乐生活Today, the Hefantun Post wrote a long article about the rise and fall of Mic, a famous new media in the United States.
The whole thing, outsiders may think it’s a bunch of "Millennium Generation" fools, because Mic was founded by two millennials. The company gave everyone a pair of Nike customized shoes, and made a scene of "an employee lied about his family’s death and skipped work for a week to build a tree house."
But how to say, this story is actually bestowed by technology and capital, the "media belonging to young people" is praised by heaven, and it is played and applauded by capital and technology giants, and finally ends in a bleak end. The media people of this era are not easy anywhere (of course, it may be doubly difficult for a country to press the table below); the so-called media ideal is as fragile as Iowa’s cornstalk in this era.
Mic’s predecessor was Policy Mic, founded in 2010 by Chris Altchek and Jake Horowitz, both of whom were 87 years old. It happened that they were at the moment when VC ventures poured into new media and Facebook and Twitter were rising, and they grew very fast.
Their slogan is to make news that young people like to watch, and to grasp young people’s psychology with great precision. Of course, the spread on Facebook naturally has a very eye-catching way, as well as the speed and momentum that traditional media can not match.
It all looks familiar, doesn’t it? The next thing may look more familiar——
– To pursue click-through rate and share rate at all costs and to make "explosive money". The voice of the data department is greater than that of the acquisition and editing department.
– The best way to pursue click-through rates is to sell anger and identity politics. Mic soon became the "social justice warrior" base in the eyes of the rightists, and even made some employees feel that we have political ideals, but sells them very insincerely.
– Manpower is squeezed. Hundreds of articles a day, dozens of editors, more often than not, each person has to write 5-6 articles a day. All kinds of 996, but the salary is very low; everyone is using love to generate electricity; (The editor who lied to repair the tree house, was actually in serious depression at that time.)
– Editors and journalists lack traditional media training; they are even caught plagiarizing; (But honestly, can you write so much in a day)
– The company is expanding, but human resources and management can’t keep up with each other, all kinds of chaos; even very late to buy pension insurance for employees (401k in the United States)
– Income growth is weak. Although they say that we have captured the "Millennium generation" of young people, income growth has not been so significant.
Most lethally, they started with Facebook, but in 2016, Facebook adjusted its algorithm strategy and their visits were watered down.
In order to increase the number of visitors, they have to do everything possible to increase the possibility of being clicked and shared, and constantly adjust the strategy to cater to the platform’s algorithm. However, the content team is confused about exactly what content to produce and which direction to go.
Mic wanted to turn to video, but failed to cooperate with a video on Facebook, and had to lay off employees and demobilize a large team.
From 2015 to 17 years, their visits were almost swayed; although their incomes have risen, they have not achieved the promise of investors.
After 2014, showmen were more cautious about investing in "new media", and advertisers were more likely to advertise platforms (such as Facebook and Google) because they had better data and distribution capabilities. The media is increasingly unable to pull advertising, and revenue has become a major problem.
Together with the problems of the previous companies themselves, Mic sold Bustle cheaply for $5 million earlier, a fraction of its peak valuation. Almost all the original teams have gone away.
To be honest, 10 years ago, even five years ago, people were very optimistic about the so-called "new media". Now, however, even the best new media, Vox and BuzzFeed, are having a tough time.
After all, the story seems to me that people’s "choice" of "content" is actually no match for technology and technological capital. In this era, technology and capital can influence people’s "content" and "choice". The so-called media, more and more like a small boat on the waves, carrying the conscience of society (and glass heart) do not know where to drift.
In a word, we can and cherish it.
