1 00:00:04,440 --> 00:00:12,840 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Heydarren, Welcome 2 00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:16,119 Speaker 1: to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an 3 00:00:16,160 --> 00:00:21,760 Speaker 1: executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the tech are you? Friends? 4 00:00:22,640 --> 00:00:26,040 Speaker 1: Let me tell you a story. It's a sad story, 5 00:00:26,120 --> 00:00:29,240 Speaker 1: and for folks like me, it's also a scary story. 6 00:00:30,120 --> 00:00:34,479 Speaker 1: Anyone who was in online writing or online journalism found 7 00:00:34,479 --> 00:00:37,880 Speaker 1: it to be a scary story. It's also a tale 8 00:00:37,920 --> 00:00:40,680 Speaker 1: that gets us angry because at the heart of it 9 00:00:41,040 --> 00:00:45,640 Speaker 1: were lies, or at least mistakes that a platform told 10 00:00:45,800 --> 00:00:49,159 Speaker 1: to advertisers in an effort to get more money. But 11 00:00:49,240 --> 00:00:52,919 Speaker 1: those lies or mistakes helped justify some really harmful decisions 12 00:00:52,960 --> 00:00:57,600 Speaker 1: across multiple companies. So we're talking about the infamous pivot 13 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:03,040 Speaker 1: to video. Now, to understand pivot to video, we actually 14 00:01:03,120 --> 00:01:06,080 Speaker 1: need to set the stage a little bit. So first up, 15 00:01:06,280 --> 00:01:11,440 Speaker 1: let's talk about the business of online content. For most outlets, 16 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:16,400 Speaker 1: revenue comes from advertising. The online platform sets aside certain 17 00:01:16,520 --> 00:01:21,759 Speaker 1: landscape upon which advertisers can place clients' ads, and these 18 00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:26,000 Speaker 1: may be static or dynamic, meaning if it's static, you're 19 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:27,800 Speaker 1: going to see the same ad every single time you 20 00:01:27,840 --> 00:01:30,480 Speaker 1: go to that piece of content. If it's dynamic, then 21 00:01:30,600 --> 00:01:34,200 Speaker 1: it could change out right, and it'll change out depending 22 00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:37,320 Speaker 1: upon an algorithm that's trying to make sure that each 23 00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:40,399 Speaker 1: ad that's been sold is getting the number of eyeballs 24 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:44,360 Speaker 1: that were promised. The whole business of online advertising gets 25 00:01:44,400 --> 00:01:46,800 Speaker 1: really complicated, and I've covered it elsewhere, so we're not 26 00:01:46,840 --> 00:01:48,960 Speaker 1: going to dive into it too much. Just know that 27 00:01:49,240 --> 00:01:53,440 Speaker 1: online ads were the big, big revenue source. You know, 28 00:01:53,520 --> 00:01:58,360 Speaker 1: some platforms experimented with paywalls and subscriptions, but very few 29 00:01:58,360 --> 00:02:02,560 Speaker 1: of those worked. All touch on that again later. Now. Ideally, 30 00:02:03,040 --> 00:02:05,840 Speaker 1: the people who are actually behind making the content, you know, 31 00:02:05,880 --> 00:02:08,440 Speaker 1: the writers and the editors, they don't need to be 32 00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:12,040 Speaker 1: concerned with any of that. That's not their job. They 33 00:02:12,160 --> 00:02:16,440 Speaker 1: go on writing and editing. The journalists do their investigative work, 34 00:02:16,600 --> 00:02:19,800 Speaker 1: and they identify leads, and they follow up with those leads, 35 00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:22,880 Speaker 1: and they check sources, and generally they do the very 36 00:02:22,919 --> 00:02:25,720 Speaker 1: hard work the journalists do in order to get the 37 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:29,080 Speaker 1: truth out to the public. Folks who are like me, 38 00:02:29,840 --> 00:02:33,360 Speaker 1: whom I would classify myself as a writer, not a journalist. 39 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:36,000 Speaker 1: I didn't have it nearly as tough as journalists do. 40 00:02:36,520 --> 00:02:39,160 Speaker 1: Like I don't want to give anyone any feelings that 41 00:02:39,280 --> 00:02:42,600 Speaker 1: somehow my job was as tough as being an investigative journalist. 42 00:02:42,680 --> 00:02:45,160 Speaker 1: It certainly wasn't. But you know, we also have to 43 00:02:45,160 --> 00:02:46,760 Speaker 1: do things like we have to research, and we have 44 00:02:46,800 --> 00:02:49,640 Speaker 1: to check sources, and we have to make reasonably sure 45 00:02:49,720 --> 00:02:52,720 Speaker 1: that the stuff that we're writing is accurate. You know, 46 00:02:53,560 --> 00:02:56,200 Speaker 1: our reputations are on the line, and our jobs are 47 00:02:56,240 --> 00:02:58,600 Speaker 1: often on the line. But I would say the lift 48 00:02:58,680 --> 00:03:02,040 Speaker 1: is lighter to journalists, at least in my opinion, in 49 00:03:02,080 --> 00:03:05,360 Speaker 1: my experience, based upon what I know now, good writers 50 00:03:05,639 --> 00:03:09,680 Speaker 1: should command a decent salary, and good journalists definitely should 51 00:03:09,680 --> 00:03:13,480 Speaker 1: command a good salary. They possess talents and skills that 52 00:03:13,520 --> 00:03:17,280 Speaker 1: aren't necessarily universal. It's not like you could just fire 53 00:03:17,400 --> 00:03:20,600 Speaker 1: somebody and hire some random person off the street and 54 00:03:20,639 --> 00:03:23,919 Speaker 1: get the same result. Right, to be a good journalist 55 00:03:24,040 --> 00:03:26,720 Speaker 1: or a good writer requires a lot of dedication. It 56 00:03:26,760 --> 00:03:30,760 Speaker 1: requires skill and talent and practice, and without these things, 57 00:03:30,840 --> 00:03:34,720 Speaker 1: the quality of the overall site would become garbage. Now, 58 00:03:35,240 --> 00:03:39,000 Speaker 1: it wouldn't necessarily be worth advertising on either, right, Like, 59 00:03:39,080 --> 00:03:41,280 Speaker 1: if the quality of the site goes down and that 60 00:03:41,320 --> 00:03:45,080 Speaker 1: means fewer people go to it, then advertisers don't want 61 00:03:45,120 --> 00:03:47,320 Speaker 1: to put ads on that site. It doesn't make sense 62 00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:50,840 Speaker 1: that those ads aren't going to be seen, so why bother. However, 63 00:03:50,920 --> 00:03:54,600 Speaker 1: we all know that sometimes garbage can have an appeal 64 00:03:54,640 --> 00:03:57,440 Speaker 1: of its own that will continue to draw visitors. Just 65 00:03:57,480 --> 00:04:00,240 Speaker 1: because something is low in quality doesn't mean it's unpoppulsler. 66 00:04:00,960 --> 00:04:04,040 Speaker 1: And also just because something is high quality doesn't mean 67 00:04:04,280 --> 00:04:07,840 Speaker 1: that it's sought after. This is just the nature of 68 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:11,320 Speaker 1: our world. So sometimes you can create garbage and do 69 00:04:11,440 --> 00:04:15,000 Speaker 1: really well if it's garbage that people are interested in. Anyway, 70 00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:19,520 Speaker 1: running a content site that's staffed by like salaried writers 71 00:04:19,520 --> 00:04:22,640 Speaker 1: and editors gets to be really expensive because that's a 72 00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:26,839 Speaker 1: lot of salaries, and the work can be slow, particularly 73 00:04:26,880 --> 00:04:30,240 Speaker 1: for those who are working on in depth pieces in 74 00:04:30,240 --> 00:04:32,320 Speaker 1: which journalists are you know, having to follow up on 75 00:04:32,360 --> 00:04:35,359 Speaker 1: all those pesky leads and loose ends. That kind of 76 00:04:35,360 --> 00:04:39,120 Speaker 1: thing takes time, and that might mean that you could 77 00:04:39,120 --> 00:04:41,120 Speaker 1: be waiting a while for the next piece to be 78 00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:44,279 Speaker 1: ready for publication. You're not churning out content, you're not 79 00:04:44,320 --> 00:04:48,080 Speaker 1: a content farm. Meanwhile, you still have to keep paying 80 00:04:48,480 --> 00:04:51,839 Speaker 1: this yutz who's working on this really in depth piece 81 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:54,520 Speaker 1: for all their work. It ain't hardly fair right, because 82 00:04:54,600 --> 00:04:58,080 Speaker 1: you know they're still haven't actually published the thing. That's 83 00:04:58,080 --> 00:05:00,919 Speaker 1: my guess as to how certain online content platform owners 84 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:03,040 Speaker 1: think that you know, it ain't hardly fair that we 85 00:05:03,080 --> 00:05:05,240 Speaker 1: have to pay them even though they haven't published their 86 00:05:05,320 --> 00:05:09,400 Speaker 1: article yet. Of course, maybe you can cut back on 87 00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:13,240 Speaker 1: the costs by going with freelance writers, you know, because 88 00:05:13,240 --> 00:05:15,920 Speaker 1: you only pay freelance writers when they turn in a 89 00:05:15,920 --> 00:05:19,720 Speaker 1: finished piece. You'll still need an editorial staff, likely a 90 00:05:19,839 --> 00:05:22,839 Speaker 1: salaried editorial staff, but you don't need to hold on 91 00:05:22,880 --> 00:05:25,440 Speaker 1: to a staff of salaried writers if you're just dependent 92 00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:28,400 Speaker 1: upon freelancers. Now you might find it challenging to reach 93 00:05:28,440 --> 00:05:32,080 Speaker 1: a consistent level of quality. But there are some very good, 94 00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:35,440 Speaker 1: very accomplished freelancers out there who are just as good 95 00:05:35,440 --> 00:05:38,080 Speaker 1: as any salaried writer, or even better in some cases. 96 00:05:38,440 --> 00:05:41,320 Speaker 1: So hopefully you can attract some of those to write 97 00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:43,800 Speaker 1: for you. If not, well, you can hope that the 98 00:05:43,800 --> 00:05:47,400 Speaker 1: folks you do get are good enough, or that your 99 00:05:47,520 --> 00:05:51,200 Speaker 1: editorial staff can maybe hush things up if the articles 100 00:05:51,240 --> 00:05:54,640 Speaker 1: are perhaps a little below standard. But at any rate, 101 00:05:54,800 --> 00:05:57,160 Speaker 1: you can bring down some of the costs that way 102 00:05:57,279 --> 00:06:01,920 Speaker 1: by not having salaried writing staff. Meanwhile, the other thing 103 00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:05,960 Speaker 1: that you're concerned with, or perhaps obsessed with, is SEO, 104 00:06:06,279 --> 00:06:09,640 Speaker 1: which stands for Search engine optimization. So why would you 105 00:06:09,680 --> 00:06:14,080 Speaker 1: be obsessed with SEO. Well, for years, the primary source 106 00:06:14,120 --> 00:06:17,039 Speaker 1: of traffic for many websites, not all of them, but 107 00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:20,320 Speaker 1: many of them would be search engines. So of course 108 00:06:20,360 --> 00:06:23,760 Speaker 1: when I say search engines, I really mean Google. Yes, 109 00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:27,440 Speaker 1: there are other search engines out there. Some people exclusively 110 00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:31,960 Speaker 1: use other search engines, but Google is by far the 111 00:06:32,080 --> 00:06:35,040 Speaker 1: dominant search engine on the web. So ranking high in 112 00:06:35,080 --> 00:06:38,279 Speaker 1: Google search engines is really important because if you're below 113 00:06:38,560 --> 00:06:41,919 Speaker 1: say the first several results, or worse yet, if you 114 00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:44,960 Speaker 1: show up after page one, you're just not going to 115 00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:48,960 Speaker 1: get very much traffic from those search engines. Folks tend 116 00:06:49,040 --> 00:06:52,479 Speaker 1: to follow the top links that are listed. Most will 117 00:06:52,520 --> 00:06:54,719 Speaker 1: not go beyond the first page, and quite a few 118 00:06:54,760 --> 00:06:58,280 Speaker 1: won't go quote unquote below the fold, which means they'll 119 00:06:58,279 --> 00:07:02,159 Speaker 1: click on something they can see upon getting their search 120 00:07:02,200 --> 00:07:05,040 Speaker 1: results without having to scroll down the page at all. 121 00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:08,600 Speaker 1: So part of your strategy is to identify stuff that 122 00:07:08,680 --> 00:07:11,960 Speaker 1: people are searching for and then to create content that 123 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:16,080 Speaker 1: meets those needs. Or better yet, you figure out what 124 00:07:16,320 --> 00:07:19,360 Speaker 1: folks are going to be searching for tomorrow and then 125 00:07:19,400 --> 00:07:22,080 Speaker 1: you get the jump on everyone else. So you hire 126 00:07:22,160 --> 00:07:26,080 Speaker 1: some SEO consultants to help you optimize your site. Maybe 127 00:07:26,120 --> 00:07:28,760 Speaker 1: you're throwing in a bunch of meta data and such 128 00:07:28,840 --> 00:07:30,920 Speaker 1: to give you the best chance to rank high on 129 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:34,400 Speaker 1: Google's search results. And you either don't think about or 130 00:07:34,440 --> 00:07:37,760 Speaker 1: you push aside the concern that should Google adjust its 131 00:07:37,800 --> 00:07:40,800 Speaker 1: approach to search results, you'll be back at square one, 132 00:07:41,280 --> 00:07:45,880 Speaker 1: because that's a thing. Google changes its algorithm every so often. 133 00:07:46,200 --> 00:07:49,440 Speaker 1: Those changes could mean that you go from having a 134 00:07:49,560 --> 00:07:52,560 Speaker 1: healthy flow of visitors because you rank really high on 135 00:07:52,600 --> 00:07:56,480 Speaker 1: the list, or you go down to a trickle because 136 00:07:56,520 --> 00:07:59,000 Speaker 1: suddenly there's a change in the algorithm and now you're 137 00:07:59,040 --> 00:08:03,640 Speaker 1: not appearing on page one anymore. And that's really scary, right. 138 00:08:03,720 --> 00:08:07,360 Speaker 1: You could be spending tons of money to rank high 139 00:08:07,400 --> 00:08:10,240 Speaker 1: on lists, only for Google to change things and you're 140 00:08:10,800 --> 00:08:14,040 Speaker 1: worse off than you were before. Of course, your ideal 141 00:08:14,080 --> 00:08:17,360 Speaker 1: situation is to convince folks to come to your site 142 00:08:17,720 --> 00:08:20,560 Speaker 1: all on their own, just to go straight to your site, 143 00:08:20,600 --> 00:08:24,560 Speaker 1: not to get there via search engine, and that means 144 00:08:24,600 --> 00:08:26,680 Speaker 1: you have to create a site that is a destination 145 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:29,800 Speaker 1: in itself. So instead of going to Google and searching 146 00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:32,600 Speaker 1: for some random topic and just so happens that you 147 00:08:32,880 --> 00:08:35,320 Speaker 1: have covered that topic on your site and people come 148 00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:37,760 Speaker 1: to you that way. These people are coming straight to 149 00:08:37,800 --> 00:08:41,160 Speaker 1: your page just to see what you've posted and maybe 150 00:08:41,160 --> 00:08:43,319 Speaker 1: see if there's something interesting that they want to look at. 151 00:08:43,320 --> 00:08:45,920 Speaker 1: Maybe even scroll around and look through archives to see 152 00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:48,280 Speaker 1: if there's old stuff that they want to read. That 153 00:08:48,440 --> 00:08:50,720 Speaker 1: is the dream to create a site that is so 154 00:08:51,440 --> 00:08:55,600 Speaker 1: inviting and so interesting that people go to it just 155 00:08:55,679 --> 00:08:58,120 Speaker 1: on their own, but for an awful lot of sites 156 00:08:58,160 --> 00:09:01,200 Speaker 1: out there, it remains a dream. Only a small percentage 157 00:09:01,200 --> 00:09:03,880 Speaker 1: of your visitors may be coming to your site just 158 00:09:03,920 --> 00:09:07,520 Speaker 1: to see what you've posted. Most are likely finding you 159 00:09:07,600 --> 00:09:10,520 Speaker 1: by following a link from a search results page. Another 160 00:09:10,559 --> 00:09:13,280 Speaker 1: thing that was changing at this time was online video. 161 00:09:13,679 --> 00:09:16,200 Speaker 1: So YouTube had launched back in two thousand and five, 162 00:09:16,240 --> 00:09:20,160 Speaker 1: and it wasn't the first online video platform, but obviously 163 00:09:20,480 --> 00:09:23,360 Speaker 1: it's the one that has become the most famous, and 164 00:09:23,559 --> 00:09:26,360 Speaker 1: it was in twenty eleven when things really started to 165 00:09:26,520 --> 00:09:30,360 Speaker 1: change quite a bit with online video. So twenty eleven 166 00:09:30,400 --> 00:09:32,560 Speaker 1: is the year when YouTube acquired a company that was 167 00:09:32,600 --> 00:09:36,200 Speaker 1: called Next New Networks. One of the folks who co 168 00:09:36,280 --> 00:09:39,680 Speaker 1: founded that company, Jed Simmons envisioned a new kind of 169 00:09:39,679 --> 00:09:43,000 Speaker 1: business on YouTube that he called a multi channel network. 170 00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:46,359 Speaker 1: This wasn't so much as new as it was newly defined. 171 00:09:46,720 --> 00:09:49,480 Speaker 1: So a multi channel network describes a company that owns 172 00:09:49,480 --> 00:09:53,800 Speaker 1: and operates multiple channels on YouTube. The company is in 173 00:09:53,920 --> 00:09:56,760 Speaker 1: charge of programming and content, meaning it's not just an 174 00:09:56,840 --> 00:10:00,719 Speaker 1: organization that aggregates existing channels that each operate more or 175 00:10:00,760 --> 00:10:03,560 Speaker 1: less independently of one another. So this is kind of 176 00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:06,600 Speaker 1: similar to how cable television works. For example, back in 177 00:10:06,640 --> 00:10:10,240 Speaker 1: the day, Discovery Incorporated, which is now part of Warner Brothers. 178 00:10:10,320 --> 00:10:16,040 Speaker 1: Discovery owned and operated cable channels like Discovery, the Science Channel, TLC, 179 00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:19,160 Speaker 1: the Food Network, Animal Planet, and you know, like around 180 00:10:19,200 --> 00:10:22,079 Speaker 1: a dozen more channels. So on top of the multi 181 00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:26,200 Speaker 1: channel network strategy, YouTube pushed for content creators to do 182 00:10:26,280 --> 00:10:30,400 Speaker 1: their thing over on YouTube itself, to adopt YouTube as 183 00:10:30,520 --> 00:10:33,080 Speaker 1: a home base, and the company set aside a cool 184 00:10:33,160 --> 00:10:37,120 Speaker 1: one hundred million bucks to help new original channels get 185 00:10:37,160 --> 00:10:40,480 Speaker 1: off the ground. These included original channels like Geek and Sundry, 186 00:10:40,840 --> 00:10:44,760 Speaker 1: The Onion, and THENOC. The initiative would last about a 187 00:10:44,840 --> 00:10:47,360 Speaker 1: year and a half or so, at which point YouTube 188 00:10:47,440 --> 00:10:50,560 Speaker 1: quietly removed all references to this initiative and had reportedly 189 00:10:50,600 --> 00:10:53,560 Speaker 1: cut funding for more than half of the launched channels 190 00:10:53,559 --> 00:10:57,040 Speaker 1: because they just weren't performing to the level that was 191 00:10:57,120 --> 00:11:00,400 Speaker 1: needed in order to recoup the cost of investment. So 192 00:11:00,440 --> 00:11:02,720 Speaker 1: we see the dangers in relying upon a third party 193 00:11:02,720 --> 00:11:05,120 Speaker 1: when it comes to making content, because if that third 194 00:11:05,120 --> 00:11:08,120 Speaker 1: party suddenly decides to change something, suddenly you don't have 195 00:11:08,640 --> 00:11:12,680 Speaker 1: a home anymore. Then in the mid twenty tens, things 196 00:11:12,679 --> 00:11:15,800 Speaker 1: were really changing quite a bit. Search results were starting 197 00:11:15,800 --> 00:11:18,960 Speaker 1: to matter less, which wasn't necessarily a good thing for 198 00:11:19,040 --> 00:11:23,120 Speaker 1: those content platforms that depended upon traffic from Google, and instead, 199 00:11:23,679 --> 00:11:28,080 Speaker 1: social networks were beginning to matter more. People were saying, oh, well, 200 00:11:28,760 --> 00:11:30,760 Speaker 1: they go to their social networks and that's where they 201 00:11:30,760 --> 00:11:33,960 Speaker 1: get their news. They'll see something posted on Facebook, for example, 202 00:11:34,080 --> 00:11:36,839 Speaker 1: or Twitter, and then they'll follow up on it there 203 00:11:37,080 --> 00:11:39,800 Speaker 1: rather than going to a search engine or to a 204 00:11:39,960 --> 00:11:44,640 Speaker 1: content site directly. So friends would click on links and 205 00:11:44,800 --> 00:11:48,160 Speaker 1: content would go viral through people sharing on places like 206 00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:51,640 Speaker 1: Facebook or Twitter, and this meant that SEO would become 207 00:11:51,800 --> 00:11:55,240 Speaker 1: less important, and now content providers had to figure out 208 00:11:55,280 --> 00:11:58,080 Speaker 1: how could they create the kinds of content that would 209 00:11:58,080 --> 00:12:01,600 Speaker 1: do well on social media, which is a totally different skill, 210 00:12:01,760 --> 00:12:03,960 Speaker 1: Like you have to think in a different way for 211 00:12:04,040 --> 00:12:07,760 Speaker 1: something to do well on a social platform versus to 212 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:11,240 Speaker 1: rank well in search. The writers and editors who just 213 00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:13,720 Speaker 1: wanted to do you a good job, they just wanted 214 00:12:13,720 --> 00:12:16,240 Speaker 1: to do work and to make a living off of 215 00:12:16,320 --> 00:12:19,200 Speaker 1: doing work, they would get jerked around quite a bit. 216 00:12:19,600 --> 00:12:23,400 Speaker 1: The types of content and the style of writing would change, 217 00:12:23,760 --> 00:12:28,439 Speaker 1: sometimes drastically, in an effort to cater to what does 218 00:12:28,480 --> 00:12:30,840 Speaker 1: well on social networks. This is where we started to 219 00:12:30,840 --> 00:12:37,160 Speaker 1: see the real embrace of lists and listicles, because lists 220 00:12:37,320 --> 00:12:39,400 Speaker 1: tend to do pretty well on social network or at 221 00:12:39,440 --> 00:12:42,400 Speaker 1: least they did at the time, and it was the worst. 222 00:12:42,440 --> 00:12:45,480 Speaker 1: Like if you were someone who was really dedicated to writing, 223 00:12:45,920 --> 00:12:49,920 Speaker 1: getting an assignment to write a list could be really depressing. 224 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:52,520 Speaker 1: I mean, there were people who did amazing jobs at it. 225 00:12:52,559 --> 00:12:55,960 Speaker 1: I know writers who did fantastic jobs at creating lists, 226 00:12:56,360 --> 00:13:00,960 Speaker 1: but from my perspective, my experience, it was just far 227 00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:03,920 Speaker 1: less satisfying to have to do a list as opposed 228 00:13:03,920 --> 00:13:08,000 Speaker 1: to a quote unquote normal article. Some sites really excelled 229 00:13:08,080 --> 00:13:11,160 Speaker 1: at getting traction on social networks, like BuzzFeed was pretty 230 00:13:11,200 --> 00:13:14,640 Speaker 1: darn good at it. And others rarely saw very much success. 231 00:13:14,679 --> 00:13:17,720 Speaker 1: Like you would try, like you seem to be doing 232 00:13:17,760 --> 00:13:20,040 Speaker 1: what everyone else was doing, but you just weren't necessarily 233 00:13:20,040 --> 00:13:24,199 Speaker 1: getting much traction. And so by twenty fifteen, content sites 234 00:13:24,240 --> 00:13:26,240 Speaker 1: were starting to put most of their eggs in the 235 00:13:26,280 --> 00:13:29,320 Speaker 1: social network basket. And I'm reminded of a conversation I 236 00:13:29,360 --> 00:13:32,280 Speaker 1: once had with Bernie Burns, one of the founders of 237 00:13:32,360 --> 00:13:36,120 Speaker 1: the media company Rooster Teeth. So Bernie told me that 238 00:13:36,200 --> 00:13:38,520 Speaker 1: he felt a key component to success on the Internet 239 00:13:38,720 --> 00:13:41,880 Speaker 1: if you're a content company is that you always maintain 240 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:45,800 Speaker 1: your own platform, and you can show up on other platforms, right. 241 00:13:45,920 --> 00:13:47,920 Speaker 1: You can show up on YouTube, you can show up 242 00:13:47,960 --> 00:13:51,559 Speaker 1: on Facebook, but you always need to maintain your own 243 00:13:51,640 --> 00:13:56,240 Speaker 1: home and never fully commit to someone else's site as 244 00:13:56,280 --> 00:14:00,480 Speaker 1: being your base of operations, because if that other entity 245 00:14:00,559 --> 00:14:03,440 Speaker 1: does change things, you're up the creek. Kind of like 246 00:14:03,559 --> 00:14:07,319 Speaker 1: how content sites had optimized for one Google search algorithm 247 00:14:07,559 --> 00:14:10,000 Speaker 1: and then had to scramble and Google changed things up, 248 00:14:10,280 --> 00:14:13,240 Speaker 1: Or like how those original channels on YouTube had to 249 00:14:13,280 --> 00:14:16,760 Speaker 1: shut down once YouTube pulled the plug on the experiment. Now, 250 00:14:16,800 --> 00:14:18,880 Speaker 1: on the one hand, maybe those channels never would have 251 00:14:18,880 --> 00:14:21,600 Speaker 1: had a shot without YouTube's help in the first place, 252 00:14:21,680 --> 00:14:24,560 Speaker 1: so you could argue that they really didn't lose much 253 00:14:24,640 --> 00:14:27,520 Speaker 1: because they never would have had the opportunity without it anyway. 254 00:14:27,720 --> 00:14:29,920 Speaker 1: But on the other hand, once the third party shuts 255 00:14:29,920 --> 00:14:32,160 Speaker 1: off the support, the media company more often than not 256 00:14:32,360 --> 00:14:35,120 Speaker 1: had to fold. Okay, we're going to take a quick break. 257 00:14:35,120 --> 00:14:38,320 Speaker 1: When we come back, i'll talk more about the dreaded 258 00:14:38,480 --> 00:14:51,240 Speaker 1: pivot to video, but first a word from our sponsors. Okay, 259 00:14:51,240 --> 00:14:54,160 Speaker 1: we're back, and we've got a bunch of content sites 260 00:14:54,200 --> 00:14:57,080 Speaker 1: out there that are hanging on social networks to a 261 00:14:57,240 --> 00:15:00,800 Speaker 1: dangerous degree. The revenue models are such that the owners 262 00:15:00,800 --> 00:15:03,720 Speaker 1: of these sites are always looking for ways to reduce costs. 263 00:15:03,960 --> 00:15:07,120 Speaker 1: And then we finally get to the disastrous pivot to 264 00:15:07,240 --> 00:15:10,560 Speaker 1: video moment. And a few things would feed into this. 265 00:15:11,200 --> 00:15:14,800 Speaker 1: One is the perception that video is more nimble than 266 00:15:15,280 --> 00:15:19,480 Speaker 1: having to depend on written content. You can be more 267 00:15:19,640 --> 00:15:22,600 Speaker 1: fast and loose with video than you can with articles. 268 00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:25,640 Speaker 1: You can write and shoot a whole bunch of episodes 269 00:15:25,640 --> 00:15:27,920 Speaker 1: in a day, you can bank a bunch of content, 270 00:15:28,040 --> 00:15:30,440 Speaker 1: or more likely, you can release the content at a 271 00:15:30,480 --> 00:15:34,240 Speaker 1: regular pace, only to do it all again the next day. 272 00:15:34,480 --> 00:15:38,520 Speaker 1: And starting from scratch and making video is tough. You 273 00:15:38,880 --> 00:15:41,760 Speaker 1: could have a very small team doing it, but you know, 274 00:15:41,880 --> 00:15:44,040 Speaker 1: hats off to everyone on that team. I have worked 275 00:15:44,040 --> 00:15:45,760 Speaker 1: in this space a bit, and I can tell you that, 276 00:15:45,800 --> 00:15:49,120 Speaker 1: in my opinion, the talent on screen, the person you're 277 00:15:49,160 --> 00:15:52,920 Speaker 1: seeing in the video, typically has the easiest job, particularly 278 00:15:52,960 --> 00:15:54,720 Speaker 1: if they're not the one who had to write the 279 00:15:54,760 --> 00:15:57,200 Speaker 1: copy in the first place, like some people who appear 280 00:15:57,200 --> 00:15:59,440 Speaker 1: on the video. They're the ones who did all the 281 00:15:59,480 --> 00:16:02,520 Speaker 1: research and and that's a ton of work, but not 282 00:16:02,640 --> 00:16:05,440 Speaker 1: all the time. So back when I worked at houstuffworks 283 00:16:05,480 --> 00:16:08,760 Speaker 1: dot com, I would occasionally get pulled in to shoot 284 00:16:08,840 --> 00:16:11,200 Speaker 1: videos that were written by other people because we were 285 00:16:11,240 --> 00:16:13,760 Speaker 1: just as much affected by this pivot to video as 286 00:16:13,760 --> 00:16:16,600 Speaker 1: a lot of other sites. So a great example of 287 00:16:16,640 --> 00:16:20,640 Speaker 1: this is one of the most popular videos that featured yours. Truly, 288 00:16:21,160 --> 00:16:23,600 Speaker 1: I've been in some videos that went pretty viral, but 289 00:16:23,680 --> 00:16:25,800 Speaker 1: I think this one might be one of the top ones. 290 00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:29,000 Speaker 1: And it's a video that's titled why do People in 291 00:16:29,120 --> 00:16:32,440 Speaker 1: Old Movies Talk Weird? It's still up on YouTube if 292 00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:33,840 Speaker 1: you want to check it out. It has more than 293 00:16:33,880 --> 00:16:37,680 Speaker 1: five million views, which isn't too shabby. Now, obviously, that's 294 00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:41,920 Speaker 1: nowhere close to being even remotely one of the more 295 00:16:41,960 --> 00:16:45,320 Speaker 1: popular videos on the platform. Right, five million is big 296 00:16:45,320 --> 00:16:48,240 Speaker 1: for me, it's not big for like the truly huge 297 00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:53,280 Speaker 1: creators out there anyway. Ben Bolin, my arch nemesis, actually 298 00:16:53,320 --> 00:16:57,520 Speaker 1: wrote that episode. I did not. I threw in an 299 00:16:57,520 --> 00:16:59,800 Speaker 1: improvised line at the very end of the video about 300 00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:02,640 Speaker 1: Rigi races, but that was about it anyway. All I 301 00:17:02,680 --> 00:17:04,960 Speaker 1: really had to do was I had to show up, 302 00:17:05,080 --> 00:17:07,520 Speaker 1: and I had to read my lines off of a teleprompter. 303 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:10,040 Speaker 1: And I'm pretty good at that. I'm pretty good at 304 00:17:10,040 --> 00:17:13,280 Speaker 1: reading off a teleprompter, and I can do it well 305 00:17:13,400 --> 00:17:16,560 Speaker 1: enough where it can come across naturally, like it doesn't 306 00:17:16,600 --> 00:17:20,040 Speaker 1: necessarily sound like I'm reading off a teleprompter, and I 307 00:17:20,040 --> 00:17:22,560 Speaker 1: can typically get through a video in just one or 308 00:17:22,600 --> 00:17:25,760 Speaker 1: sometimes two takes. They called me one take Strickland back 309 00:17:25,760 --> 00:17:28,280 Speaker 1: in the day, but for everyone else who was working 310 00:17:28,320 --> 00:17:31,119 Speaker 1: on that team, it was a lot more work. Like again, 311 00:17:31,280 --> 00:17:34,200 Speaker 1: I had the easiest job, but you got the writer Ben. 312 00:17:34,280 --> 00:17:36,760 Speaker 1: In this case, Ben had to research and write the 313 00:17:36,760 --> 00:17:39,280 Speaker 1: piece and then cut it down so that it could 314 00:17:39,280 --> 00:17:41,760 Speaker 1: fit a particular format. It didn't need to go too long, 315 00:17:41,800 --> 00:17:44,960 Speaker 1: but it needed to be informative enough to justify its existence. 316 00:17:45,720 --> 00:17:47,840 Speaker 1: You've got the tech crew. They have to make sure 317 00:17:47,880 --> 00:17:49,679 Speaker 1: that the sound and the video and the lights and 318 00:17:49,720 --> 00:17:52,960 Speaker 1: all of that are working properly, and that I look 319 00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:55,320 Speaker 1: as good as I possibly can on a camera. There's 320 00:17:55,320 --> 00:17:57,639 Speaker 1: only so much you can do, but you get the idea. 321 00:17:57,760 --> 00:17:59,920 Speaker 1: And then you've got the poor editor whose job is 322 00:18:00,200 --> 00:18:02,439 Speaker 1: to take all this footage and then combine it with 323 00:18:02,520 --> 00:18:05,040 Speaker 1: you know, other stuff like stock footage, and to get 324 00:18:05,080 --> 00:18:07,560 Speaker 1: it ready for publication. So my heart really goes out 325 00:18:07,560 --> 00:18:10,639 Speaker 1: to the editors. They often were be absolutely slammed with work. 326 00:18:10,800 --> 00:18:12,479 Speaker 1: You know, as soon as they finished one piece they 327 00:18:12,480 --> 00:18:14,960 Speaker 1: had to jump on another one. I don't know how 328 00:18:14,960 --> 00:18:18,240 Speaker 1: they did it and kept their sanity. Anyway, with a 329 00:18:18,280 --> 00:18:22,080 Speaker 1: relatively small team, you could churn out a whole lot 330 00:18:22,119 --> 00:18:24,960 Speaker 1: of content. Now let's get back to another big component, 331 00:18:25,280 --> 00:18:28,320 Speaker 1: the perception that video brings in more ad revenue. I 332 00:18:28,359 --> 00:18:31,280 Speaker 1: think you could reasonably argue this perception is what led 333 00:18:31,320 --> 00:18:34,560 Speaker 1: to a whole lot of great writers and editors losing 334 00:18:34,600 --> 00:18:37,800 Speaker 1: their jobs. And it all starts with a lie, or 335 00:18:37,800 --> 00:18:42,200 Speaker 1: at the very least, a huge mistake. So the year 336 00:18:42,359 --> 00:18:45,280 Speaker 1: is twenty fifteen, and here in the United States we 337 00:18:45,280 --> 00:18:47,680 Speaker 1: were heading into an election year. It seems like we're 338 00:18:47,680 --> 00:18:50,320 Speaker 1: always doing that, but you know, twenty fifteen, we're getting 339 00:18:50,359 --> 00:18:52,920 Speaker 1: ready for the twenty sixteen election year. That was a 340 00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:55,080 Speaker 1: year that promised to be a real doozy, and it 341 00:18:55,240 --> 00:18:58,120 Speaker 1: sure as heck was. And there was obviously a glut 342 00:18:58,160 --> 00:19:01,760 Speaker 1: of content coming in from new use pieces, to opinion pieces, 343 00:19:02,160 --> 00:19:05,879 Speaker 1: to misinformation campaigns, to all the types of stuff that 344 00:19:06,040 --> 00:19:08,560 Speaker 1: folks produce whether it's an election year or not. And 345 00:19:08,600 --> 00:19:14,040 Speaker 1: Mark Zuckerberg was going around evangelizing the future was video, 346 00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:16,119 Speaker 1: So he was making the rounds kind of lack a 347 00:19:16,320 --> 00:19:20,120 Speaker 1: Bible thump and travel and revival. Sorry that's my rural 348 00:19:20,280 --> 00:19:23,280 Speaker 1: Georgian coming out of me. Anyway. He was telling various 349 00:19:23,359 --> 00:19:26,880 Speaker 1: organizations that, based on Facebook's research, online video was where 350 00:19:26,880 --> 00:19:30,040 Speaker 1: it was at. Engagement with your plain old text and 351 00:19:30,119 --> 00:19:34,080 Speaker 1: image content was on the decline. Reach was diminishing for 352 00:19:34,200 --> 00:19:38,199 Speaker 1: these content companies, but video was a different story. So, 353 00:19:38,680 --> 00:19:42,600 Speaker 1: according to Facebook's analysis, users were far more likely to 354 00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:46,360 Speaker 1: watch and engage with video than other types of content 355 00:19:46,600 --> 00:19:49,880 Speaker 1: while on Facebook. In fact, they were likely to pause 356 00:19:49,960 --> 00:19:52,280 Speaker 1: a video so that they could watch the whole thing 357 00:19:52,400 --> 00:19:54,879 Speaker 1: rather than just nope out of it. If you know, 358 00:19:54,960 --> 00:19:57,320 Speaker 1: something came up like, you know, if they got a 359 00:19:57,320 --> 00:20:01,919 Speaker 1: notification or something. This was music to advertisers' ears. After all, 360 00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:05,680 Speaker 1: advertisers spend an awful lot of money to get their 361 00:20:05,680 --> 00:20:09,000 Speaker 1: ads placed so that users can potentially see them, but 362 00:20:09,040 --> 00:20:12,119 Speaker 1: the advertisers never get any assurance that the user will 363 00:20:12,720 --> 00:20:16,200 Speaker 1: you know, actually see the ads or pay attention to them. 364 00:20:16,520 --> 00:20:18,840 Speaker 1: So a lot of us have developed ad blindness over 365 00:20:18,880 --> 00:20:21,280 Speaker 1: the years. And then quite a few folks have ad 366 00:20:21,280 --> 00:20:24,480 Speaker 1: blockers installed on their browsers so that they don't have 367 00:20:24,600 --> 00:20:28,560 Speaker 1: to even develop ad blindness because the app does it 368 00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:32,560 Speaker 1: for them. But if people are watching videos, well that's 369 00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:35,879 Speaker 1: potentially a great place to put ads. And according to Facebook, 370 00:20:36,040 --> 00:20:38,520 Speaker 1: you know, people were watching an awful lot of videos, 371 00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:41,399 Speaker 1: that this was the way of the future, that soon 372 00:20:41,800 --> 00:20:46,000 Speaker 1: the majority of content on Facebook would be in video format. Meanwhile, 373 00:20:46,080 --> 00:20:49,879 Speaker 1: content companies started to say, oh, that's where all the 374 00:20:49,880 --> 00:20:52,399 Speaker 1: money's going to go. That's where all the advertising money 375 00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:54,800 Speaker 1: is going to go, is to video, because advertisers are 376 00:20:54,840 --> 00:20:58,479 Speaker 1: being told this is what is the important content. So 377 00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:00,919 Speaker 1: if we want to get adverts tizing money, which is 378 00:21:00,920 --> 00:21:02,880 Speaker 1: the source of our revenue, we need to make sure 379 00:21:02,920 --> 00:21:05,160 Speaker 1: that we're in the business of creating video, which also 380 00:21:05,240 --> 00:21:09,080 Speaker 1: means we can downsize our editorial department and instead of 381 00:21:09,119 --> 00:21:12,240 Speaker 1: having this big editorial staff with editors and writers, we 382 00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:14,919 Speaker 1: can have a small video team that generates just a 383 00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:18,960 Speaker 1: ton of videos. We'll reduce costs and will generate more revenue. 384 00:21:19,200 --> 00:21:22,919 Speaker 1: So that seems like an ideal situation. And then we 385 00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:27,240 Speaker 1: started to see layoffs across the web in various editorial departments. 386 00:21:27,600 --> 00:21:31,320 Speaker 1: I mean it was brutal. You know, company after company 387 00:21:31,800 --> 00:21:34,719 Speaker 1: was laying off writers and editors. It was just a 388 00:21:34,840 --> 00:21:37,600 Speaker 1: terrible thing to see. The message seemed to be that 389 00:21:37,800 --> 00:21:40,840 Speaker 1: search engine traffic was a dying source of visitors and 390 00:21:40,880 --> 00:21:43,119 Speaker 1: that social networks were in fact the future and you 391 00:21:43,160 --> 00:21:45,720 Speaker 1: had to get on that train. And further that you 392 00:21:45,800 --> 00:21:49,920 Speaker 1: really wanted to host stuff on those social networks natively 393 00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:52,280 Speaker 1: in order to get the most out of it. So 394 00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:55,360 Speaker 1: the perception was if you hosted a video on your 395 00:21:55,359 --> 00:21:57,640 Speaker 1: own site. So let's say it's house stuff Works. Let's 396 00:21:57,640 --> 00:22:00,000 Speaker 1: say we post a video to how stuff works done, 397 00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:04,600 Speaker 1: and then we link to that video on housetuffworks dot 398 00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:07,360 Speaker 1: com through a Facebook page. Right, we have the house 399 00:22:07,359 --> 00:22:10,199 Speaker 1: Stuffworks Facebook page. Well, the perception was you would not 400 00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:13,560 Speaker 1: get very much help from Facebook, you wouldn't get much 401 00:22:13,560 --> 00:22:16,679 Speaker 1: promotion and so not that many people would see it, 402 00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:19,280 Speaker 1: which means it wouldn't get a lot of engagement, which 403 00:22:19,320 --> 00:22:23,359 Speaker 1: means it wouldn't go viral. But if instead you created 404 00:22:23,400 --> 00:22:25,720 Speaker 1: that page on Facebook, so you have your house, stuffworks 405 00:22:25,760 --> 00:22:28,440 Speaker 1: page on Facebook, and then you started to upload videos 406 00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:32,240 Speaker 1: directly into Facebook itself, so that all the traffic is 407 00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:35,159 Speaker 1: going to the Facebook version of the video, not the 408 00:22:35,200 --> 00:22:38,360 Speaker 1: one that's hosted on your home site, well then the 409 00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:41,680 Speaker 1: all powerful Facebook algorithm would make sure that your video's 410 00:22:41,680 --> 00:22:44,280 Speaker 1: got a wider distribution so that there was a better 411 00:22:44,400 --> 00:22:46,679 Speaker 1: chance then more folks would see it and that it 412 00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:49,880 Speaker 1: could potentially go viral. Not a guarantee, but a better 413 00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:52,240 Speaker 1: chance than if you were just posting a link. So 414 00:22:52,440 --> 00:22:56,199 Speaker 1: the message was you've got to shift a video and 415 00:22:56,240 --> 00:22:59,800 Speaker 1: you've got to host your stuff on the social networks 416 00:22:59,840 --> 00:23:03,280 Speaker 1: them selves. You know, two things that ended up not 417 00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:06,680 Speaker 1: being the best advice. And there was a real problem 418 00:23:06,680 --> 00:23:09,840 Speaker 1: with all of this. It's that the information that the 419 00:23:09,920 --> 00:23:12,719 Speaker 1: advertisers got was was based on a lie, or at 420 00:23:12,760 --> 00:23:15,840 Speaker 1: the very least it was based on a mistake. Now 421 00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:18,880 Speaker 1: I can't say for sure that the folks in Facebook 422 00:23:18,920 --> 00:23:23,760 Speaker 1: were knowingly promoting an untruth to advertisers and content creators. 423 00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:27,840 Speaker 1: Facebook denies that that was ever the case. They said 424 00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:32,240 Speaker 1: that at the time they made a mistake and they 425 00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:35,560 Speaker 1: misstated the engagement levels with video, and that it was 426 00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:38,800 Speaker 1: all just based on an innocent mistake. It wasn't an 427 00:23:38,840 --> 00:23:41,359 Speaker 1: intentional thing at all. But you know, you could just 428 00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:44,280 Speaker 1: argue someone forgot to carry the one or something. But anyway, 429 00:23:44,320 --> 00:23:48,520 Speaker 1: according to various sources, Facebook exaggerated the engagement statistics to 430 00:23:48,560 --> 00:23:52,040 Speaker 1: a significant degree, Like sixty to eighty percent is what 431 00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:56,600 Speaker 1: was the initially believed. Later on there were arguments that 432 00:23:56,600 --> 00:23:59,080 Speaker 1: that was closer to between one hundred and fifty to 433 00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:03,439 Speaker 1: nine hundred percent. I don't know what the actual the 434 00:24:03,480 --> 00:24:08,160 Speaker 1: actual figure is, but let's just say that what Facebook 435 00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:13,080 Speaker 1: was telling advertisers back in twenty fifteen was absolutely not true. 436 00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:17,280 Speaker 1: And the truth was that video wasn't doing that great 437 00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:20,200 Speaker 1: on Facebook. It's not like it was, you know, the 438 00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:23,560 Speaker 1: worst thing ever, but it wasn't going like gangbusters the 439 00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:28,480 Speaker 1: way Facebook had implied. And apparently when Facebook was factoring 440 00:24:28,480 --> 00:24:31,880 Speaker 1: how much people were watching video, the problem was they 441 00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:35,520 Speaker 1: were counting videos that were on auto play. That when 442 00:24:35,520 --> 00:24:38,200 Speaker 1: people were just scrolling through their feed. If a video 443 00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:42,119 Speaker 1: came up as they were scrolling, the video automatically started playing, 444 00:24:42,200 --> 00:24:45,280 Speaker 1: and if it played for three seconds or longer, then 445 00:24:45,359 --> 00:24:49,320 Speaker 1: it counted toward engagement. If it didn't play for three seconds, 446 00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:52,200 Speaker 1: then it wasn't counted. It didn't it wasn't counted against it, 447 00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:54,800 Speaker 1: It wasn't counted at all. So it was like cherry 448 00:24:54,800 --> 00:24:58,359 Speaker 1: picking and cherry picking incidents that may not indicate that 449 00:24:58,359 --> 00:25:00,680 Speaker 1: anyone's watching video at all. Let's say that I'm scrolling 450 00:25:00,720 --> 00:25:04,639 Speaker 1: down and I scrolled down and then there's a friend 451 00:25:04,640 --> 00:25:07,280 Speaker 1: of mine has posted something some in text, and I'm 452 00:25:07,320 --> 00:25:10,800 Speaker 1: just reading the text. Meanwhile below that post is a 453 00:25:10,800 --> 00:25:14,400 Speaker 1: little video that's on auto play, and it's going as 454 00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:16,879 Speaker 1: I'm reading the text and not paying any attention at 455 00:25:16,920 --> 00:25:19,199 Speaker 1: all to the video. Well, Facebook was counting that as 456 00:25:19,240 --> 00:25:22,399 Speaker 1: if I were intently watching the video, which means that 457 00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:26,159 Speaker 1: advertisers being told that all these people are watching tons 458 00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:28,280 Speaker 1: of video on Facebook, when in fact, no, it's just 459 00:25:28,320 --> 00:25:31,639 Speaker 1: that tons of video was playing on Facebook. Whether people 460 00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:33,920 Speaker 1: were watching it or not was a totally different matter. 461 00:25:34,240 --> 00:25:37,200 Speaker 1: But the problem was you had all these advertisers who 462 00:25:37,200 --> 00:25:41,560 Speaker 1: were shifting their ad revenue budgets to support video content. 463 00:25:41,920 --> 00:25:44,639 Speaker 1: And then that meant that you had all these media 464 00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:49,920 Speaker 1: companies and content creators completely uprooting their business model, totally 465 00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:53,439 Speaker 1: decimating their editorial departments in order to go where the 466 00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:56,840 Speaker 1: money was, right, Like, it doesn't make sense to keep 467 00:25:56,960 --> 00:25:59,840 Speaker 1: writing great content if you're not going to get any 468 00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:01,760 Speaker 1: ads placed against it, because you're not going to make 469 00:26:01,760 --> 00:26:04,879 Speaker 1: any money, and ultimately you'll go out of business, Like 470 00:26:05,200 --> 00:26:09,560 Speaker 1: there's no there's no grant or anything that's going to 471 00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:12,240 Speaker 1: keep you going just because you happen to be writing 472 00:26:12,280 --> 00:26:15,040 Speaker 1: great content. So you have to move to where the 473 00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:17,760 Speaker 1: money is. The money was in video. So everyone was 474 00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:20,760 Speaker 1: suffering for this, right You had people who were losing 475 00:26:20,760 --> 00:26:24,359 Speaker 1: their jobs because they were writers or editors. You had 476 00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:27,440 Speaker 1: the media companies that were suffering because it turned out 477 00:26:27,560 --> 00:26:32,080 Speaker 1: that these videos weren't going crazy viral the way Facebook 478 00:26:32,160 --> 00:26:36,040 Speaker 1: was suggesting. The advertisers were losing because people weren't actually 479 00:26:36,119 --> 00:26:39,600 Speaker 1: watching the ads the way that they thought was going 480 00:26:39,680 --> 00:26:43,080 Speaker 1: to happen. Facebook was losing because when people found out 481 00:26:43,080 --> 00:26:45,159 Speaker 1: about this, it did not look good for the company. 482 00:26:45,240 --> 00:26:49,840 Speaker 1: Like nobody nobody came out great for this. So even 483 00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:53,280 Speaker 1: the video teams, which were had steady employment right, Like, 484 00:26:53,320 --> 00:26:56,040 Speaker 1: they didn't have to worry about hitting unemployment the way 485 00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:59,879 Speaker 1: the writers and editors were. They were hurt too because 486 00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:02,760 Speaker 1: they were frequently working in a constant crunch that just 487 00:27:02,800 --> 00:27:05,840 Speaker 1: demanded that they immediately moved to the next video as 488 00:27:05,840 --> 00:27:08,280 Speaker 1: soon as they finished the previous one. And I've been 489 00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:10,240 Speaker 1: in a similar situation, I can tell you it is 490 00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:13,800 Speaker 1: exhausting and it is demoralizing. In fact, some folks that 491 00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:17,440 Speaker 1: I really respect actually left the field around this time 492 00:27:17,560 --> 00:27:19,800 Speaker 1: because of these issues. They were like, that's it. I'm 493 00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:21,960 Speaker 1: going to go find a job in a totally different 494 00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:25,400 Speaker 1: field because this is killing me. Now. The world would 495 00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:28,840 Speaker 1: find out that Facebook had at the very least done 496 00:27:28,880 --> 00:27:33,280 Speaker 1: goofed up a couple of years after they were really 497 00:27:33,280 --> 00:27:35,919 Speaker 1: pushing for this, like in late twenty sixteen, really, but 498 00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:38,879 Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen. In most of twenty sixteen, things were 499 00:27:38,880 --> 00:27:42,240 Speaker 1: shifting massively toward video. Once the smoke cleared and the 500 00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:44,960 Speaker 1: ad world discovered that they had been sold a business 501 00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:49,800 Speaker 1: model based on an incorrect analysis, the lawsuits poured in 502 00:27:50,200 --> 00:27:53,200 Speaker 1: and they cited internal Facebook documents that had been leaked. 503 00:27:53,600 --> 00:27:56,879 Speaker 1: These internal documents implied folks within the company had figured 504 00:27:56,880 --> 00:27:59,560 Speaker 1: out that there was this mistake, that it did appear 505 00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:02,639 Speaker 1: to be a miss it wasn't like an intentional lie, 506 00:28:03,320 --> 00:28:06,600 Speaker 1: but that the mistake had been discovered, and then the 507 00:28:06,680 --> 00:28:09,600 Speaker 1: decision had been made to cover that up, to hide 508 00:28:09,640 --> 00:28:12,359 Speaker 1: it from the public, to not admit to this mistake, 509 00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:16,800 Speaker 1: which is arguably as bad as just an outright lie 510 00:28:16,800 --> 00:28:20,200 Speaker 1: in the first place. And Facebook executives claim that no 511 00:28:20,240 --> 00:28:23,360 Speaker 1: one on their side deliberately misled any of the ad companies, 512 00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:27,879 Speaker 1: which I find challenging to believe, but maybe it's true. However, 513 00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:30,920 Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen, Facebook agreed to a settlement with these 514 00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:35,240 Speaker 1: advertising companies without actually admitting fault. By that time, even 515 00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:39,320 Speaker 1: more shenanigans were causing problems. I'll explain what I mean 516 00:28:39,360 --> 00:28:41,600 Speaker 1: by that, but first we're going to take another quick 517 00:28:41,680 --> 00:28:54,640 Speaker 1: break to thank our sponsors. Okay, we're back, and yes, 518 00:28:55,280 --> 00:28:59,960 Speaker 1: it gets worse. So the online content world is an upheaval. 519 00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:04,360 Speaker 1: Not every online platform completely throws in with the pivot 520 00:29:04,360 --> 00:29:07,520 Speaker 1: to video strategy, but a lot of them did, and 521 00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:10,840 Speaker 1: the phrase pivot to video began to kind of become 522 00:29:11,080 --> 00:29:15,040 Speaker 1: gallows humor. It was a euphemism for stuff like layoffs 523 00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:19,040 Speaker 1: and a decline in content quality over time, it was 524 00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:21,600 Speaker 1: pretty grim stuff Like if you said pivot to video, 525 00:29:21,680 --> 00:29:26,280 Speaker 1: you're kind of saying, yeah, the quality of that site 526 00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:29,280 Speaker 1: has really gone downhill over the last few years. That 527 00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:32,680 Speaker 1: management has made some very short sighted decisions based on 528 00:29:33,120 --> 00:29:36,680 Speaker 1: bad information. That's kind of what it became over time. 529 00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:41,240 Speaker 1: But what made this even worse was once again Facebook. 530 00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:44,480 Speaker 1: So here you have this platform which claims for a 531 00:29:44,560 --> 00:29:48,080 Speaker 1: couple of years that the future is all video, and 532 00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:51,600 Speaker 1: that within a few years practically every post on Facebook 533 00:29:51,640 --> 00:29:55,320 Speaker 1: will be video in some way, which prompts, obviously everyone 534 00:29:55,440 --> 00:29:59,760 Speaker 1: to rush toward adopting the video format. Then came the 535 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:05,640 Speaker 1: concept of meaningful Social interactions or MSI, which sounds like 536 00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:08,480 Speaker 1: a Law and Order spin off, doesn't it. But meaningful 537 00:30:08,560 --> 00:30:13,880 Speaker 1: social interactions referred to an attempt to emphasize interactions between 538 00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:19,360 Speaker 1: a user and that user's friends and family, which on 539 00:30:19,400 --> 00:30:21,959 Speaker 1: the surface level you can kind of understand, right because 540 00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:26,720 Speaker 1: early Facebook people, a lot of people are like, man, 541 00:30:26,800 --> 00:30:29,280 Speaker 1: I really miss what Facebook used to be, where you 542 00:30:29,280 --> 00:30:32,400 Speaker 1: would log in and you would see, essentially in reverse 543 00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:35,720 Speaker 1: chronological order, the posts that your friends had made on 544 00:30:35,760 --> 00:30:38,120 Speaker 1: the platform, so at the top of the most recent 545 00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:40,640 Speaker 1: posts and you would scroll down, and you would keep 546 00:30:40,640 --> 00:30:42,640 Speaker 1: scrolling till you started to see stuff that you had 547 00:30:42,640 --> 00:30:44,520 Speaker 1: seen before, and you're like, okay, I'm all caught up. 548 00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:48,160 Speaker 1: And it was just your friends, and it was everything 549 00:30:48,200 --> 00:30:50,760 Speaker 1: they posted right, like, you weren't missing out on stuff. 550 00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:54,040 Speaker 1: It wasn't like Facebook was deciding which of your friend's 551 00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:56,800 Speaker 1: posts you would see and which ones you wouldn't see. 552 00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:01,400 Speaker 1: But eventually Facebook adopted algorithms that very much determined what 553 00:31:01,440 --> 00:31:04,480 Speaker 1: you would see. And it wasn't always from your friends 554 00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:08,840 Speaker 1: and family. It was often from lots of times advertisers 555 00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:13,080 Speaker 1: or stuff that Facebook algorithm assumed you would be interested 556 00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:15,440 Speaker 1: in in an effort to keep you engaged, to keep 557 00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:18,720 Speaker 1: you on the platform for as long as was possible. 558 00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:23,520 Speaker 1: So part of the issue was that Facebook determined, after 559 00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:26,560 Speaker 1: a couple of years of experimenting with this, that you know, 560 00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:32,400 Speaker 1: people aren't super crazy about just seeing random stuff created 561 00:31:32,440 --> 00:31:35,560 Speaker 1: by you know, like professional content media companies or whatever. 562 00:31:35,800 --> 00:31:37,840 Speaker 1: They really want to see what their friends and family 563 00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:42,040 Speaker 1: are up to. This feels like it was the most 564 00:31:42,200 --> 00:31:46,320 Speaker 1: obvious information that was out there, and yet Facebook's like, hey, 565 00:31:46,440 --> 00:31:50,000 Speaker 1: this is what we've discovered. So the idea of Facebook 566 00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:52,120 Speaker 1: had was that people would stay on Facebook longer if 567 00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:54,440 Speaker 1: they saw that the content on their feeds related to 568 00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:57,960 Speaker 1: the people who are actually in their lives. Go figure again, 569 00:31:58,080 --> 00:32:00,800 Speaker 1: seems like a pretty obvious thing to me. So you're 570 00:32:00,840 --> 00:32:03,480 Speaker 1: more likely to see a post from your uncle ted 571 00:32:03,520 --> 00:32:06,200 Speaker 1: pop up than just from some random video from some 572 00:32:06,360 --> 00:32:11,480 Speaker 1: random media company because Facebook now wanted to emphasize these 573 00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:17,080 Speaker 1: meaningful social interactions. But the shift to MSI meant that 574 00:32:17,160 --> 00:32:23,120 Speaker 1: Facebook was purposefully moving away from promoting videos from these 575 00:32:23,200 --> 00:32:26,760 Speaker 1: media companies, you know, the same media companies that Facebook 576 00:32:26,800 --> 00:32:30,080 Speaker 1: had convinced to shift to video just a couple of 577 00:32:30,200 --> 00:32:35,400 Speaker 1: years earlier, and to post those videos directly into Facebook itself. Essentially, 578 00:32:35,680 --> 00:32:39,960 Speaker 1: Facebook had convinced an entire industry to change how it 579 00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:44,040 Speaker 1: did business, and now Facebook was saying, yeah, we're not 580 00:32:44,040 --> 00:32:46,680 Speaker 1: going to promote your stuff anymore, Like we're going to 581 00:32:46,720 --> 00:32:51,120 Speaker 1: make sure algorithm isn't like emphasizing your content because it 582 00:32:51,160 --> 00:32:53,280 Speaker 1: turns out that's not what people want. It's what we 583 00:32:53,440 --> 00:32:57,440 Speaker 1: said people wanted, it's what we convinced advertisers that people wanted, 584 00:32:57,480 --> 00:32:59,960 Speaker 1: but it turns out no, it's not actually what people wanted. 585 00:33:00,440 --> 00:33:04,200 Speaker 1: So uh yeah, we're sorry, but uh yeah, we're not 586 00:33:04,240 --> 00:33:07,080 Speaker 1: gonna We're not gonna help you all out anymore. So 587 00:33:07,560 --> 00:33:11,160 Speaker 1: now you have these media companies with their stripped down staff, 588 00:33:11,920 --> 00:33:16,200 Speaker 1: this small skeleton crew that's killing themselves to publish multiple 589 00:33:16,320 --> 00:33:20,040 Speaker 1: videos a day to a Facebook page, and then Facebook 590 00:33:20,080 --> 00:33:22,680 Speaker 1: itself is limiting the reach of the videos that this 591 00:33:22,800 --> 00:33:26,200 Speaker 1: team is creating. The value proposition these companies were built 592 00:33:26,200 --> 00:33:32,120 Speaker 1: on just withered away. Content could still see widespread distribution 593 00:33:32,720 --> 00:33:34,880 Speaker 1: like that could still happen, but only if it was 594 00:33:34,960 --> 00:33:37,720 Speaker 1: driving a lot of engagement early on. And the stuff 595 00:33:37,760 --> 00:33:41,560 Speaker 1: that typically drove tons of engagement was the more extreme 596 00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:45,640 Speaker 1: stuff like not your typical news videos or whatever it was, 597 00:33:45,720 --> 00:33:49,400 Speaker 1: videos that got people angry. Those did really well because 598 00:33:49,440 --> 00:33:51,840 Speaker 1: people would engage with them. And you know, videos that 599 00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:56,040 Speaker 1: would pit one group against another, those did pretty well too. Essentially, 600 00:33:56,080 --> 00:33:59,080 Speaker 1: the videos that played to the worst of our tendencies 601 00:33:59,480 --> 00:34:01,360 Speaker 1: were the one ones that were most likely to go 602 00:34:01,520 --> 00:34:05,320 Speaker 1: viral and drive engagement. Now this meant that the content 603 00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:08,080 Speaker 1: companies got the message of if you want your videos 604 00:34:08,080 --> 00:34:11,160 Speaker 1: to do well, you got to rile people up. There 605 00:34:11,239 --> 00:34:14,680 Speaker 1: was even less of a place for valuable journalism or 606 00:34:14,719 --> 00:34:17,840 Speaker 1: creative videos. You might come up with something charming and 607 00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:21,239 Speaker 1: entertaining and informative, but it was far less likely to 608 00:34:21,239 --> 00:34:25,000 Speaker 1: get as many views as something that was controversial, mean spirited, 609 00:34:25,160 --> 00:34:28,680 Speaker 1: and you know, maybe even a lie. So you didn't 610 00:34:28,680 --> 00:34:30,799 Speaker 1: have to bother making sure that anything you claimed was 611 00:34:30,800 --> 00:34:33,680 Speaker 1: true or accurate. That was way less important than just 612 00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:37,520 Speaker 1: grabbing attention. So these ugly videos started to get a 613 00:34:37,520 --> 00:34:40,399 Speaker 1: lot of engagement, and that just meant that more folks 614 00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:42,680 Speaker 1: would see them and then interact with them, and that 615 00:34:42,719 --> 00:34:44,960 Speaker 1: meant that even more folks would see them and interact 616 00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:47,160 Speaker 1: with them, and so on. So it became this vicious 617 00:34:47,200 --> 00:34:49,840 Speaker 1: cycle that rewarded some of the worst content at the 618 00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:53,719 Speaker 1: expense of everything else. Now, I often argue that we 619 00:34:53,840 --> 00:34:56,760 Speaker 1: can't just jump to the conclusion that Facebook is actively 620 00:34:56,880 --> 00:35:00,120 Speaker 1: harming mental health. That is often a claim, and I say, 621 00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:03,080 Speaker 1: we can't jump to that conclusion. But I do think 622 00:35:03,080 --> 00:35:05,799 Speaker 1: you can make a decent argument that Facebook's policies and 623 00:35:05,880 --> 00:35:10,600 Speaker 1: algorithms facilitate the spread of content that is detrimental to 624 00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:13,960 Speaker 1: mental health. So maybe I'm being too kind. I think 625 00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:17,319 Speaker 1: the problem is a pretty complicated one. Anyway, The whole 626 00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:19,759 Speaker 1: shift to MSI was like a rug pull on these 627 00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:23,400 Speaker 1: media companies, and it again reinforced the advice that Bernie 628 00:35:23,400 --> 00:35:27,640 Speaker 1: Burns had years earlier that depending upon a third party 629 00:35:27,640 --> 00:35:32,239 Speaker 1: for stability is an inherently dangerous proposition because whenever that 630 00:35:32,280 --> 00:35:34,719 Speaker 1: third party makes a change in how it operates, it 631 00:35:34,719 --> 00:35:38,480 Speaker 1: can drastically affect your ability to do business. Such was 632 00:35:38,520 --> 00:35:41,959 Speaker 1: the way of Facebook. The nasty consequences of all this 633 00:35:42,200 --> 00:35:45,720 Speaker 1: is that even more folks got laid off because Facebook 634 00:35:45,800 --> 00:35:49,719 Speaker 1: changed tactics again, and now media companies were seeing that 635 00:35:49,760 --> 00:35:53,440 Speaker 1: their reach had been greatly diminished, so they didn't generate 636 00:35:53,480 --> 00:35:55,800 Speaker 1: as much revenue, which meant they needed to lay people 637 00:35:55,840 --> 00:35:58,640 Speaker 1: off as a result. So if you've wondered why online 638 00:35:58,719 --> 00:36:02,359 Speaker 1: content from certain media companies just doesn't feel the same 639 00:36:02,400 --> 00:36:05,080 Speaker 1: as it used to, this is one of the reasons. 640 00:36:05,440 --> 00:36:09,960 Speaker 1: Now another reason involves experimentations with AI, because companies like 641 00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:13,480 Speaker 1: c net and even my former employer, HowStuffWorks dot Com 642 00:36:13,920 --> 00:36:18,799 Speaker 1: have occasionally relied on AI to generate content, and that 643 00:36:19,120 --> 00:36:22,320 Speaker 1: can be really disheartening, particularly if you consider how it 644 00:36:22,400 --> 00:36:25,719 Speaker 1: declined in journalism and writing means that we have less 645 00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:30,399 Speaker 1: reliable and insightful information at our fingertips. This means we 646 00:36:31,040 --> 00:36:34,560 Speaker 1: become less equipped to understand the world around us and 647 00:36:34,640 --> 00:36:38,680 Speaker 1: what's going on and how perhaps we should comport ourselves 648 00:36:38,840 --> 00:36:41,759 Speaker 1: in such a world. There's a real tragedy going on 649 00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:45,120 Speaker 1: here beyond just people losing their jobs, Like the whole 650 00:36:45,160 --> 00:36:48,680 Speaker 1: world is getting less informed, and it's likely to get 651 00:36:48,719 --> 00:36:53,640 Speaker 1: worse before it gets better, if it gets better. Now, 652 00:36:53,640 --> 00:36:56,759 Speaker 1: While I would argue that pivot to video was a 653 00:36:56,800 --> 00:36:59,480 Speaker 1: true disaster, I think it's also safe to say that 654 00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:02,240 Speaker 1: it really just sped up a trend that was already 655 00:37:02,280 --> 00:37:04,640 Speaker 1: in motion. So I don't want to suggest that pivot 656 00:37:04,680 --> 00:37:09,680 Speaker 1: to video doomed online content all by itself. Because content 657 00:37:09,760 --> 00:37:13,920 Speaker 1: platforms were already seeing declines in traffic before the pivot 658 00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:17,560 Speaker 1: to video issue, SEO was really starting to lose it shine. 659 00:37:17,760 --> 00:37:20,960 Speaker 1: Social platforms were taking up more of the general public's time, 660 00:37:21,080 --> 00:37:23,279 Speaker 1: meaning that you really did need to consider how to 661 00:37:23,320 --> 00:37:26,759 Speaker 1: create content that could do well on sites like Facebook 662 00:37:26,760 --> 00:37:30,360 Speaker 1: and Twitter and et cetera. So revenues were already going down, 663 00:37:30,560 --> 00:37:33,799 Speaker 1: and some sites were, like I said, experimenting with paywalls 664 00:37:34,040 --> 00:37:36,880 Speaker 1: and asking readers to subscribe and pay a recurring fee 665 00:37:36,960 --> 00:37:40,000 Speaker 1: in return to access the content on the site. But 666 00:37:40,160 --> 00:37:43,440 Speaker 1: very few sites can actually do that and see much success. 667 00:37:43,560 --> 00:37:47,120 Speaker 1: A few can, but not most there weren't a lot 668 00:37:47,160 --> 00:37:52,280 Speaker 1: of opportunities out there to improve outlooks on revenue. And meanwhile, 669 00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:55,680 Speaker 1: companies still need to make money. Companies exist in order 670 00:37:55,760 --> 00:37:58,839 Speaker 1: to make money. Publicly traded companies need to do even 671 00:37:58,880 --> 00:38:01,439 Speaker 1: more than that. They can't just make money, they need 672 00:38:01,480 --> 00:38:05,200 Speaker 1: to grow and make more money than they did, say 673 00:38:05,280 --> 00:38:08,440 Speaker 1: the year before. So I think things were already looking 674 00:38:08,600 --> 00:38:12,560 Speaker 1: pretty grim for online content even before the pivot to video. 675 00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:16,040 Speaker 1: It's just pivot to video press that accelerator all the 676 00:38:16,080 --> 00:38:18,960 Speaker 1: way down, like it was pedal to the metal on 677 00:38:19,520 --> 00:38:23,000 Speaker 1: pivot to video. Anyway, to this day, people still use 678 00:38:23,080 --> 00:38:26,160 Speaker 1: pivot to video as kind of shorthand in a cynical 679 00:38:26,200 --> 00:38:28,400 Speaker 1: way to say that a company is making a drastic 680 00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:31,719 Speaker 1: and ultimately harmful decision, typically in an effort to get 681 00:38:31,760 --> 00:38:36,400 Speaker 1: some short term relief from market pressures, but with long 682 00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:40,760 Speaker 1: term negative consequences. Sometimes you just use it to describe 683 00:38:40,760 --> 00:38:43,280 Speaker 1: a really bad decision, like, oh, it's a pivot to video, 684 00:38:43,680 --> 00:38:46,640 Speaker 1: and you've still got companies that are emphasizing video. You know. 685 00:38:46,719 --> 00:38:50,320 Speaker 1: Meta's Instagram is a great example. The company embraced short 686 00:38:50,360 --> 00:38:53,719 Speaker 1: form video reels in other words, on Instagram, and they 687 00:38:53,719 --> 00:38:55,880 Speaker 1: did this primarily as a way to try and compete 688 00:38:55,880 --> 00:38:59,319 Speaker 1: with TikTok. Now reels make up a prey significant portion 689 00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:02,320 Speaker 1: of Instagram content, something that you know, a lot of 690 00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:05,360 Speaker 1: people object to like. Even the Kardashians are not crazy 691 00:39:05,400 --> 00:39:09,440 Speaker 1: about this. Meanwhile, over at X formerly known as Twitter, 692 00:39:09,840 --> 00:39:12,680 Speaker 1: the Muskie one has said that the X Twitter is 693 00:39:12,719 --> 00:39:16,719 Speaker 1: now a video first platform. Of course, Elon Musk is 694 00:39:16,719 --> 00:39:19,640 Speaker 1: also trying to wrestle with a very real problem because 695 00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:24,800 Speaker 1: Twitter has seen most of its high value advertisers jump ship, 696 00:39:25,120 --> 00:39:28,240 Speaker 1: mostly due to Elon Musk and his refusal to curb 697 00:39:28,320 --> 00:39:31,200 Speaker 1: any of the awful stuff going on over at X, 698 00:39:31,280 --> 00:39:34,839 Speaker 1: including his own participation in elevating tweets that have hate 699 00:39:34,840 --> 00:39:38,560 Speaker 1: speech and misinformation in them. The whole pivot to video 700 00:39:38,640 --> 00:39:42,319 Speaker 1: story still makes me angry and sad. A lot of 701 00:39:42,320 --> 00:39:45,239 Speaker 1: folks lost their jobs as a result of all that nonsense. 702 00:39:45,520 --> 00:39:50,640 Speaker 1: We all suffer due to a decline in good, reliable content. Meanwhile, 703 00:39:50,680 --> 00:39:53,160 Speaker 1: I ended up pivoting to audio. I mean, you know, 704 00:39:53,200 --> 00:39:55,880 Speaker 1: I've been podcasting since two thousand and eight, but I 705 00:39:55,920 --> 00:40:00,040 Speaker 1: was still writing articles up until around twenty eighteen or so, 706 00:40:00,640 --> 00:40:05,080 Speaker 1: and then I shifted over to focus exclusively on researching, writing, 707 00:40:05,120 --> 00:40:08,120 Speaker 1: and recording shows like this one. But anyway, that kind 708 00:40:08,160 --> 00:40:10,600 Speaker 1: of wraps up our story so far. With pivot to video, 709 00:40:10,640 --> 00:40:14,200 Speaker 1: it's the story that's ongoing. I mean, the real focus 710 00:40:14,239 --> 00:40:16,719 Speaker 1: of it, I think would be between twenty fifteen and 711 00:40:16,760 --> 00:40:19,840 Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, but we're still seeing, like I said, this 712 00:40:20,600 --> 00:40:25,480 Speaker 1: intentional push toward video content, even podcasts. Right, A lot 713 00:40:25,480 --> 00:40:29,759 Speaker 1: of podcasts now exist as YouTube videos as well. I 714 00:40:29,840 --> 00:40:33,919 Speaker 1: haven't done that personally because I guess I could publish 715 00:40:34,160 --> 00:40:37,200 Speaker 1: episodes to YouTube just so folks could find tech stuff 716 00:40:37,200 --> 00:40:39,839 Speaker 1: on YouTube, but I would probably just pair it with 717 00:40:39,880 --> 00:40:42,359 Speaker 1: a static image because otherwise all you're going to see 718 00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:45,080 Speaker 1: is a video of me by myself, sitting at my 719 00:40:45,160 --> 00:40:47,520 Speaker 1: desk talking about tech, and I don't know that that 720 00:40:47,680 --> 00:40:52,160 Speaker 1: is interesting enough to merit publication. If I had a 721 00:40:52,200 --> 00:40:54,000 Speaker 1: co host or something, it would be a different story. 722 00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:56,880 Speaker 1: But with it just being me, I'm not entirely convinced 723 00:40:56,920 --> 00:40:59,959 Speaker 1: that it's for the best. I guess you can argue 724 00:41:00,040 --> 00:41:02,399 Speaker 1: with me if you like, and if enough people say, hey, 725 00:41:02,440 --> 00:41:04,960 Speaker 1: please get these up on YouTube, I'll see what I 726 00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:08,120 Speaker 1: can do. But anyway, that's the pivot to video story 727 00:41:08,239 --> 00:41:11,600 Speaker 1: so far. I hope you found this interesting and I 728 00:41:11,640 --> 00:41:21,480 Speaker 1: will talk to you again, really soon. Tech Stuff is 729 00:41:21,520 --> 00:41:26,080 Speaker 1: an iHeartRadio production. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the 730 00:41:26,120 --> 00:41:29,719 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 731 00:41:29,800 --> 00:41:33,960 Speaker 1: favorite shows.