This is not the book I thought it would be.
And I don't advise you read it. I don't see why anybody would read it. I thought it would be an insight into virality, how something spreads in today's marketplace. Instead, it's a history of virality, from Nick Denton and Gawker to the Huffington Post to BuzzFeed. Who's interested in that?
This is why writing books is so messed up. Everybody involved is so myopic and stupid. This is not household names, this is people mostly from Silicon Alley, the New York City answer to Silicon Valley. And unless you're one of them, you'll have no interest. And if you are one of them, you know everything already, why would you need to read it in a book?
Ben Smith worked for Politico, then BuzzFeed and the "New York Times" and now he runs the newsletter/events company Semafor. Reading this book I can only feel worse about him. He's a detailer of facts, not a deep thinker. He's addicted to Twitter. This is not someone who moves mountains, he is a cog in the machine. And he admits he missed it, that everybody from Jonah Peretti to the rest of the tech titans missed it. Because ultimately virality didn't pay.
The goal here is so empty. Jonah Peretti wants virality for the traffic, for the advertising, for the money, it's just that simple. And Nick Denton before him. If it bleeds, it leads. There are no limits to what is posted. But then Facebook will change its algorithm and philosophy and...BuzzFeed will have a meeting with Facebook to plead its case, to get featured as much as it used to. So? I mean at least in the music business there's music involved, art. This is a pure money play. For almost all of them. All those scumbags who are spamming your inbox 24/7, this is the same damn thing, only these guys, and they're almost all guys, don't live in Russia and are findable. Disillusions you when it comes to business. Money is everything? This is what the best and brightest care about?
And all those headlines you see about sales on Amazon and elsewhere, they're all over BuzzFeed and other sites. I mean I always scratch my head, because the discounts are so low, 10% off, whoopee! Well, since virality pays so poorly, because advertisers pay less for traffic, these sites have resorted to affiliate fees to make their money. They hope you'll click through and buy and then they can get their pennies from Amazon. It's kind of a scam.
Smith starts the BuzzFeed news operation. But mostly it's amplifying what is already out there, or posting something that more traditional outlets are afraid to, like the Steele dossier.
So then Smith goes to the "New York Times"...
That's the big story in the book, how the "Times" is the ultimate winner and all these sites based on advertising failed. The "Times" charged for news, they went to a subscription model and made beaucoup profits, are no longer totally dependent on a fading advertising market. And the "Times" even diversified, into cooking and puzzle apps and...you pay for all of them.
So if you've been following the news, you know that BuzzFeed just killed its news division. But is that in this book? Of course not, because the ancient publishing industry needs lead time, to print all these dead tree tomes. Oh, you can update the digital version instantly, but the physical books? They're out of date from the moment they're printed. The web is about living and breathing stories. "Traffic" is about a story set in amber, the rearview mirror, it'd be like writing about Napster today, then again, Napster is a hell of a lot more interesting and led to a bigger upheaval than these bros trying to tweak brain dead stories for virality.
So Smith ended up at the "Times" himself. In the old David Carr role.
But Carr was a reporter, and he didn't see the "Times" as a waystation on the journey to hoped riches, being a reporter was enough.
And Smith's "Times" stories were good, mostly about what his contacts were into, and then he quit and started Semafor.
So how is Semafor gonna make it? EVENTS!
God, there are not enough people to go to all of the events proffered.
The red hot Pivot crew, Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway, held a conference in Florida and...they lost money.
I mean if you can't get in for free to these confabs, you're the sucker. Mostly it's wannabes, believing they're going to get to hang with the names, which doesn't happen. You do get to meet like-minded people on the way up, but...
These things have a shelf life.
Like Summit at Sea, happening imminently, next week in fact.
Well, a couple of weeks past they said registration was gonna close. But now I keep getting e-mails that it's open. Turns out not enough people want to go. It's expensive, and what are the dividends? If you're charging a high price either the entertainment has to be really damn good or the networking has to be worth it, and it almost never is. Furthermore, you can't do it all, you can't stay up all night partying and then go to hear the names speak. You've got to choose. And the best and the brightest don't go to the speeches at all. Just like the rest of the world, it's a two class system, them and us. And believe me, they don't want to give the great unwashed access, their time is too valuable. The smart ones will be nice if you buttonhole them, but for a very brief moment. It's not their job to lift you up, to get you a gig, that's your job, and that's really damn hard.
So does anybody care about the details of people trying to game the system to make bread via a paradigm that's already history? Do you think you can sell a book about last year's Little League season?
And this guy took all of this time to write this book? All those hours? Sure, he got an advance, but it won't sell, and to earn back the advance there's got to be good word of mouth. And sure, all the inside people Ben Smith knows will blurb for their friend, it's an inside job, but you've got to interest those outside and believe me, no one else cares.
Now a blog about what exactly is happening today? That'd be great. But Smith isn't selling distance, perspective, Semafor is all news, what is happening now. What it all means? Well, if you're at dinner with Smith I'm sure the first thing he'll mention is the money, then the collegiality, making a difference, moving the culture? That's way down the line, not to mention the target keeps moving.
The facts, they're easily garnered. Just Google a news event, there are zillions of hits, even from publications in India! But someone who can make sense of it all? Where is the perspective on AI? Mostly it's just hysteria, to the point where the hoi polloi are talking about it and they've got no clue. Where's the seer drilling down into the weeds, making it clear, revealing the thoughts of those involved while having no skin in the game? That's hard to find, because everybody is trying to make a buck.
So if you're a scam artist, maybe you should check out "Traffic." Otherwise, FORGET IT!
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