<story><title>Peak content: The collapse of the attention economy</title><url>http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/peak-content-the-collapse-of-the-attention-economy</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rl3</author><text>This trend has parallels with the games industry. Many publishers and developers decided long ago that monetization above all else was the goal, and it didn&amp;#x27;t matter if that meant pumping out title after title with terrible production values and sleazy monetization strategies.&lt;p&gt;Zynga pioneered this approach to such a degree that they were essentially the BuzzFeed of interactive entertainment. Later, many AAA games would follow suit embracing the Free-to-Play model. Higher production values with the same sleazy monetization strategies. The end result was games of all types selling their soul in the name of making a quick buck.&lt;p&gt;Web content has the same problem. In the face of content becoming a commodity, the reaction thus far has been to produce more content. More content means lower quality content. Lower quality content results in monetization becoming more difficult, and thus prevalent. More prevalent monetization leads to ads. Ads kill page performance, thus driving anyone away who doesn&amp;#x27;t have an ad blocker. That in turn leads to idiotic things such as paywalls and traditional media being turned into a glorified blogging platform (&lt;i&gt;cough&lt;/i&gt; Forbes). It&amp;#x27;s a race to the bottom.&lt;p&gt;The solution to this of course, is to simply make a high quality product. Ensure the content is top-notch, kill anything that isn&amp;#x27;t. Make sure page performance is excellent. Hand-curate ads such that they&amp;#x27;re non-invasive, fast, and not killed by ad-blockers. Admittedly the last point is difficult, but it can be done. If the publication is sufficiently niche, a subscription model could actually be appropriate in lieu of ads; nautil.us is a fantastic example of this.&lt;p&gt;In the end, it boils down to the classic error of the suits screaming &amp;quot;monetize!&amp;quot;, ruining their product and shooting themselves in the foot in the process. This same dynamic applies to games, print media, and even startups alike. There&amp;#x27;s a reason YC constantly reiterates that monetization efforts are foolish in the face of a product that isn&amp;#x27;t great.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jonnathanson</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;The solution to this of course, is to simply make a high quality product. Ensure the content is top-notch, kill anything that isn&amp;#x27;t. Make sure page performance is excellent. Hand-curate ads such that they&amp;#x27;re non-invasive, fast, and not killed by ad-blockers.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I agree with this strategic sentiment, but I&amp;#x27;m not sure the solution is as simple as you think it is. Higher quality content generally requires much more expensive production costs, and it&amp;#x27;s far from clear that the revenue side of the equation will support these costs at anything more than hobby-level scale.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;Admittedly the last point is difficult, but it can be done. If the publication is sufficiently niche, a subscription model could actually be appropriate in lieu of ads; nautil.us is a fantastic example of this.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I love Nautilus, as I imagine a lot of HN readers do. But how is it doing as a business? Is it thriving? Is it crushing it? Is it barely scraping by? I&amp;#x27;m not posing these questions Socratically; I&amp;#x27;m genuinely curious to know the answer. Extremely curious, in fact, as someone who&amp;#x27;s spent a lifetime in the content business and desperate for any glimmer of hope along these lines.&lt;p&gt;My instincts lead me to a similar hypothesis as yours: find a niche, overservice it, and invest in quality as a differentiating factor. But historically, these sorts of publications have rarely been goldmines. Many of them, especially in the old days of print, were borderline nonprofits -- heavily subsidized by charitable publishers or donors.&lt;p&gt;I suspect there is a niche out there for the specialty publications of the world: your web equivalents of Road &amp;amp; Track, Field &amp;amp; Stream, Wine Spectator, Robb Report, Foreign Affairs, and so forth. I am not as sure there is a lucrative niche in general-interest categories, such as news. Even still, I&amp;#x27;d love if any of the niche publications in today&amp;#x27;s brave new world -- Nautilus, for example -- would let us in on their business data. Even just a slice of it.</text></comment>
<story><title>Peak content: The collapse of the attention economy</title><url>http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/peak-content-the-collapse-of-the-attention-economy</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rl3</author><text>This trend has parallels with the games industry. Many publishers and developers decided long ago that monetization above all else was the goal, and it didn&amp;#x27;t matter if that meant pumping out title after title with terrible production values and sleazy monetization strategies.&lt;p&gt;Zynga pioneered this approach to such a degree that they were essentially the BuzzFeed of interactive entertainment. Later, many AAA games would follow suit embracing the Free-to-Play model. Higher production values with the same sleazy monetization strategies. The end result was games of all types selling their soul in the name of making a quick buck.&lt;p&gt;Web content has the same problem. In the face of content becoming a commodity, the reaction thus far has been to produce more content. More content means lower quality content. Lower quality content results in monetization becoming more difficult, and thus prevalent. More prevalent monetization leads to ads. Ads kill page performance, thus driving anyone away who doesn&amp;#x27;t have an ad blocker. That in turn leads to idiotic things such as paywalls and traditional media being turned into a glorified blogging platform (&lt;i&gt;cough&lt;/i&gt; Forbes). It&amp;#x27;s a race to the bottom.&lt;p&gt;The solution to this of course, is to simply make a high quality product. Ensure the content is top-notch, kill anything that isn&amp;#x27;t. Make sure page performance is excellent. Hand-curate ads such that they&amp;#x27;re non-invasive, fast, and not killed by ad-blockers. Admittedly the last point is difficult, but it can be done. If the publication is sufficiently niche, a subscription model could actually be appropriate in lieu of ads; nautil.us is a fantastic example of this.&lt;p&gt;In the end, it boils down to the classic error of the suits screaming &amp;quot;monetize!&amp;quot;, ruining their product and shooting themselves in the foot in the process. This same dynamic applies to games, print media, and even startups alike. There&amp;#x27;s a reason YC constantly reiterates that monetization efforts are foolish in the face of a product that isn&amp;#x27;t great.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sanderjd</author><text>&amp;gt; idiotic things such as paywalls&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; a subscription model could actually be appropriate in lieu of ads&lt;p&gt;Doesn&amp;#x27;t a subscription model imply a paywall?</text></comment>