Luminary Blur

Ben Hinc

The Digital Advertising Model Is Doomed to Fail — December 19, 2024

The Digital Advertising Model Is Doomed to Fail

Jeff Agrest, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times:

Digital sports-media outlet CHGO let go of five front-facing staffers and some production personnel Wednesday in a round of layoffs across parent company ALLCITY Network’s five markets.

Greg Boysen, Vinnie Duber, Ryan Herrera, Herb Lawrence and Nicholas Moreano were the on-air talents affected, ALLCITY CEO Brandon Spano told the Sun-Times. The layoffs are part of a shift in resources as the company expands its revenue departments amid a push for wider distribution on free ad-supported TV channels.

“We created a new content plan for 2025,” Spano said. “We would like to cover sports in the exact same manner, but the reality is that certain sports command a different scale of audience and advertiser interest at the local level, and we’re moving our resources to better align with that.”

As Adam Curry of the No Agenda Show often says, “You can’t monetize the network.” It’s a simple truth that many digital media companies seem to ignore, to their own detriment. The digital advertising business model is fundamentally unsustainable. Even the likes of the New York Times can’t rely on ad revenue alone to survive online—it’s a losing game.

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A Reporter’s Role — January 24, 2020

A Reporter’s Role

Juli Clover, writing at MacRumors:

Edge for Mac has been designed to be similar to the Edge experience on Windows, but Microsoft has added optimizations to make it feel more Mac-like.

It’s a small snippet of text that could prompt me to head in multiple directions. A recent episode of Accidental Tech Podcast has me thinking about what makes a Mac app “Mac-like,” which might be one avenue to take. What I’m choosing to tackle is the larger question the text raises: Clover’s role as a reporter or, as her MacRumors bio reads, a Senior Editor.

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Journalistic Agenda — August 9, 2019

Journalistic Agenda

John Temple, writing for The Atlantic:

I was the editor of the Rocky Mountain News in Denver when the Columbine High School shootings gripped the nation in 1999. The Columbine attack was covered live on cable and broadcast television. At the time we thought it would be the mass shooting to end all mass shootings. How could we let anything so horrible happen again? Especially after seeing what we had all seen.

And:

I believed that if journalists did our job well, if we provided independent, fact-based reporting, citizens would make informed choices and make our country better, as night would follow day. That’s the way things are supposed to work.

And:

We kept at it even as we heard from many readers asking us to stop. Hostility against the press got so bad that we had people throwing snowballs with rocks in them at our photographers. Many people just wanted to be left alone.

It’s a heartfelt piece from a former journalist who seems to have gotten fed up with his inability to effect change with his work.

He wrote about “independent, fact-based reporting” influencing “informed choices” which is all very journalistic. It’s his desire to “make our country better” that derails the endeavor.

Independence and objectivity can’t exist in an environment driven by an agenda, even one as altruistic as ending violence or curtailing mass shootings.

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