• The Death of Physical Media

    The Death of Physical Media

    An old college buddy of mine, Adam, who also has been a creative partner for me over the years, created an awesome video essay.

    It’s about the end of physical media, what it might hold for the future of media consumption, and how collectors might be dealing with this change. At 12-minutes long, it’s the perfect video to watch while having lunch or taking a break from work.

    If I’m being honest, this kind of stuff wrinkles my brain in all the right places. I think Adam hit the nail on the head about why physical media is going away and had some good ideas about where it might live in the future.

    One thing that I think isn’t talked about enough though is the extra features and bonus content like deleted scenes, bloopers, director’s commentary, and more. I don’t consume nearly as much of that kind of content anymore because of streaming services. It is because I own Hulu, Paramount+, Disney+, and more subscriptions that I don’t shell out the money for a physical disc. That being said, if I didn’t have that kind of access right at my fingertips I would most likely have bought The Batman on Blu-ray, or lined up to buy Oppenheimer today.

    I remember renting DVDs from Blockbuster and rewatching Clerks with the commentary track on and eating that shit up like it was gospel. I loved hearing what the creators had to say about their work and the things they had to do to make certain shots happen. Hell, even some of the best video essays I have seen use commentary tracks on them.

    My hope is that streaming services find a way to offer bonus content like this more frequently. I know that some services do have some of the stuff I mentioned above, but it certainly isn’t guaranteed, which I think is a shame.


  • How to fix online media: focus on the true fans

    How to fix online media: focus on the true fans

    Between the Vice News layoffs, the podcasting industry crumbling, and Jezebel closing its doors it’s safe to say that the media industry is having a bit of a crisis. It’s clear that advertising on sites like Jezebel and large podcasts aren’t cutting it anymore, so what’s the next step? For many, it looks like focusing on the “1000 true fans” rather than trying to make an impact en masse.

    Jezebel Shuts Down

    On Thursday, November 9th, Jim Spanfeller, CEO of G/O Media, announced that feminist news site Jezebel would be shutting down. In his statement, Spanfeller explained that G/O Media’s “business model and the audiences we serve across our network did not align with Jezebel’s.” Shortly after, Jezebel’s union, Writer Guild of America East, shared that the real reason for this was “strategic and commercial ineptitude.”

    The closure of Jezebel also underscores fundamental flaws in the ad-supported media model where concerns about ‘brand safety’ limit monetizing content about the biggest, most important stories of the day

    – Writers Guild of America East

    After a few weeks of searching for a buyer, G/O Media decided to abandon Jezebel, closing shop instead of continuing investment. 404 Media decided to look further into this and boy does it get bleak for advertising-funded sites like Gizmodo and the rest of G/O Media.

    Lauren Tousignant, Jezebel’s interim editor in chief, told 404 Media that Jezebel was told “brand safety,” the fact that advertisers don’t want to be next to the type of content Jezebel was publishing, was “one of the biggest factors” that led G/O to stop publishing the site and lay off its staff. Tousignant said that a couple of weeks ago, the ads sales team asked if it could remove Jezebel’s tagline—“Sex. Celebrity. Politics. With Teeth”—from the site.

    “They took it off because they’re like, let’s see if this makes a huge difference,” Tousignant said. “So yeah, it was very much the problem here that no one will advertise on Jezebel because we cover sex and abortion. I know taking the tagline off was to see if the algorithm advertising would change. After it was removed one of the editorial directors was like, ‘I’m seeing an ad for J Crew for the first time ever, maybe this will be good.’”

    – Jason Koebler and Emanual Maiberg writing for 404 Media

    Even now Jezebel‘s current tagline is “Politics. Entertainment. Work. Style. Health. With Teeth.” instead of the previous tagline of “Sex. Celebrity. Politics. With Teeth.”

    Koebler and Maiberg continue to show just how much control advertisers have on what news content gets made today.

    It is not an exaggeration to say that the largest companies in the world are colluding to put their thumb on the scales of what types of news is monetized, and which types of news is monetized at lower rates or not not monetized at all. The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) is listed by the World Economic Forum as one of its “projects” and includes every major marketing agency, as well as brands like Nike, Merck, Nestle, Proctor and Gamble, TikTok, Disney, Walmart, Adidas, BP, Shell, Goldman Sachs, Electronic Arts, McDonalds, and more.

    In August WFA wrote in a blog post that “the risks are rising for big brands” because of “today’s geo-politics, marked by polarization and its accompanying 24/7 newsreel.” 

    “In the wake of the conservative backlash against Bud Light, Nike, Target, and others, we have witnessed unprecedented desire on the part of WFA members to share insights and concerns in private on how to manage risk and reputation,” they wrote. “After all, it only takes one marketer sending a personalized can of beer to a transgender TikToker for all hell to break loose.”

    With regards to wanting risk-averse articles and sites on the internet many companies took part in this in 2020. They wanted to be far away from any kind of COVID-19 coverage out of fear of being associated with deadly virus.

    John Montgomery, the Chief Marketing Officer for the gigantic brand agency GroupM, which spends billions of dollars on advertising annually, said in July 2020 that initially brands didn’t want to place ads next to stories about COVID-19, and specifically the death tolls from the pandemic. 

    “As it happens, it was a largely unwarranted concern,” he said. “Consumers don’t seem to worry too much about brands being next to hard news. In fact, sometimes it’s even better for them.” Montgomery went on to explain that, eventually, “85 percent of our clients were no longer blocking news, or were blocking news in a much more sophisticated way.” Stories specifically about how advertisers eventually came to understand that advertising next to news about Black Lives Matter protests and COVID-19 (after initially blocking it) because people care about it are common in the industry and are used to show that the brand safety industry cares about journalism and the news.

    Now, this isn’t meant to be making the point that eventually feminist sites like Jezebel might one day be sought after for advertising. Jezebel could have been catered to brands that put their feminist foot first had G/O Media given a shit. But instead Spanfeller, and the leadership at G/O Media, decided that it was better to simply give a curtain call for JezebeI.

    It is easy for me to “Monday quarterback” this entire thing as someone with no stake in the events unfolding. That said, it should have been beyond clear to anyone running sites like Jezebel and Gizmodo that the days of ad-revenue are numbered and that it is instead time to make some changes and focus on other ways to get revenue.

    Things like memberships and paid newsletters could have saved Jezebel from being closed down. Having those hardcore readers willing to pay a few bucks a month could have offered G/O Media a new way to afford keeping Jezebel up and running.

    There is a huge opportunity for brands to buy ads on websites that have a dedicated readership and cover important issues people care about in an uncompromising way. It should not be difficult for advertisers to understand the value that websites like Jezebel and VICE (which made more drastic cuts to its News division Thursday) bring to their readers. But this requires an ad sales team that can explain to ad agencies and brands that their money is better spent reaching dedicated readers rather than bots and people who accidentally end up on MFA sites. More importantly, it requires the brands buying the advertisements and the ad agencies that represent them to be brave.

    – Jason Koebler and Emanual Maiberg writing for 404 Media

    Thanks to risk-averse advertisers, sites like Jezebel, which had edginess and personality, have been swiftly sanitized for a softer, brand-friendly touch. Blogs and websites now have to wear kid gloves when tackling important issues if they want to continue to meet brand expectations. No more sex, drugs, or rock and roll for news sites. All this being said, another industry is in a bit of a shrinkage as well.

    Podcasting Woes

    In a recent Confider newsletter, Lachlan Cartwright shared that Pushkin, the podcast company co-founded by journalist and writer Malcolm Gladwell and journalist Jacob Weisberg, is having some turmoil regarding where the company stands currently. This comes after 30% of Pushkin’s staff was laid off.

    According to four people familiar with the situation, Gladwell has grown increasingly frustrated with how Weisberg has run their business, zeroing in on the serial lack of profitability at Pushkin.

    Podcasts like Gladwell’s Revisionist History, Michael Lewis’ Against the Rules are within the Pushkin Podcast network. In an all-staff meeting within Pushkin, Gladwell took responsibility on behalf of himself and Weisberg stating, “We made mistakes. I think we grew too fast. I think we lost sight of who we are and what we stand for,” he admitted. “I think we got a little blinded by some of the hype and craziness in our industry over the last couple of years. I don’t think we took our financial crisis seriously enough back in January when we had the first round of layoffs and we regret all of that profoundly and sincerely.”

    Pushkin isn’t the only podcasting company that is having trouble, Spotify is also in the same boat. Back in June, Spotify laid off 200 people in the podcasting department due to “strategic realignment” and combined podcasting giants Gimlet and Parcast into one entity. On top of that, Spotify effectively walked back their exclusivity in podcasts and started offering their shows on all podcasting apps and platforms.

    In both cases I think that the issue was focusing more on growth and reach rather than catering to the smaller group of “true fans.” It’s time to focus less on mass popularity and more on small communities that will stick around no matter what.

    Finding your Community

    Back in 2008 Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wiredwrote an essay where he shared his idea that all you need is 1000 true fans to be a successful creator. It has since become a mantra for so many content creators on the internet, and I think that there is some truth to the sentiment.

    To be a successful creator you don’t need millions. You don’t need millions of dollars or millions of customers, millions of clients or millions of fans. To make a living as a craftsperson, photographer, musician, designer, author, animator, app maker, entrepreneur, or inventor you need only thousands of true fans.

    Here’s how the math works. You need to meet two criteria. First, you have to create enough each year that you can earn, on average, $100 profit from each true fan. That is easier to do in some arts and businesses than others, but it is a good creative challenge in every area because it is always easier and better to give your existing customers more, than it is to find new fans.

    – Kevin Kelly

    While I know that getting 1000 people to give you $100 in profit each year seems daunting, it is far less Herculean than what tech giants like Spotify or The New York Times need to accomplish to get in the black. Sites like Patreon, Subsctack, beehiiv, and other services have shown that it is indeed possible to make something online and be successful from direct support.

    If I’m honest, Substack’s opportunity for me to potentially make money from my creative efforts is a large reason why I continue to come back here time after time. The chance that someone reading might put their money where their mouth is and support my work is exciting. Not just because I get paid doing something I love but also I get to be directly supported from my readers rather than be beholden to advertisers, algorithms, or affiliate links. That direct support effectively ends the song and dance so many online creators have to make to meet criteria to get ad revenue. YouTube is one of the worst places in my opinion when it comes to this.

    Many new-age journalists, like that of Andrew Callaghan and Channel 5, have said in the past just how important it is to be independent. In his live show in Detroit, Andrew shared in November of 2022 that one of the reasons that his movie, This Place Rules, was put on shelved for nearly a year because it was more important for A24 to market The Tragedy of Macbeth. Callaghan stated “It is more clear that ever that Channel 5 needs to be independent.” While Channel 5, and Andrew Callaghan specifically, has dealt with allegations and problems outside of being independent it is clear that the only reason he can create the content he does is because of direct support on Patreon.

    Along with Patreon and Substack there are other publications that are “worker-owned.” Sites like the aforementioned 404 MediaDefector (a site made by former Deadspin employees), Hell Gate, and the latest addition to the list Aftermath. These sites offer essays, journalism, and content that users can read online and directly support the writers. Aftermath, in there announcement post, said,

    These days it’s tough for journalism, especially about games. The past few years have seen mass layoffs and site closures, with remaining writers being asked to do more and more with less and less. The ad-supported model is crumbling, social media is a mess, and the businessmen and private equity firms buying up news outlets don’t care about workers, readers, and quality writing, they only care about profits. The four of us saw our sites closed, ourselves and our colleagues laid off, and our workplaces turned hostile in management’s pursuit of growth at all costs.

    The success of worker-owned sites like this depend on many different factors, but they all have the same big decisions to make when it comes to revenue. 404 Media even touched on this in their Jezebel piece.

    This broken business model of digital media is why, when we launched 404 Media, we decided to go with a primarily reader-funded subscription model. As we have slowly and cautiously started putting advertisements on our website for non-members in an attempt to diversify our revenue sources, we have been repeatedly demonetized or dinged by Google for publishing articles that are not brand safe (this, on top of already paltry programmatic ad rates).

    The online media and news business is changing, there is no question about that. While there is no silver bullet to fix the revenue problems, it seems clear that direct support from the “true fans” could be the path to success.

    There may not be any more empires like G/O media, Vice, etc. but this could the a start to many more smaller successful companies that offer a living to journalists and creators.


  • “Shot on iPhone”

    Apple created a really interesting post covering the “Shot on iPhone” keynote they did for Scary Fast. They also created a video accompanying it.

    What I thought was more interesting though was the backlash it got from people saying that because it had so much gear and equipment required to get the look it had the “Shot on iPhone” claim was moot.

    So because things like lighting, color correction, dollies, tripods, and a team of people were involved it negates that this was shot on iPhone? That’s absurd to me. There are some terrific films that were also shot on iPhone, some of which can be seen on Apple’s YouTube channel today.

    Matt Birchler shared his thoughts on this “controversy” saying,

    To be clear, Apple did shoot the event on an iPhone 15 Pro, and they used a free camera app to record, and a nonlinear editor (DaVinci Resolve) that you can also install right now for free and get 80% of its features. They did use lights and some tools to help move the phone around better, but like you could do all this as well with far cheaper hardware. The fact Apple had professionals make this video is not something any reasonable person should call misleading, and I’ll eat my hat if there is some large contingent of people out there today who are mad at Apple because they thought they could shoot video that looks as good as Apple’s chip lab set in their house. Eat my hat, I say!

    Exactly. Just because money, time, effort, talent, and gear were used for this keynote doesn’t make “Shot on iPhone” less impactful, in fact it makes it more impactful. Will you be able to make something this immaculate by yourself? Absolutely not. Could you use your iPhone, a few lights, editing software, and some friends to make something really cool? Absolutely. Much like anything worthwhile in life you get out what you put in, and Apple put in a shit load to make this keynote look good.


  • What I learned from my sabbatical

    What I learned from my sabbatical

    My last piece of content that I made was on June 9th, 2023. It was partially an essay about the end of Twitter and the end of Reddit but it also originally contained a section about me talking about how I was giving my newsletter another shot after some time off1. Then I stopped making things altogether.

    The reasoning for my sabbatical has a couple points to it, one good and one bad, but I feel like I should elaborate on it. Partly in hopes to show the human side of creators online, and also in hopes that it can help others struggling creatively. This is what I learned over the past few months that I plan to keep with me going forward with my writing and other creative works.

    Be kinder to yourself

    I have spent my entire adult life living with depression. At times it feels persistent no matter the situation I’m in, other times it’s more cyclical. Regardless, I have times in my life where I can barely get through the bare necessities. When I’m in that situation, nothing seems to matter and I’m doing what I have to—rather than what I want to. It’s easy for me to put my creative projects aside, necessary even. It’s a double-edged sword though.

    If I continue working on my creative projects it seems like garbage, drivelshit. Why bother putting that out in the world? On the other hand, if I stop working on things altogether I get more depressed because I lose my sense of worth. If I have nothing to work on, nothing to make, then I am nothing.

    Eventually my proverbial ship rights itself and I’m no longer taking in water, which then allows me to pick back up where I left off. Rinse. Repeat.

    How does the ship right itself? It’s hard for me to say really. Sometimes it’s simply no longer worth holding it all in, I need to let the negativity fall off me. Honey instead of vinegar and all that. Other times I hyper-fixate on a project and the toxic sludge that often bubbles up doesn’t have time to keep up with me. I once spent over four hours working on a website I built from scratch just to see if I could.2 Throughout that entire time I had no worries about whether or not it was “good.” I just wanted to make something. Eventually the project became too much for me technically and I put it down. It continues to collect dust on a Github repository of mine. That website never saw the light of day but it allowed me to be creative again and that is what allowed me to no longer wishing I could make something and actually making something.

    Whether it is simply me being kinder to myself once in a while or allowing my ideas to break through the mold I feel like myself when I’m working on something creative.

    Does this mean that the depression and hopelessness I felt was trivial in any way? Absolutely not, there is clearly something that needs to be worked out, but at least I am no longer stuck in the firm grasp of self-hatred. I can at least try and use my energy to make something.

    About a year ago I watched Neal Brennan’s comedy special, Blocks and I think it’s a stroke of genius, and often a kickstart I need to start my next thing. What gets me is specifically the ending, where he comes to terms with himself and realizes that even through all that he has done to try and fix himself he reconciles with the fact he needs to be kinder to himself.

    Is kindness going to be a serious solution to mental illness? No. But it can be the thing you need to make the next serious step to get better.3

    Focus on what matters most

    Another reason for me taking time off was actually because of some of the most wonderful news I could ask for: a pregnancy.

    My wife is just past 20 weeks pregnant, our daughter is due in mid-March, and I get to be a father. While I’m beyond excited about what is to come, I would be lying if I didn’t say that I was also terrified. As we prepare more and more for our baby the more and more I feel totally and wholly unprepared. I’ve been trying to read more about what to expect, parenting advice, I’m even on parent TikTok now. I’m learning, but the unknown is what scares you.

    Will she be healthy?

    Will we have everything that we need?

    Will we know what to do when “X” happens?

    What if we aren’t good enough parents?

    How do you clip a baby’s fingernails?

    I still have another 18-20 weeks to continue to prepare but I’ve been told by pretty much every parent I know that the fear and constant questioning never ends. While I understand that, I do hope there are times where I feel like what I’m doing is right, or at least enough.

    Parenting, as they say, doesn’t come with a handbook and you kind of just have to figure it out. I like to think that I am moving forward to make that happen, but if there is one through line that I have seen from parents talking about parenting, it’s nothing that you are totally prepared for and that it’s a ride you just have to experience yourself.

    Making time to prepare the house, shop for the necessities, plan for the baby shower, and doctor appointments means time lost for writing, but I’ll happily forgo some writing time if that means it can allow me to do the things that matter for my future daughter.

    What’s next?

    I hope to have another issue out this time next Tuesday, then another a week later, and so on. Kind of make it a regular things I suppose. It will have essays from me, links to cool stuff I found online, a Substack of the week, maybe even some original podcasts by yours truly. Who knows! The goal for me is to press “Publish” each week on time and give you something cool to read.

    More immediately, I have links to a few things that I loved this past week and Substack that I have become an instant reader on.

    1. I have since removed this bit as it now very apparent that I wasn’t ready to start making content again. ↩︎
    2. For those interested, it was a website that I wanted to emulate Web3 is Going Just Great but about Twitter and “Free Speech.” I made it shortly after Elon’s Twitter purchase but after I put the website down I learned about a similar site and never picked it back up. ↩︎
    3. For the record, I have had been in and out of therapy and am on a healthy and helpful prescription from my psychologist. Self-help can indeed help when you are hurting, but I am also a prime example of modern medicine also helping with mental illness. ↩︎

  • New stickers on the laptop


  • Is this the end of fun online?

    Is this the end of fun online?

    The Death of Internet Communities 1.0

    First it was Twitter and now Reddit. There are more and more fun places online seemingly ruining things for their own short-term gain.

    If you aren’t aware here is a very brief explanation and places you can go to learn more about it, because this Substack post isn’t going to rehash the news, this is a funeral for internet fun.

    Twitter

    After the acquisition of Twitter from Elon Musk it quickly became a right-wing playhouse as well as completely open for hate-speech on the platform. Furthermore, Twitter completely closed off their API to third-party apps making many of the people creating amazing apps like Twitterrific and Tweetbot close up shop overnight.

    It has become a safe-haven for the “anti-woke” crowd and by Elon’s recently liked tweets it seems he has similar views as them too. Instead of being a place for discourse it is instead a Truth Social lite.

    Further ReadingTwitter Is a Far-Right Social Network by Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic

    Reddit

    Reddit has taken a page out of Twitter’s book and decided to charge for their API, which isn’t all that uncommon. The problem with this is that Reddit is charging over 2000% more than the average Reddit user costs for server expenses. Christian Selig, the developer of the popular iOS Reddit app Apollo, did some basic envelope math on this after being told that he would have to spend $20 million a year to keep Apollo active.

    Shortly after Selig’s post, Reddit users decided to protest the API changes and “go dark” on June 12th. However, just yesterday Selig came out and explained that Apollo will be shut down after June 30 due to the upcoming API costs and some false allegations of threats. After Selig’s announcement came more developers of Reddit apps and services announcing they too were closing up shop. Among those are Reddit is Fun and Sync.

    Finally, as the discourse on Reddit has gone fully berserk over the consequences of the API changes, Reddit announced an AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Reddit’s CEO, Steve Huffman, today at 1:30 Eastern time.

    Further Information:

    The Death of Fun

    Like a lot of people, Twitter and Reddit were some of the few places I frequented that felt like my home online. I met a lot of really awesome people on both platforms, gained perspectives I wouldn’t otherwise have, learned about memes and other internet culture, and even started a podcast because of a bond I made on Twitter with Christopher Lawley.

    Sadly, those platforms are a shell of their former selves and continues to choose dollars over longevity. It’s a true “emperor has no clothes” kind of situation.

    Aside from the fun I had online and the people I met, places like Reddit and Twitter are important to those online. It was a place where you could find people into the same niche as you. If you were an Apple enthusiast maybe you frequented r/Apple or followed #WWDC on Twitter. You were able to engage with people excited about the latest from Silicon Valley. The same can be said about nearly every kind of internet culture, including r/HydroHomies (a subreddit dedicated to sharing memes and photos about staying hydrated).

    The point is that Reddit and Twitter were two of the biggest places for people to no longer feel alone and unseen. While Reddit and Twitter aren’t the only places people can go to find those in their niche it was candidly the largest pool to dive into. It provided a place for those with common interests to meet and form bonds that last lifetimes. On top of that it provided safe-havens for those being persecuted or ostracized in their home. Many LGBTQ+ people have benefitted from online groups on Twitter and Reddit for example.

    Before you think about rebutting in the comments about how Reddit also paved the way for Donald Trump with the now banned r/The_Donald subreddit, I am aware that not everything about Twitter and Reddit was sunshine and rainbows. It had some dark spots, and I agree that with the good also comes the bad. But even with the bad we all continued to eat up the content on Twitter and Reddit. To be clear, we did it because there was still so much good to be gained from these platforms that outweighed the bad for many of us.

    Sadly, it seems that both Twitter and Reddit are no longer offering the good anymore, instead it is just bad; and it’s getting worse.

    Internet Communities 2.0: The Fediverse

    While I do believe that Twitter and Reddit losing users en masse is a good thing given the circumstances, it doesn’t come without a price. Many are being displaced from their online homes. Thankfully there is a new resurgence in federated and open-web projects online to act as an alternative to Twitter and Reddit. Sites like micro.blog and services like Mastodon are working to bring people together while still being in the open-web and a part of the federated universe.

    Mastodon was where I spent my time during the WWDC announcements and after learning you can follow hashtags I simply followed #WWDC and #WWDC2023 to keep my fingers on the pulse of those watching. It was just as fun, if not more fun, than when I handled it on Twitter last year.

    I plan to leave Reddit come June 30th, and I am most likely also going to leave Twitter at that time as well. As of now, you can find me on Mastodon at @jeffperry@social.lol, over on my blog, and you can contact me.


  • Moderator Mayhem

    Today Techdirt released their second game, Moderator Mayhem. It is a game that lets you see how good a job you would do as a front line content moderator,” Mike Masnick writes, for a growing technology company that hosts user-generated content”.

    Not only does the game have you moderate content, but it also gives you feedback from your manager and the public.

    Are you supportive of free speech, or too oppressive in your moderation? Are you allowing too much harassment and therefore not considered safe? One thing about the public is that they’re not shy about letting you know how they feel.

    I did my first run on my lunch break at work and I absolutely plan to play more with this later.

    Techdirt has managed to, once again, provide some fantastic context to what is going on in big tech and the platforms we all know and love.


  • At this point, Elon is just toying with news and media organizations. They truly should just make the active decision to leave.


  • Inside the Hunt for the Discord Leaker, and Twitter Chaos Updates

    I was listening to a recent episode of the podcast Hard Fork, and a specific part of it really resonated with me. It was where Casey Newton was talking to his co-host, Kevin Roose, about NPR’s decision to leave Twitter after getting a state-affiliated media” badge.

    You know what I’ve been thinking about lately, Kevin? Do you remember during the Trump campaigns, when there would be these rallies. And in the center of the rally there would be a pit for the media. And a signature moment of every rally would be Trump pointing to the people in the media so that everyone at the rally could say, boo, we don’t like the press.

    That is what Twitter has become. It is the press pit, where a bunch of people are standing around you in a circle, jeering. Adding this state-funded media badge was one of those steps. But I’m barely joking when I say that I think eventually every reporter who is still on the service will have a clown badge next to their username. And you just have to decide if you still want to be there when it happens.

    I truly think this is just a matter of time, and if Elon listens to Hard Fork then he almost certainly has at least talked about it with his overworked developer team.

    To add to this, I also read in a recent post by Pew Research that journalists on Twitter might not even be getting the views they deserve. Nearly 70% of journalists use Twitter as one of their top social media platforms. With that in mind, only about 13% of users use Twitter as their means of getting news.

    The usage of Twitter by journalists is beyond disproportionate to their actual reach.


  • Huge Upgrades to Mastodon

    People signing up for Mastodon will no longer have to worry about what server to go to. Instead, Mastodon will now be defaulting to a server they operate. Eugen Rochko, Mastodon’s Founder and CEOexplained his reasoning for this saying that [m]aking the onboarding process as easy as possible helps new users get past the sign-up process and more quickly engage with others.”

    ZOOM OUTThe balancing act between usability and the open web is upon us. Instead of focusing on the decentralization of Mastodon, they are opting to choose something more closed.

    • This follows a more centralized platform like Facebook and Twitter. Though you can change servers.
    • Bluesky, Mastodon’s competitor, is also known to do something like this as well for new users.

    FURTHER READING: