There's certainly been a trend towards optimizing for pageviews and clickbait above all other considerations. That trend has had a horrendous effect on the average quality of journalism in this country, by dint of the brutal economics of pageview advertising. (In recent years, focus has shifted away from pageviews and toward shares, engagement, etc. But it's mostly the same shit, different day: pay writers as little as possible, crank out heavy volume, bait people with headlines, weave vanity metrics into ad dollars.)
But I see a bright spot in all of this. In a sea of crap, good content might glimmer on the surface, wherever it appears. There's been a serious backlash among the tech and journalism communities against content farms and clickbait. People are, once again, experimenting with quality. Whether quality will be able to last depends on whether anyone can figure out how to make money from quality, and that's the unfortunate truth of the matter. Meanwhile, content farming is a gravity well that seems to suck every new publication down into oblivion, slowly but inevitably. A tweak here, an optimization there, a formula plied and followed, and before you know it, you're writing emotionally manipulative headlines and minimizing costs (and quality), like everyone else. But wow, look at those shares and pageviews! :)
I guess I still have hope. Otherwise I wouldn't be involved in journalism right now. For my part: I don't trade in gossip. I don't write clickbait (though typically, and depending on the publication, I don't have editorial control over my headlines or promotional copy). I try to be interesting. I try to be thoughtful. I try to have standards. I have yet to make a serious living as a writer, and until that changes, writing will remain a part-time gig. But I'm an optimist.
I suspect that whoever figures out how to monetize quality writing will do it by reaching back to first principles, rethinking the idea of publishing altogether. Trying to prop up a digital business on the scaffolding of a centuries-old business model makes no sense.
But I see a bright spot in all of this. In a sea of crap, good content might glimmer on the surface, wherever it appears. There's been a serious backlash among the tech and journalism communities against content farms and clickbait. People are, once again, experimenting with quality. Whether quality will be able to last depends on whether anyone can figure out how to make money from quality, and that's the unfortunate truth of the matter. Meanwhile, content farming is a gravity well that seems to suck every new publication down into oblivion, slowly but inevitably. A tweak here, an optimization there, a formula plied and followed, and before you know it, you're writing emotionally manipulative headlines and minimizing costs (and quality), like everyone else. But wow, look at those shares and pageviews! :)
I guess I still have hope. Otherwise I wouldn't be involved in journalism right now. For my part: I don't trade in gossip. I don't write clickbait (though typically, and depending on the publication, I don't have editorial control over my headlines or promotional copy). I try to be interesting. I try to be thoughtful. I try to have standards. I have yet to make a serious living as a writer, and until that changes, writing will remain a part-time gig. But I'm an optimist.
I suspect that whoever figures out how to monetize quality writing will do it by reaching back to first principles, rethinking the idea of publishing altogether. Trying to prop up a digital business on the scaffolding of a centuries-old business model makes no sense.