Joshua Topolsky, writing on Medium, about the struggles the media industry now faces:
A second thing happened alongside those foundational publishing challenges: this industry which had controlled its ability to reach a populace through ownership of things like printing presses began to cede its power in the delivery and distribution process to other people. People who didn’t care about or understand the media business. People who told them the answer wasn’t the best of something, it was the most of something.
Partially this was done out of fear, but mostly it was done out of ignorance.
Obviously this is a topic near and dear to my heart. It’s why I’m trying something different with this website. And, well, this first month has been a rollercoaster. So far we’ve had one of the biggest unique visitor months a website I’ve run has seen in quite a while, we’re going to go past 4.5 million pageviews, our time on site and retention numbers have been fantastic, and a few hundred have already signed up to support this website, the content we are putting out, and the community we’ve been building. I’ve heard a lot of positive feedback from our sponsors and advertisers about the new model we’re trying out and they seem to be loving the exposure they’re seeing. I’ve heard from a lot of members that love how fast the site loads, love how quickly they can find what they are looking for, and have enjoyed our features, community, and even the advertisements themselves. But mostly they seem as excited as I am about the course we’re headed down.
Is this going to work long-term? I’m still not sure. But it’s a start. I hope we’re making the “good shit” that Topolsky writes about here. I think we are. There’s still a very long road to self-sustainability, but this time I at least feel like we’re in the right vehicle and it’s pointed in the right direction.