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Hey, Reddit and Gawker, welcome to the world of publishing.
The two sites recently had high-profile changes at the top as a result of old-fashioned disagreements over just how far they should push the envelope.
Reddit’s management team started cleaning up some of the worst dregs of its subreddits, the volunteer-moderated sub-categories that allowed — encouraged — hate, racism and other vile topics. When readers revolted, CEO Ellen Pao was fired.
At Gawker, two top editors resigned when the management team pulled a controversial story. “The point of this story was not in my view sufficient to offset the embarrassment to the subject and his family,” wrote CEO Nick Denton.
These moves, coming so close together, are being dissected as signs the internet is maturing into something resembling a sensible place. Reddit is even being defended as a feminist utopia.
Unsurprisingly, Reddit agrees.
Excuse me, some people on Reddit agree. Some probably disagree. Most paid no attention whatsoever, as this topic had about 540 replies while one about killing someone with a grape had generated more than 2,000.
The maturation process for media in general, though, has been going on for many decades. None of the problems being faced by new media are, indeed, new.
It’s just that the whole ‘free press’ thing can get complicated, unless you’re willing to suffer whatever consequences may result from the words, images and ideas that you publish. So far, 37 journalists have been killed this year. including those at Charlie Hebdo, where the editor has decided to stop publishing cartoons of Muhammad.
Yes, free press and free speech do have real consequences — even anonymous comments on the internet.
Most of the time, however, the decisions being made at news publications aren’t life and death. They involve the far more mundane issues of dollars and cents.
‘You’re just trying to sell newspapers,’ was the derisive refrain any time someone accused the newspaper of being sensationsal. Now, I suppose it’s ‘You’re just trying to drive traffic.’
Yes, we would reply, we are trying to sell newspapers. It’s how we make money.
But the critics seldom understood the basic economics for most publications:
• Most revenue is generated by advertising, not sales of the paper
• Most sales of the paper — the readership that draws advertising — come from subscriptions, not single sales.
• If you’re too ‘sensational’ — in other words, step out of the standards your readers have come to expect — you risk losing far more of your loyal readers than you would gain in a surge of interest generated by one outlandish stunt.
• Advertisers value your loyal readers.
At a news organization, the editorial department isn’t supposed to worry about who it might offend. The advertising department doesn’t want to offend anybody.
And I doubt a week goes by anywhere that the publisher doesn’t have to keep one of those departments from ruining the other’s day.
For the Gawker editors, it’s their decision to resign. In the end, that’s all they have — either they can do the job under the conditions, or they can’t. Every editor has faced that moment.
For Reddit, it was folly to think they could let volunteers run the show. At least, after Reddit got investors and started thinking about making money — and especially when those volunteers are largely anonymous.
Is the internet maturing. Nah. It’s just trying to make money.
