Platforms and News Media
Platform is the News !
It has been almost 10 years since I gave up on a printed newspaper subscription and about 6 years of refusing to view the “News Shows” on electronic media. It is not that I do not read OR watch news, it is just that I do not take a chance of watching it live and then regret wasting my time. I would rather go to a curated newsletter like MorningBrew or perhaps Twitter and then perhaps end up on a newspaper or an electronic media websites.
Do let me know in comments about your news hunting behaviour.
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DTW
During the Week, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison went ballistic against the Duopoly of Facebook and Google on their attempts to thwart an industry code for search engine and social media giants proposed by Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. The code deals with how the Australian media businesses may be paid by Facebook and Google for the use of their news content. This controversy has brought to fore a significant power play between platforms and news media. We can visualise this relationship in three ways- One, Platforms as aggregators of news/views ; Two, Platforms as user engagement channel for news media ; and Three, Platforms as Arbiter of Truth !
First, as aggregators of information and news, platforms exert tremendous power over our lives as social beings. News Aggregator platforms like Dailyhunt and InShorts gained large customer traction as they helped readers get access to multiple news sources in an accessible fashion. The publishers were happy to hop on to these platforms as they were assured of steady incomes when their regular revenue were declining and were under severe performance pressure. This relationship has turned sour over last few years as more users have shifted to video content over YouTube and other video platforms. An interesting offshoot of this relationship has been the rise of local language news content and thus solving the long tail problem for migrant population w.r.t local news from their native geographies and in their native language. As far as large global platforms are concerned , “Googling” became a verb to signify the search for information and Google has taken over the role of “"Repository of Human Intentions”. They crawl the web and systematically arrange the information to present it in an organised manner.
Google cares deeply about journalism.We believe in spreading knowledge to make life better for everyone. It’s at the heart of Google’s mission. It’s the mission of publishers and journalists.Put simply, our futures are tied together.
SUNDAR PICHAI, CEO, GOOGLE
This collaborative tone may seems far removed from reality when we see that 30% of google search do not end in any clicks. Research shows that 34.4% of all desktop searches result in no click while 62.5% of users never click search result links on mobile. Overall, this aggregator role of platform seems to be working for platforms and news consumers but failing for the publishers both for subscription and advertisement revenue.
Second, news media has used platforms for building engagement and driving their subscription revenue. Both iOS and Android have helped news media organisations create engaging apps for the news consumers. Almost all the Indian news media organisation have presence on YouTube , Facebook, Twitter and TikTok (suspended now) !
Tech Platforms including Amazon have helped news organisation to build a subscription business by leveraging on platforms’ customer base running into billions. Apple through its news app has helped in creating more engagement through innovative offering like news narrations. There have been occasional confrontation between Apple and its news partners about the revenue potential but more specifically on controlling access to customers. New York Times has recently pulled out of Apple News as they wanted to drive readers directly to its own website and mobile app so that it could “fund quality journalism.” Few years back, NYT had let go of its relationship with Facebook called Instant Articles.
Third, as an arbiter of Truth ! The extent of fake news has become a menace for law and order. Press Information Bureau (PIB) actually runs a twitter handle to counter all the misinformation floating across news channels and other social media platforms
In a previous newsletter, I have written about attempts by the major social media platforms to curb fake news specially during and about Covid19. We have had fear mongering and wrong information posted about COVID-19 over Facebook, Whatsapp and other social media platforms. Facebook has taken some steps to stop the fake claims and non-scientific cure but unfortunately they do not even know what is happening over Whatsapp (Encryption and all). The role of these social platforms in spreading fake news and rumours is still being researched but the harm is there anecdotally for all of us to see. The fact remains that the platforms themselves have been responsible for spread of false and at times malicious content. Prof Scott Galloway talks about Twitter and Facebook as rage machines and argues for strict regulations of their algorithm when their revenue/business/engagement model depends on propaganda/hate speech. Platforms claims of not being a publishers and hence not responsible for the content published on their sites flies in the face of evidence that they tweak their algorithms to allow/promote certain content over others and thus “"Control the Narrative”.
OTW
Over the Weekend, I had a brainstorming session with the Guests for Maverick Conclave 2020 and students members of Maverick : The official Marketing & Strategy Club of IBS Hyderabad . I am very excited about moderating Conclave 2020 sessions (19-20 September 2020) dealing with Brand Re-invention and Glocal Alliances. My lens for looking at these issues would continue to be platform strategy, Covid19 induced accelerated change and human welfare as business goal.
Maverick Team has worked hard to assemble an interesting panel of industry and thought leaders. Do join the discussion via Live Stream and would be great to get your questions/comments in advance. You could use this form to send your questions and follow the YouTube Page for the live stream.
I would also be interacting with some of you during our MountainSpeak Season 2 Episode 4 with Col. Yogesh. We have been buddies for over 5 years and every interaction has been a revelation about ourselves. After serving the nation for 21 years as an Artillery officer both during Op Vijay and Op Prakaram , he is now Admin Head at TCS Synergy Park in Hyderabad. He is a fellow runner and also a neighbour at PBEL City.
MountainSpeak is a Free-Form Conversation Style Platform for exchanging ideas about Multi-sided Networks, Business , Marketing , Endurance Running and Life in general ! You could sign up and join once-a-month session here !
I Love You.
Shailendra
I have recently started the print media subscribtion back again after year of attempt to get accustomed to e-media news. More than news I believe in analysis of the topic than just a peice of information.
Print media help me choose my content which I want to read and I am the director of my imagination while I am reading. I am not been fed with feed/content using AI or recommendations or throwing fake facts.
It’s been 9 years that I had already given-up on printed media, because of lack of convenience; but that doesn’t mean that I’m through with the printed media, if given a chance like at Airport or at libraries, wherever I can get newspapers I grab them, apart from news they also help us in many purposes.
Platform and News Agencies are in the process for Perfect Match-Making, so that both of them can be benefitted with each other. Being a Platform their focus is on creating Moats - either by Network Effects or by Commoditisation. On the other-hand, News Agencies also have their own fan-base, for example if your are UPSC aspirant, then you will prefer The Hindu over to Economic Times or others..... and getting those kind of New Houses to your platform will also increase the Thickness of Platform as well.
I am a regular user of Podcast, Apple News and Google News and other some small apps, but one thing that I noticed is that Apple is very good at Creating Standardisation at market and then Commoditising it; followed by Monetisation, as they have such a reputation in market that they need not to work upon to Ensure Security over their platform and they are good at mitigating asymmetric information.
However for Facebook, it’s not long back that their own employee alleges company for “profit off hate” and quits the job, in Australia as you have correctly pointed out, even today in India their top officials have been called by Delhi Panel Over Hate Speech Complaints.
And why only Facebook and Google to be blamed for, long before the Friendly and Desperate acquisition of WhatsApp, many of us were Prof. Scott Galloway of fake news on WhatsApp University....... and after the situation of COVID-19 we are even beyond...... by actively reading all those fake forwards.
But as far as duology, is concerned they have to seriously work upon their Platform by properly engulfing in Ethics and Regulations, to which for a platform; is not easy.