Where Has Smaller and Alternative News Content Gone? Big Tech Has Monopolized the Web | Martha Rosenberg

While the Web began egalitarian––everyone could have their “say”–– today news sites and writers and reporters realize corporate America has taken it over.

Specifically, the news and information sites many loved have been swallowed up by Big Tech––Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft––and their algorithms.

If you can find smaller sites you once loved today they are behind a paywall, swamped by clickbait, swamped by “donate” appeals or all three. (Who remembers when content was ad-free when you subscribed?)

It’s not their fault. Once reputable sites would not accept an ad––or, gulp, infomercial––for a magic treatment that cured aging, pain, wrinkles, ED, arthritis and indigestion, all in one. Nor would they allow clickbait like “Watch! Flight Attendant Wets Pants” or “Look At This Former Child Star and Try Not to Gasp.” But that’s before Big Tech appropriated the advertising of many, even most, online entities. 

In fact, the same advertiser hemorrhage that hit print journalism when the Web debuted years ago is now sacking valuable online outlets and news sites before our very eyes.

According to the Harvard Business Review, competing with the Big Tech Five––Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft––can seem virtually impossible. “Meta, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, has 3.5 billion users across its networks,” says their 2022 story. “More than 50% of global online ad spending goes through Meta or Alphabet.” The Big Five earned more than $1 trillion in 2020 says the business review. 

How bad is the ad usurpation? Several of my editors have told me that Big Tech has gutted their advertising to the point that their site has become essentially a volunteer operation. 

Twenty years ago the Web was a blessing for writers and reporters because the process was almost instantaneous; there was no longer a wait time between submitting a story to a national magazine through snail mail, having it accepted and being paid “on publication.”

The Web was also a boon for writers because additional "content" was needed, often quickly. (Yes, writing devolved into “content.”)

Of course, the Web had downsides for writers too. While it launched self-publishing, it also launched publication coache$ teaching someone to be "their own brand" and an avalanche of memoirs-cum-diaries about “Wacky Uncle Harry.” (See: Vanity publishing) 

In fact, the readers that writers wanted were often writing their own book––bringing to mind the old joke about this exchange between two colleagues: "But let’s talk about you! What did you think of my latest book?"

Another Web downside was that real publishers began requiring that authors do their own publicity and supply their own readers. ("So what do we need them for?" asked my fellow writer.)

And, of course there were payment issues, thanks to AI. One my colleagues recently spent three days covering a news story for a printed newspaper––which included two interviews, two rewrites and travel––and was paid $85 for all three days.

But what about monetized blogs that the Web enabled? They often amount to tautological “preaching to the choir” some say: Of course, the set of all people who like your work, like your work!

They also are often communication silos which is especially frustrating to writers seeking social and institutional reform as opposed to friends or likes. Sadly, making a difference usually requires the help of legacy media which is now dominated by Big Tech and has shut so many out. 

(Author: Martha Rosenberg is an investigative health reporter. She is the author of Born With A Junk Food Deficiency: How Flaks, Quacks and Hacks Pimp The Public Health (Prometheus).)