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Extra! Extra! Social Media Says ‘Bye-Bye’ To The News?

It’s not just Canada that is dealing with the news business.

Axios is reporting that, Social Media Traffic To Top News Sites Craters.
The situation: “Traffic referrals to the top global news sites from Meta‘s Facebook and X, formerly Twitter, has collapsed over the past year, according to data from Similarweb… Website business models that depended on clicks from social media are now broken… Meanwhile, news companies are scrambling to find business solutions while simultaneously fighting to protect their work in the AI era.”
And, even though Google has agreed to cough up about $100 million in Canada for the Online News Act, it seems like Facebook won’t be allowing links or news organizations to share content on the social networking platform any time soon.
So, while the rest of the world is trying to understand why this is the case outside of Canada, behind the scenes many of the tech giants have reconciled that news, simply put, isn’t worth it.

How is news not worth it?

Anything related to free speech and democracy saw the tech giants being blamed. If they continue to throttle the amount of news being shared on their platforms, who will the other media outlets blame in the upcoming elections?
The less news on social media, the less likely there is to be a spread of misinformation.
Brands with significant advertising dollars want “brand safety” and often won’t advertise next to news.
Content from politicians speaking directly (on social media) to their audience seems to be an easier path forward for these social media channels.
Social media platforms don’t have to defend what a link is, what sharing news items means, and more to traditional publishers regarding intellectual property and copyright.

But, more importantly…

Social media platforms are indicating that their users are happier without news and the conversations around it.
Social media platforms are indicating that their users are spending more time online, which indicates that the lack of traffic caused by the news is not impacting time spent on the platform.
Social media platforms are indicating that their users who click on news links only to leave the social networking platform to be confronted with a paywall is not a great user experience.

So, what does this mean for democracy and the future of news?

There’s much more to it…

This, and other current topics were discussed along with Saul Colt (The Idea Integration Company), Jonathan Sackett (NEI) and host Bob Knorpp (always a good human) on the very excellent BeanCast Podcast (which I’ve been fortunate to be a guest on in the past). I don’t know what it is about BeanCast, Bob Knorpp and these other panelists, but there is always “something in the water” when we record these conversations that brings out a lot of stimulating ideas and insights (and some friendly disagreements too!).

Are you ready for this deep dive into the world of media and marketing? Here is: BeanCast #729 – The Election is Coming.

For about an hour, we discussed and debated the following topics:

Take a listen and jump into the fray…

Mitch Joel · BeanCast #729 – The Election Is Coming

Before you go… ThinkersOne is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.