We Need Your Email Address
www.404media.co
AI stealing our work. The collapse of social networks. The need to pay journalists to produce impactful journalism. Here is why we are asking for your email address to read 404 Media.

this is an interesting article on the difficulties of running anything as SEO makes everything worse, AI proliferates, and things generally get worse for journalism. probably best summarized by this paragraph:

The long answer is that, through our own reporting, we are realizing that in order to combat the fracturing of social media platforms, a Google discoverability crisis fueled by AI generated spam and AI-fueled SEO, and a media business environment that is in utter freefall, we need to be able to reach our readers directly using a platform that we own and control. To do that, we need your email address.

but it’s a very good read in general, and i’d encourage you to read the whole thing.

  • alyaza [they/she]OPM
    1•11 months ago

    Besides the questionable benefits of e-mail over a website, this is also practically guaranteed to deter most privacy-minded people.

    i mean, i would imagine most people are simply not privacy-minded in a way that this is a serious consideration for them.

    • @Radiant_sir_radiant@beehaw.org
      1•11 months ago

      That’s probably true, but I imagine there’s considerable overlap between privacy-minded people and people aware of the existence of (or wanting to peruse) news outlets such as 404. It just looks like a largely unnecessary obstacle for new readers.