> Insiders cited broad industry-wide online traffic problems plaguing numerous online publishers, including Meta’s decision to deprioritize links to news articles and the rise of chatbots and AI summaries, which have decimated search traffic. It also wasn’t positioned to take advantage of increases in media attention tied to Trump and US politics.
Won't be much left to read next year, similar thing just happened to Liliputing traffic hit the floor and the founder accepted a job.
Interesting that it's answering the question of "what would happen if there was no internet advertising?" but the way in which it's doing it is to increase the concentration of where attention, and therefore advertising dollars, go.
It hasn't, unfortunately, killed the internet advertising racket, it's just moved the ability to make any money from it much closer to the already-powerful. Are we going to see the great paywallification of smaller sites? Hide the content from AI and casual passers-by, restrict it to the paying community.
I'm not convinced that's going to be a bad outcome. Advertising probably won't disappear, but targeted advertising may work better by being able to target by specific communities, who are paying to be a part of that community, rather than invasively trying to ascertain your personality flaws by scanning your browser and all the devices on your network and keeping track of every online movement you make - it could make those things worth less (and hopefully worthless).
benoau•55m ago
Won't be much left to read next year, similar thing just happened to Liliputing traffic hit the floor and the founder accepted a job.
https://liliputing.com/whats-up-with-liliputing-fall-2026-ed...
BLKNSLVR•36m ago
It hasn't, unfortunately, killed the internet advertising racket, it's just moved the ability to make any money from it much closer to the already-powerful. Are we going to see the great paywallification of smaller sites? Hide the content from AI and casual passers-by, restrict it to the paying community.
I'm not convinced that's going to be a bad outcome. Advertising probably won't disappear, but targeted advertising may work better by being able to target by specific communities, who are paying to be a part of that community, rather than invasively trying to ascertain your personality flaws by scanning your browser and all the devices on your network and keeping track of every online movement you make - it could make those things worth less (and hopefully worthless).