Adviser Update Adviser Update Spring 2017 | Page 13
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single most controversial, influential
and secretive algorithm in the world
is the one that drives the Facebook
News Feed” for “while publishers
can freely post to Facebook, it is the
algorithm that determines what
reaches readers.”
The lure of social media platforms for
news publishers is understandable,
given their size and reach. Today,
more than 62 percent of the U.S.
population gets some of its news
from social media. Facebook alone
has 1.9 billion users worldwide and,
as the report says, “No publisher in
the history of journalism has enjoyed
the same kind of influence over the
news consumption of the world.”
Social media and search companies
are in the business of generating
huge user bases to attract digital
advertising, which is rapidly
replacing the print advertising that
long supported news publishers.
But news, while important, is only a
small part of their offering.
“The essential nature of journalism
has not changed; it is still about
reporting stories and adding context
to help explain the world,” the Tow
Center report stresses. “But now
it is threaded through a system
built for scale, speed and revenue.
The platforms’ business model
incentivizes ‘virility’—material
people want to share—which has no
correlation with journalistic quality.”
In this rapidly changing news
environment, Ms. Bell and Mr.
Owen see not
only threats
and challenges
to traditional
journalism
but also, in
MARK ZUCKERBERG
the wake of a
presidential election that produced
a wave of “fake news” revelations,
“an immediate opportunity to turn
the attention focused on tech power
and jour nalism into action.” Led by
Facebook and Google, platform
companies have “been proactive
in starting initiatives focused on
improving the news environment
and issue of news literacy,” even as
“more structural questions remain
unaddressed.” In late February, Mark
Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and
chief executive officer, went out of
his way to thank “all the journalists
around the world who work tirelessly
and sometimes put their lives at
danger to surface the truth.”
If news organizations are going
to remain autonomous, the Tow
report notes, “there will have to be a
reversal in information consumption
trends and advertising expenditures
or a significant transfer of wealth
from technology companies and
advertisers”—developments that,
at this point, seem little more than
wishful thinking.
A major issue facing news
companies is whether to continue
maintaining their own costly
“publishing infrastructure, with
smaller audiences but complete
control over revenue, brand and
audience data” or to cede control
“in exchange for the significant
audience growth offered by
Facebook and other platforms.”
The Washington Post and The New
York Times have been trying both to
use social media platforms to attract
new readers and revenue as well as
to encourage heavy users to become
direct subscribers to the full digital
editions on their own websites.
Yet, such a path for metropolitan
newspapers without national
aspirations and small and mid-sized
publishers appears much more
difficult, if not impossible.
“Despite new opportunities and
publishing models offered by the
huge variety of platforms, most news
organizations have not been able to
find reliable return on investment,”
the report concludes. “The current
progression of publishers into
the social world is creating two
types of news organizations: one
that maintains and develops its
own presence, subscriptions and
destination sites, and one where
publishing stops being the activity
which is used to support journalism.”
None of this bodes well for the
future of American journalism or our
democracy.