Jeff Bezos has a business problem

An aggregator like Facebook or Airbnb brings all the relevant goods, services, or information that a consumer might seek into one place, and it gathers all the consumers there, too. Netflix is a one-stop shop for film and television. YouTube is a one-stop shop for user-generated video. Uber is a one-stop shop for car rides. These aggregators amass ... See more

It used to be that media organizations had a big advantage by virtue of owning printing presses and delivery trucks, or broadcast licenses; celebrities and politicians would have their proclamations carried across those same mediums by virtue of their popularity or power. The same advantages applied to other areas of the economy like retail and con... See more

To start to work toward a sustainable media ecosystem, you must start with the media businesses themselves. These businesses face a daunting task of sorting out competing interests of audiences, advertisers and platforms. Time and again, we have seen platforms make decisions in their own interests that have cascading effects on publishers.

I like to say that I write about media generally and journalism specifically because the industry is a canary in the coal mine when it comes to the impact of the Internet: text shifted from newsprint to the web seamlessly, completely upending the industry’s business model along the way.Of course I have a vested interest in this shift: for better or... See more

Media, today, is a defined as a digital form of entertainment, education, or social connection. If you are in front of a screen, its contents are fighting for your attention. Netflix vs. Slack, Facebook vs. TikTok, Disney+ vs. Fortnite, Animal Crossing vs. Snapchat: the battle for attention is an asymmetrical one. But there is one commonality acros... See more

Media on the incumbent web is in crisis. It turns out that paying publishers for clicks, endless loops of “content” and ads, all served on platforms far beyond their maximum-viable scale is ideal for misinformation, disinformation and the decay of trust.