Thread by @jeffjarvis

What bullshit. Google & Facebook did not kill BuzzFeed News. Truth is, news at BuzzFeed never had a business model. It was a charity supported by the parent, listicle biz. I've always feared BuzzFeed news would be doomed when tough times hit. Well...1/

pressgazette.co.uk/from-listicles…

It took me time to figure out BuzzFeed's business model. This is how I put it: They sell a skill. Namely: "We know how to make our shit viral -- look at all our hot lists. So, advertiser, hire us to make your shit viral." I like that idea of selling a skill. News should, too. 2/

BuzzFeed was not a destination. It brilliantly exploited FB, Twitter, YT, Google to be distributed socially; 80% of its traffic was away from its own site. Remember: It sold a skill. We can do this for you, Madam Marketer. 3/

BuzzFeed's game was ruined when copycats and so-called influencers exploited its model for their crap, severely degrading the experience on the platforms, which had to adapt, downgrading it all--just as Google had to do w/ crappy content farms w/ Panda: searchenginejournal.com/google-algorit… 4/

Meanwhile, BuzzFeed started a news division and hired @benyt to edit it. He did that brilliantly. They did great work. They hired top-notch talent like @janinegibson. They broke huge stories. They were the envy of many a journo and journo prognosticator. 5/

But all along, I worried: Where's the business model for BuzzFeed News? News is a destination in a distributed world: doomed. Most of it is not socially viral. It didn't fit with BuzzFeed's model. Why did it exist? For respectability? As charity? I never could figure it out. 6/

Mind you, I'm grateful that BuzzFeed and @peretti supported the news division for as long as they did. Great work came out of it. 7/

I knew it wouldn't last. I knew when trouble hit -- when investors squirmed, the market tanked, growth leveled -- the news division would end up with target on its back. Because there isn't an explosive, BuzzFeed business model there; never was. 8/

BuzzFeed mocked poor, old media companies that had to rely on advertising on their destination sites ... until BuzzFeed, too, sold into that model and, like everyone else, had to rely on crappy, commodifying programmatic models. Welcome to media. 9/
isba.org.uk/news/time-for-…

Then Peretti & Smith started whining: The platforms should pay them for content. Ha! In proper economics, the platforms should have *charged* BuzzFeed et all for all that golden distribution. But they didn't because especially Google began with a principle: no paid placement. 10/

This is how we get Smith whining in the Times, selling the Murdoch party line that the platforms owe media companies. Bullshit.
nytimes.com/2020/05/10/bus…
Here was my response:

https://twitter.com/jeffjarvis/status/1259790180795535362

11/

And here is @benthompson's brilliant take down of the Smith/Peretti/Murdoch line:
stratechery.com/2020/media-reg… 12/

And now comes the Press Gazette, trying to connect Dr. Frankenstein electrodes to a campaign: "DUOPOLY: STOP Google and Facebook destroying journalism." Stop whining and look in the mirror. Protecting journalism as it was has not worked for 25 years. Learn from that. Rebuild. 13/

Remember I said BuzzFeed sells a skill? What skill does journalism sell? I say we should sell the skills of convening & serving communities, of listening, of enabling transparency, of improving the public conversation. We have to learn those skills before we can sell them. 14/

Instead, journalism thinks it can still sell the skill of producing a product called news in the form of stories and publications. Journalists want to sell writing as their skill. But now everyone can write; makes selling writing hard. 15/

News publishers aren't selling a skill.They sell their souls to the pols & governments on whom they should be keeping independent watch, cashing in their political capital & conflict in hopes of getting protectionist legislation and handouts. That's no business model, either. 16/

Facebook and Google are not killing news. News has been slowly killing itself by refusing to learn new skills to sell, new ways to bring value to the public we serve, new ways to listen to the needs of that public, new ways to earn trust, new ways to compete, not complain. 17/

The best way for Google & Facebook to help news is not handouts that will go into the pockets of hedge funds and disappear with the wind. What we need is help creating new strategies for news, new means to inform a society that does not trust us, new business models. 18/

Protectionism is not a business model. Whining is not a business model. Handouts are not a business model. Lobbying politicians is not a business model. Adding value to communities and their conversations, helping them meet their goals: that is the only model worth pursuing. 19/