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comment by asdfoster
asdfoster  ·  3206 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Web We Have to Save

Considering how many people I know that are upset with the current trends of the internet away from long-form content, I would argue that we aren't as few and far between as you are implying.

I think that the biggest reason why people that prefer long-form content are being ignored is because it's harder to advertise to them. It takes longer to read long-form content than a funny picture, so in the time that you get one "like" out of a reader, you get one hundred out of someone that is only there for entertainment. That's one data point for ad serving vs one hundred. Similarly, that's one hundred ads that can be served to that person: one per funny picture, while the long-form reader is still on the same page with the same old ads, not making anyone any money.

So yes, I do think that we are in the minority in terms of page views and ad views, but I'm not entirely convinced that we are in the minority in terms of population.





Super_Cyan  ·  3206 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I know that a lot of people that prefer long-form content still make up a decent sized population, but are still a minority, but they get kind of screwed over by a lot of sites. When they sit at meetings and go "Do we want to keep some people happy, or make a lot more money?", they obviously choose the latter. Some sites don't put profit first, but many do - and those are the ones that screw readers over.

asdfoster  ·  3206 days ago  ·  link  ·  

And unfortunately because of our economic system, the ones that do put profit first tend to succeed and get more press and become more successful.