Jacob Kramer-Duffield
@jaykaydee.bsky.social
4K followers 1.7K following 7.8K posts
Consulting on audience strategy, audiostrategy.org Writing a book for @beltpublishing.bsky.social Teaching digital sociability and ethics, NYU-Tandon ACT-UAW Local 7902 Ph.D., UNC-SILS Fmr audience data WNYC, NYMag, Megaphone jkd.10 on Signal Enjoys birds
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
jaykaydee.bsky.social
Since I am apparently on a starter pack or something: hello! I'm JKD. I have been bopping around the Internet for a long time, used to work in politics, got my Ph.D. studying digital identity, worked in-house in media on analytics and audience, and now consult on that and teach about Online. (1/n)
Reposted by Jacob Kramer-Duffield
adamserwer.bsky.social
All the edgy sneering about "representation" was a way to ironize and therefore obscure the complaint that someone not white was being hired to do a job.
jaykaydee.bsky.social
The major problem facing publishers is not the disappearance of revenue from newsstand sales - it's the brokenness/monopoly domination of the ad market(s) that had sustained the industry for more than a century. Breaking up monopolies and establishing a regulated ad market is how we fix this. (6/n)
jaykaydee.bsky.social
For publications that are *purely* subscription-based, micropayments still don't make sense; the marginal benefit of a dozen people giving you a buck is just not that much compared to say, one in 40 visitors becoming a subscriber. Or, maybe, building out an ads program, even a small one. (5/n)
jaykaydee.bsky.social
After starting ad-free, every major streamer - even Netflix - now includes ad tiers. For the most part they (other than Netflix) *still* lose money overall but even the *much more expensive* ad-free tiers have higher revenues on a per-user basis. Even w/subscribers, ads pay the bills. (4/n)
jaykaydee.bsky.social
Now: digital ads are not making up the same share of revenues as print ads used to, so subscriptions are more important now. But micropayments aren't what publications need: they need repeat visitors, be they subscribers or otherwise, who are eyeballs for ads. Streamers show us how. (3/n)
jaykaydee.bsky.social
For much of the 20th C. 70% of newspaper revenues were from ads, 30% from circulation (subscriptions+newsstand sales); by c.2000, this was 80-20. So in this context we can see micropayments as akin to newsstand sales: tiny fraction of overall revenues, money you like but doesn't make the diff. (2/n)
jaykaydee.bsky.social
I understand why people keep thinking micropayments are a solution for journalism; they are not, as has been demonstrated across many attempted implementations. But let me talk for a bit longer about why this is the case.

Modern newspapers never made a majority of their revenue on circulation (1/n)
bartenderhemry.bsky.social
I've been saying this for years, whoever figures out a way to make it so you can just tap to buy an article without making a potentially lifetime credit card commitment is going to get rich and save journalism
amutepiggy.bsky.social
NEWS OUTLETS
could you please offer an opportunity for me to buy an article a la carte

many times i don't want to subscribe because i don't want you to keep sending me shit. i do not want a continued relationship. but i would absolutely spend a nominal amount to read an article Right Now
jaykaydee.bsky.social
Culture exists so we can talk about it with other people! Share our experiences of it and learn about each other through that exchange!

Talking about your personal AI movie is like talking about your dream if your dream burned a forest and drained a lake.
robinjames.bsky.social
Personalized media kills the one thing that's actually powerful about experiencing art: sharing that experience with other people.

This is Thatcher's "there is no such thing as society" dressed up in dragons and pinups.
sciam.bsky.social
Despite early, and familiar, copyright growing pains, Sora may be the prelude to AI-generated on-demand TV and movies
jaykaydee.bsky.social
I will consume a chicken schnitzel for the common good
jaykaydee.bsky.social
"Ashokan Farewell" was of course written explicitly for this purpose and even knowing that it *still* doesn't make sense!
jaykaydee.bsky.social
Agree with Dave here that AI is giving Enron vibes but maybe even more than that it's Madoff for me. I think this goes along just fine until someone needs to be liquid and then...
davekarpf.bsky.social
Everyone agrees that we're currently in a dotcom era-like AI bubble. People disagree what sort of bubble it is.

There are 3 stories one can tell about the dotcom crash: a startup story, a telecom story, and an accounting fraud story.

My take: it's giving Enron
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
It's Giving Enron
On the AI bubble, and the various echoes of the dotcom crash
open.substack.com
jaykaydee.bsky.social
look at what a good hunter he is!
jaykaydee.bsky.social
cannot help but recall, for me, the instant demobilization of the Obama lists and groups after the inauguration. Millions and millions of people primed to do *something* to rebuild civic democracy after the shame of the Bush II era and... nothing.
jaykaydee.bsky.social
I really love a lot of stuff that now fits this definition but there's almost none of it that I would recommend to a new or new-to-SF reader. Lots has aged poorly and the stuff that actually still hits does so by being VERY weird (e.g., Sturgeon's "More Than Human") and so not beginner-friendly.
scalzi.com
This is why I get so exasperated when people suggest SF written 50+ years ago as the place for new readers of the genre, especially young readers, to start with. There is SO MUCH that will throw them out of the work, from outdated tech to outdated social structures. They'll leave and not come back.
jhammersley.bsky.social
Yup was just gonna comment on this! My kids always notice how outdated computers or other technology seem when I make them rewatch e.g. original Star Wars trilogy rr something
Reposted by Jacob Kramer-Duffield
edeggans.bsky.social
Finally got to write my magnum opus for NPR on why late night TV still matters, charting how it has mattered so much over 60 years of TV history. I also float my theory that key to its continued relevance may be in today's hosts sticking together. READ: https://loom.ly/MZ0a9IE
Media companies thought late night TV was irrelevant. Kimmel proved them wrong
Jimmy Kimmel's return to airwaves might just point the way forward for late night TV to prove its relevance to American audiences — and to itself.
www.npr.org
jaykaydee.bsky.social
Weiss has been panicking about what teens are up to since she was a student at Columbia!!
jaykaydee.bsky.social
The regular features "I have never been fed, ever" and "Actually I am not small but Very Large" really keep covering new ground, it's impressive