Nieman Foundation at Harvard
Editor’s note: In this thread, Aram Zucker-Scharff rewinds the recent history of the news industry’s “pivot to video,” as Facebook and Instagram reinvent their feeds to be more video-centric and TikTok-like.
Now that Facebook is pivoting to video again, I thought it might be useful to go over a rough timeline of the on-again-off-again pivots to video over the last 5+ years…
— Aram Zucker-Scharff (@Chronotope) July 27, 2022
Measurement bullshit started immediately because of course it did, this is ad tech we're talking about https://t.co/79MzDrf8jF
— Aram Zucker-Scharff (@Chronotope) July 27, 2022
Everyone keeps predicting Video will become the primary method of consuming the web. It didn't. It hasn't. https://t.co/3chu538O3D
— Aram Zucker-Scharff (@Chronotope) July 27, 2022
Hell, sometimes there aren't even users watching the videos. Or sometimes your videos are being watched, after being ripped off somewhere else https://t.co/7S1y20IAzD
— Aram Zucker-Scharff (@Chronotope) July 27, 2022
"pivot to declining pageviews" https://t.co/44VCu2lyOl
— Aram Zucker-Scharff (@Chronotope) July 27, 2022
We keep forgetting the lessons of Own Your Platform when it comes to video – https://t.co/MAyJwbhIf5
— Aram Zucker-Scharff (@Chronotope) July 27, 2022
Remember, the bumps in CPM only last for as long as video is rare. When video supply goes up… CPMs go down. "One publisher said its Facebook-monetized videos had an average CPM of 15 cents." https://t.co/ThBFlMxnkr
— Aram Zucker-Scharff (@Chronotope) July 27, 2022
"There is no evidence consumers want more video, and video production is expensive, logistically difficult, and hard to scale" https://t.co/rSMjk5CbT3
— Aram Zucker-Scharff (@Chronotope) July 27, 2022
Oops actually the video view stats were *even worse* then the mistaken correction Facebook gave indicated. https://t.co/UBXYSfBfsD
— Aram Zucker-Scharff (@Chronotope) July 27, 2022
It's always journalism that gets sacrificed on the alter of video metrics fakery and BS. https://t.co/PsJgP44xv3
— Aram Zucker-Scharff (@Chronotope) July 27, 2022
And the platforms keep BSing each other into bigger and bigger changes towards video without even their own stats being right, to massive and usually terrible effect. https://t.co/tVKgOpT3xW
— Aram Zucker-Scharff (@Chronotope) July 27, 2022
The people who do the work who get punished in these high stress, heavy workload pivots. "Resources were reallocated to video stuff that no one really wanted, and people lost their jobs … Multiple websites pivoted themselves … out of existence" https://t.co/ryvEY7GEJy
— Aram Zucker-Scharff (@Chronotope) July 27, 2022
But of course the advertisers are just as bad at learning as the publishers. https://t.co/D8J693vAU8
— Aram Zucker-Scharff (@Chronotope) July 27, 2022
But no one fixes the actual problems of course. https://t.co/XWGXriftXE
— Aram Zucker-Scharff (@Chronotope) July 27, 2022
to today: https://t.co/S9N6ZPvcBS
— Aram Zucker-Scharff (@Chronotope) July 27, 2022
So yeah, I guess you could say I remain salty too! https://t.co/w8G8Ji8pDy
— Aram Zucker-Scharff (@Chronotope) July 27, 2022
The media industry never learns. https://t.co/mBM2561onD
— Aram Zucker-Scharff (@Chronotope) July 27, 2022
