What Do People Misunderstand About The Financials Of Media?

To this day, I believe there is truly not an established business model for quality journalism – even for companies and publications that have had success for a period of time.

While one of the most rewarding fields to be in, it is incredibly difficult. Quality journalism is expensive, and there's been a number of changes in technology, audience behavior, and consumption models over time.

For a long time, if you were able to reach a mass audience, advertising could pay for a lot. As audiences began to fragment, and media choice scaled, the advertising model could no longer support these businesses.

For example, The Post at one point received 40% of its website traffic from Facebook referrals. And then overnight, that changed. When traffic changes, the advertising model changes. As soon as that happened or Facebook decided they weren't as interested in news, our whole business was different.

The number of changes Google has made to their algorithms, and now with what AI is doing, search is completely different. You might get the answer you're looking for from Gemini and never click into any article. Maybe search is gone as we know it.

What remains constant, though, is the need for a direct relationship with your audience – it’s the key to success.