4 responses to “Google kills independent publishers”

1. 

   granville

   11/10/2024

   Feel like there’s something missing there: that writing and art that can’t be monetized shouldn’t be done. If this fellow feels passionate about what he’s doing, why wouldn’t he keep doing it? Christ, we once had readerships that were measured in the *dozens*. None of us had a skeleton crew, or any crew at all.

   I still contribute to a music magazine, we just do it because we like the music and want other people to find it. It’s not high art or anything, but I’m going to say that’s what makes it worth it. And probably more worth it than writing brainless shit like “Largest Copperhead Snake On Record Discovered” or “Salma Hayek Wept Filming Her First Ever Nude Scene” or “Megan Fox’s Most Tantalizing Movie Roles” for Giant Freaking Robot. What exactly is the difference between this and AI slop? That human hands wrote some lowest-common-denominator clickbait, but which Google refuses to toss out for fishes?

   Am I off here, Doug? Nobody ever promised me a living from this anyway, I wish it was more lucrative but shit, I’m still willing to do it even if it’s not! That was the whole point of BEING independent!

   Reply
   1. 

      Doug Holland

      11/10/2024

      Maybe I should’ve written something myself, instead of linking to GFR’s article about how great GFR was, because yeah, it wasn’t great. But that’s irrelevant to me.

      I’m a writer who’s turned down two book deals (and going for a third!) but I don’t begrudge anyone trying to eek a living out of their passion. That ought to be an option for little guys, and Google has ended that option.

      With Google’s heavy hand on search results, favoring big over little, this was a murder, not death by natural causes.

      Reply
      1. 

         granville

         11/11/2024

         I’m not missing the fact that this was a functional business that was shuttered, worse shut down by thugs who didn’t even ask for protection money before breaking the windows. From the sound of it Google broke them with a crowbar because the guy in the mansion across the street didn’t like the glare.

         Google monetization was heroin for independent publishing. You no longer needed a department selling ads. You let them eavesdrop on all of your users and build profiles of them and didn’t even think about it. And when they fucked you, the thing that you were doing when you didn’t make money no longer seemed worth doing unless you were. Saw this happen to a lot of people over the years.

         Reply
         1. 

            Doug Holland

            11/11/2024

            It’s the lure of lucre, which can easily rejigger the motivation, replacing passion with cash. Which is another way, the old-fashioned way Google kills the indy spirit.

            Brief story, sorta related. 25 years ago my wife and I ran a Web 1.0 news blog that was moderately trafficked for its time, and when Google AdWords came along we signed up. It seemed like a good deal — an ad box on our page, in exchange for a steady check in the mail. Those checks became borderline serious money, to someone poor like us.

            But it felt icky and I hate ads and the whole thing started to feel like a part-time job or something awful like that. We pulled the plug after a year or so. To this day, no regrets, and no ads.

            Reply

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