ShirleyW
@smew767
The other day we published a piece from former Bandcamp senior editor jj skolnik whose entire team was ruthlessly laid off. $3 to read- https://flaminghydra.com/love-work/
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ShirleyW
@smew767
Correction- majority of the Bandcamp Daily team. Only 3 members remain.
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Eric Mack
@ericmack
There's a causal chain in my head (and that of whoever I certainly stole it from) that goes something like - Craigslist and Web1 was an earthquake that rattled the foundation of media business models, disrupting local classifieds, decreasing old school subscription revenue...
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Eric Mack
@ericmack
Old media was slow to react and meanwhile the platforms like Google, FB, Twitter and the rest swallowed the advertising industry whole and simultaneously became our new, algorithmic gatekeepers. This was happening during a long, long period of zero interest rate policy post 2008 crash...
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Eric Mack
@ericmack
This made money cheap and VCs and investors were keen to throw lots of it at countless media projects, whether it was Bezos buying WaPo, the 18th resurrection of Gawker or BuzzFeed and Upworthy supposedly becoming the new 21st century 4th estate. And the more your business plan relied on the platform the better...
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Eric Mack
@ericmack
But hitching your fortunes to the opaque algorithms of Silicon Valley is a tumultuous partnership. See the rise of clickbait, mis/disinfo, polarization, fake news and assorted other information hellscape landmarks. Meanwhile the news desertification of all but the biggest cities accelerates...
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Eric Mack
@ericmack
When zero interest rate policy disappeared after Covid, the bill finally came due. The now fully mature tech platforms moved into full-on extractive mode, further collapsing business models already on life support, but now investors were less likely to offer a lifeline with the cost of cash skyrocketing...
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