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posted by mrpg on Saturday January 20 2018, @10:41AM   Printer-friendly
from the unpaid-editor dept.

[...] HuffPost in the US today announced that it is sunsetting its contributors platform — also known as its unpaid blogger platform.

The news was broken by HuffPost itself (which, like TechCrunch, is part of Oath, owned by gigantic carrier Verizon), which directly tied the move to the changing tides (not Tide Pods, although I personally think there is a connection) in the world of news media and how technology is used to distribute it.

"Now, there are many places where people can share and exchange ideas," HuffPost editor in chief Lydia Polgreen writes in a post on the site.

"Perhaps a few too many: One of the biggest challenges we all face, in an era where everyone has a platform, is figuring out whom to listen to. Open platforms that once seemed radically democratizing now threaten, with the tsunami of false information we all face daily, to undermine democracy. When everyone has a megaphone, no one can be heard. Our hope is that by listening carefully through all the noise, we can find the voices that need to be heard and elevate them for all of you."

[...] I'll be interested to see if HuffPost's move signals more of these unpaid blogger platforms (ahem, Forbes) changing tack, and just as significantly whether these sites can find the magic formula to replace it in their revenue streams if and when they do.

Source: TechCrunch


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  • (Score: 5, Touché) by Phoenix666 on Saturday January 20 2018, @11:56AM (4 children)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Saturday January 20 2018, @11:56AM (#625134) Journal

    "When everyone has a megaphone, no one can be heard."

    Obviously the problem in this world is the democratization of information. Can't have that. Can't have everyone thinking they have a voice, and that their voice matters. Can't have everyone figure out who's worth listening to by hearing what they have to say. Instead, dear reader, we will carefully curate the people who are willing to communicate the message we want you to hea...er, that we all need to hear.

    Is it any wonder trust in the media has plummeted?

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    Washington DC delenda est.
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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 20 2018, @06:02PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 20 2018, @06:02PM (#625220)

    Exactly what I read, too.

    I think this is a good weekend to learn more about GNU Social and Diaspora*. IRC is another good tool for organizing and disseminating information beyond the reach of the oligarchy. The next counterculture will be "hackers," which will be anyone who accesses "darknets" like GNU Social, Diaspora*, IRC, and also independent websites with active and uncensored comment sections like this one.

    (I'm certain people will bristle at my usage of hacker and darknet there, but remember that changing a number in a URL constitutes hacking according to the corporate propaganda [maybe call it Pravdacorp].)

    Every time I visit Google News or MSN or any of the other propaganda outlets, it's becoming more and more obvious how out of touch and lacking of credibility they are. There are local propaganda outlets too, and they keep the cows distracted and entertained with pages and pages of sports.

    Pravdacorp has nothing of value to offer the American peoples. Pravdacorp has divided the USA into two distinct sociological groups with HuffPo/WaPo/Slate/Salon on one end and InfoWars/Breitbart/Faux News on the other end, warring over competing visions of the authoritarian tyranny each wishes our government were, so I feel peoples is accurate right now. We must find a way of rising above this.

    • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday January 20 2018, @08:48PM (1 child)

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Saturday January 20 2018, @08:48PM (#625289) Journal

      That sounds right to me. On a discursive level I would say that having now been on the other side of the divide since the last election, most people are after the same things as the folks from the side I hail from, they just use different labels/terms that have been crafted by Pravdacorp to divide everyone. So there's the need to peer beneath all the fraught terms for the actual meaning of what people are saying.

      Then there's the infrastructure level to carry that discourse. We can do a lot with software alone, but that will only carry us so far as the corps and gov lock down the pipes as they realize how dangerous it is for them to lose control of the message. That bit, the hardware level, I keep grappling with. Sure, there are mesh networks but those can't substitute for the fat pipes at a level that people will naturally use.

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.
      • (Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday January 20 2018, @10:20PM

        by frojack (1554) on Saturday January 20 2018, @10:20PM (#625353) Journal

        as the corps and gov lock down the pipes as they realize how dangerous it is

        I don't see government and corporations as the biggest risk factor here.

        Go back a day or two where someone posted a story about setting up a home web server [soylentnews.org] for remote family members. The fear and fud posted in response was comical in the extreme.

        No No, Billy put down that stick of dynamite, calm down, we can work it out. A home server is crazy talk. You just forgot your meds son.

        There's so much fear and loathing (to say nothing of ignorance) that everybody forgets that this is EXACTLY how the web was first envisioned.

        We have met the enemy, and he is us.

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Saturday January 20 2018, @09:46PM

    by frojack (1554) on Saturday January 20 2018, @09:46PM (#625331) Journal

    Came to address the same point.

    I suspect old Huff empire was starting to see far too many dissenting opinions appear on their unpaid blogger platform, as other voices were using the Huff's own stick to beat the owners about the head and shoulders.

    That and the fact that it was being a seeding ground for fake news, and keeping it around (even at arms length) is starting to look like it might attract legal problems. It will be interesting to see if the archives disappear.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.