For the last 10 or 15 years, publishers and then creators got too comfortable with platforms doing the finding for them.
The deal always looked good while the clicks were coming in.
Now it’s getting harder to make it without them, because everyone spent years chasing free reach instead of building a place people would come back to on purpose.
The media companies that lost weren't beaten by AI they were beaten by a decade of ignoring what readers actually wanted.
True that as well.
For the last 10 or 15 years, publishers and then creators got too comfortable with platforms doing the finding for them.
The deal always looked good while the clicks were coming in.
Now it’s getting harder to make it without them, because everyone spent years chasing free reach instead of building a place people would come back to on purpose.
AI’s just making that bargain harder to ignore.
Totally. They were getting too comfy with their position in the market. Tech caught up :-)