).&lt;p&gt;We have publicly funded broadcasters in most EU countries. The ad-supported news sites, on the other hand, are generally doing more harm than good.&lt;p&gt;News outlets existed before the web, so they&amp;#x27;re not going to be threatened by breaking the ad-supported website model. If anything, the traditional newspapers will be saved by this, because if free online news disappears, people will start buying newspaper subscriptions again.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; I think either the EU will backtrack on this once they see that Google and Facebook can easily force people to consent&lt;p&gt;They can&amp;#x27;t. The consent has to be for a specific purpose.</text></item><item><author>rossdavidh</author><text>In fact, I think the author is underestimating the impact, right here: &amp;quot;Of course, making this change will have a dramatic impact on your revenue for single-visit traffic, because you basically have to design your ad model to work completely differently from how it works today.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;No, it will basically make a newsmedia site unprofitable.  I think it is the EU that has not fully thought this through.  Most of the news industry is already sickly, financially, and they mostly have no model other than advertising (with a very few exceptions).  The reason all this data got collected, was to try to make the advertising valuable enough that they could sell it.  It may be that it never really worked, but it sure won&amp;#x27;t work without it.  I think either the EU will backtrack on this once they see that Google and Facebook can easily force people to consent (because people consider those websites too valuable to do without), but most other advertising-supported media cannot; or they will see that the long-term impact of this is that it accelerates the current death spiral of newsmedia, as all ad spending goes to Google and Facebook and almost no one else.&lt;p&gt;I leave it as an open question as to whether this would be a good or bad thing.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>krotton</author><text>Publically funded TV is prone to become a propaganda tube of the government. In some cases it already has (in Poland for example). Relying on it as the only news source would be silly (relying on a single news source in general is usually silly, but even more if the government directly handles the staffing).</text></comment>