Comment by legitster | Hacker News Reader

Comment by legitster | Hacker News Reader

> “We see how Google is degrading in quality. We see how AI content mills are digesting our stories and gaming the system to get more views than our original reporting they’re ripping off,”

The irony is that 404 Media does almost none of their own reporting. The vast majority of their content is just rehashes of other articles with a strong layer of commentary and a sensationalist headline.

> “Our goal is to find niche communities and see what they care about, what they’re happy and excited about, and what they’re really upset about,” Koebler said.

This is a return to the original newsjacking model that powered blogs for so long, but it's kind of disingenuous to claim that they are pulling themselves up on their own bootstraps when they are really growth hacking off of prior work and communities.

This is false.

I'm just going off of the stuff that I see hitting HN regularly:

https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=404media.co

There are a few investigate pieces behind paywalls, but it doesn't look like that's what's paying the bills.

This does not reinforce what OP originally claimed.

> This is a return to the original newsjacking model that powered blogs for so long, but it's kind of disingenuous to claim that they are pulling themselves up on their own bootstraps when they are really growth hacking off of prior work and communities

What the heck do you think journalism is exactly?

You go out to people and you talk to them. You write about stuff. Investigating a niche community and writing about it would be what is called "Human Interest Journalism"

I'm seriously not sure what your gripe is here.

Well, traditionally journalism relied on a strong network of bureaus, editors, and beat reporters. That model did not survive the internet and became way too expensive in an era when "information is free". Our idea that bloggers are journalists is kind of like a shift to microwave dinners being considered meals.

They are just as much selling these stories to the communities as they are reporting on them. They'll find what topics are pushing people's buttons the most, they will write an article about how much it pushes their buttons, and then ride on a wave of attention from that community. It's more growth hacking than it is journalism.

My only gripe is that they call out others for the exact same kind of behavior they engage in.

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