Web2 Media Is Broken. The Future of Media Is Tokenized.

“We want extra attain.” 

“This may get numerous clicks.”

“The shopper received’t be pleased with these numbers.”   

We’ve heard these narratives nonstop since our media careers started greater than 15 years in the past. They’re thought patterns which have been normalized in newsrooms and advert businesses internationally. 

And that is only the start of the problems with the present state of media. 

The reality is that this: Web2 media is damaged.

The normal fashions and methods of doing issues in media simply don’t work anymore. This conduct didn’t come out of the blue. So how did we get right here? 

With the rise of social media, the site visitors floodgates opened to media web sites. Media firms noticed an unprecedented explosion of attain because of these platforms and have become hooked on this site visitors, which helped gasoline the rise of programmatic promoting. That is the expertise that powers these annoying banner advertisements in your favourite media web sites, from The New York Occasions to YouTube. The extra individuals go to your web site, the extra impressions the advert will get, and the extra the platform will get paid. 

Humorous sufficient, the very platforms that fueled this enterprise mannequin ended up altering their algorithms after seeing how a lot income they have been permitting to depart their ecosystem by encouraging customers to click on away from Fb or Twitter onto a separate writer web site. So in 2015, Fb’s infamous algorithm change decimated the site visitors sources for tons of of media firms to maintain extra of their site visitors within Fb. As a consequence of declining income, some media properties even went out of enterprise.

We all know this as a result of we’ve lived it. As Editor-In-Chief of SPIN, Matt noticed firsthand how site visitors doesn’t equate to income when the publication was compelled to endure layoffs regardless of exceeding development targets. As Director of Innovation and Tradition at Elite Each day, Alejandro noticed how the publication rode Fb site visitors to a sale to Each day Mail just for site visitors to considerably decline after the algorithm change.

As media firms prioritized viewers scale over high quality and optimized for algorithmic platforms like Fb and Google, there have been a variety of alarming developments.

First, media platforms discovered themselves locked in a clickbait race to the underside. As algorithms rewarded sensationalist headlines and fast set off fingers, the standard of protection declined. The race to be first to a narrative additionally produced public embarrassments for main media manufacturers who needed to retract factually inaccurate reporting. As credibility eroded, public belief in media reached an all-time low. 

Second, individuals turned the product. Programmatic promoting lowered us to eyeballs to be monetized and discarded. Within the eyes of publishers, there was no distinction made between the standard and the amount of an viewers. Put merely, we have been all diminished to a single metric: site visitors. By advantage of working at social media firms, the brightest minds in Silicon Valley ended up constructing an promoting optimization machine, the likes of which had by no means been seen earlier than. Because of this, publishers started prioritizing their advertisers over their audiences.

Third, as publishers and platforms optimized for promoting income, they started to assault our privateness. Platforms started to trace customers throughout the net with out their specific consent in an effort to promote extra advertisements – although technically, customers consented by accepting the all-too obscure and legally verbose “phrases and situations.”

The rise of monitoring customers utilizing pixels and cookies invited privateness violations throughout the net. Platforms might now monitor customers’ each transfer, click on, and keystroke, even past their very own web site, to serve them “higher” advertisements.

Expertise has all the time pushed storytelling ahead. The Gutenberg printing press catalyzed the data revolution. The invention of the web compelled print publications to turn out to be digital. The rise of the smartphone moved digital media to embrace cell. Web3 expertise is of the identical caliber. And with it, we’ve the possibility to construct one thing higher. 

Centered on an ecosystem of expertise merchandise which can be decentralized, trustless, permissionless, and interoperable, Web3 applied sciences have the ability to create fairer fashions that profit everybody. They return possession to customers, bypass the gatekeepers that management conventional media and social platforms, and permit creators and their communities to share within the worth they create.

However considerably, this tokenized revolution is not going to solely change how tales are created and consumed, it additionally has the ability to basically redefine relationships which have been cemented for hundreds of years. This expertise can truly assist us foster the deeper and extra significant human relationships we wish. This comes right down to the distinction between viewers and group.

Your viewers is conscious that you simply exist. They could acknowledge your model and see you of their social feeds. They could even attend your occasions or purchase your merchandise. However finally, there’s a restrict to their participation, and they’re largely on the receiving finish of the content material you produce. As protection turned extra homogenous to take advantage of algorithms, media manufacturers turned interchangeable, such that readers have little incentive to decide on one over one other. In web2, shoppers turned loyal to the headline, not the model. 

In distinction, group desires to win collectively. And in web3, most of the time, they really have a literal stake in doing so. By aligning incentives and rewarding participation by decentralizing possession and governance, communities are the prime drivers of worth creation.

In web3, digital possession is entrance and heart. For the primary time for the reason that origins of the web, the blockchain permits for root possession. Now media firms and creators can construct group in a digital asset financial system as an finish in itself and monetize instantly by sharing within the worth that they create.

We envision a future the place digital publishers liberate themselves from the senseless tyranny of clicks, pageviews, and CPMs. Customers will not be the product being bought in antiquated and exploitative programs; they are going to be lively companions and homeowners within the content material and experiences being created.

Introducing the Now Community

Due to these experiences, we needed to do issues otherwise from day one. For those who go to nftnow.com, you’ll discover there are not any banner advertisements. We refused to implement programmatic promoting due to the misaligned incentives it creates to prioritize advertisers over customers, sensationalize protection, and violate customers’ privateness. We imagine that media firms shouldn’t serve you advertisements; they need to serve you alternatives. 

We additionally refused to incorporate any pixels and cookies to trace our customers. Ideas like consent matter extra to us. We imagine privateness is a elementary human proper and must be revered throughout the web.

The Now Community is our subsequent step in pioneering a community-centric media mannequin and constructing a creator-friendly future. The Now Go is the important thing that unlocks that door. You’ll be able to be taught extra in regards to the particulars and mechanics at nowpass.xyz.

Right here’s how the Now Community will start to share the worth being created with our membership group.

Tremendous-serving our group with unique content material and entry

From early entry to data and insights to curated non-public chats the place you possibly can join with specialists and different builders in your trade, the Now Community will give you the instruments it’s good to succeed alongside insider entry to web3’s main minds.

Now Go holders can even be eligible for unique entry to our acclaimed IRL and digital occasions, together with our tentpole occasions The Gateway, NFT100, and nft now presents, alongside our satellite tv for pc occasions round Artwork Basel Miami, NFT NYC, Frieze LA, ETH Denver, Faena Rose Miami, Jackson Gap, and lots of extra.

Growing retention and rewarding participation

We imagine media must be greater than a one-way avenue. With the Now Go, group members might be incentivized to have interaction with content material and supply suggestions via our reward mechanisms. By realigning incentives and reimagining how a writer can create and share worth in a web3 context, we’ll encourage deeper, extra genuine connections and a larger sense of loyalty.

Decentralizing content material creation and curation

We would like our group to turn out to be co-creators within the tales being informed. The Now Community is our first step in direction of progressive decentralization. We imagine it will create a extra inclusive and clear ecosystem to incubate concepts and uplift new voices. We’ll be transitioning a few of our hottest content material sequence (ex., Subsequent Up) to a community-curated Token Curated Registries (TCR) mannequin with on-chain voting that empowers our group members to have a say in who and what will get lined.

That is solely the start

The Now Community might be constructed over time, not in a single day. We’re being intentional and taking our time to create one thing sustainable. It is a first step — a basis for all of our initiatives in constructing the way forward for tokenized media. We could not all the time get all the things proper – and that’s okay. Experimentation is a crucial a part of pioneering a brand new paradigm. However our dedication to this house is long-term, so we’ll construct in public over the approaching months, years, and a long time. We invite you to affix us in studying, rising, and co-creating this future collectively.

You’re greater than a pageview. It’s time to alter the connection between publishers and their communities.

Sincerely, 

Matt Medved & Alejandro NaviaCo-Founders of nft now