Originally published at: The Original Sin of Digital Media Was the Belief That Digital Journalists Were Part of the Tech Business - TPM – Talking Points Memo
I want to begin this introduction to our 25th anniversary essay series by telling you what an exciting and must-read collection it is. Our team has commissioned 25 essays on the history of digital media, which more or less overlaps with the 25 years we’re celebrating here at TPM this year. We solicited contributions from…
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This is a brilliant assessment of the past 20 years in Media, and especially journalism. In my decades in radio (mostly public radio) we always envied that “newspaper money” and worked to be as ubiquitous as the papers in our markets. Now Google, Youtube and Facebook have syphoned off more money out of media markets than the papers ever got, and your grassroots approach is appreciated and sustainable.
Even in public radio, we got very accustomed to growth in advertising/underwriting revenue - and planned the future on that - many colleagues focusing much more on that than donated / subscription relationship-based revenue.
In the next wave of this, being cohesive, agile (small) and based on a community (of interest and or location) looks to be much more achievable than the “hockey stick.” Bunts and singles and good defensive play wins games, too.
Cheers to the TPM crew and its supporters!
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Extraordinarily insightful, as always. I can say (as a media elder), that digital media content providers walked into the same buzz saw that the early TV news professionals hit, that the innovators of FM radio ran into, etc etc. Money does not respect content. Content, and those who generate it, are at best a temporarily necessary pain in the ass…and need to be first controlled and then jettisoned as soon as possible. Ergo, 51% of web content is now AI generated. After 40 years in radio/TV in the US, and consulting internationally for 15+, I learned that almost any role in content generation eventually ends either in tears, or sitting at the end of the bar at closing time asking for one more round (or you join the trolls just to survive). Your diligence and creativity in maintaining the viability of TPM is to be respected for the near miracle it is. Thanks for everything.
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Thanks for this Josh. I’ve been reading you since at least 2001, and supporting TMP from your first fundraiser and membership options. I watched the digital media fall apart, and now feel like I’m watching the end of the journalism I knew.
It’s great to have this resource in these times. You and ProPublica are my two “always support” sites. Here’s to another 25 years.
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At least you’re not seeing the stagnation of the monopolists! The firms that benefited from lock-in, like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and long before them, Microsoft, are technically moribund. They’re actually laying people off in droves, and not because AI can do even vaguely production-worthy code. They just don’t have new services to offer.
That’s also why there’s so much hype around AI - they haven’t had anything else new to show for ages.
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Why pay shareholders dividends with all those monopolistic profits when you can just light the money on fire instead?
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Congratulations on making it to 25!
And with 25 commissioned essays marking this accomplishment and occasion, this will amount to one fine festschrift.
To 25 more successful years!
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Congratulations on your success, I’m looking forward to this series about digital journalism. First-time commenter, but I’m among your “few dozen readers” from the Florida recount and a subscriber since the launch of the membership program. A Gen-Xer, I worked in politics in the late 90’s and subscribed to the American Prospect. Twenty-five years later, I’m an appellate lawyer, and I’ve probably read more of your words than any other person’s. Your writing—assured, direct, not too-fussy—has influenced my own for the better. Your perspective has helped shape my thinking about American politics. I appreciate your unique mix of liberal values, pragmatism, and optimism. Best to you and your excellent, unionized team. Thank you for the years of reporting and commentary, here’s to many more!
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I’ve been reading TPM since I learned of your existence while working on the Al Franken show (2005) as a assistant video editor on the Sundance Channel version of the radio show. I very much enjoy your way of thinking and style of writing. I aspire to ingest multiple points of view to understand our world better, yet rarely have the time to do the deep thinking and analysis of all the information I’m taking in. I see you and TPM as part of my knowledge acquisition and digestion system for the liberal leaning point of view. TPM is smart, thoughtful and honest. What more can I ask for in a human (not AI) new reporting / analyzing organization. Thanks for all you do Josh, especially the hard decision making you needed to do in order to keep TPM strong during the onslaught.
I’m interesting in finding more organizations of your quality that represent other points of view. If anyone has suggestions for conservative and libertarian leaning ones let me know.
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Just another voice to say thank you and congratulations to you and all your past, present, and (hopefully) future colleagues who’ve built TPM into what it is today.
As just a single example of what I’ve gained from this place, I have to note that Josh was the first one who brought my attention to the tRumPutin dynamic, for which I’m eternally grateful.
In the discussion of early internet blogs and culture, I also feel the need to give a posthumous shout out and thanks to Tulsan Terry Coppage, aka BartCop, who I first found early in the 2000 presidential primary season. 
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Thank you for the past 25 years; I believe I found Josh back at the beginning of the Bush administration…. and I’ve been a paying member for years. I appreciate the broader view of politics and explanation of the real exercise of power that I get at TPM (esp. from the “lapsed historian” Josh) — the content is not just gossip and click-bait. I’m a computer engineer from the mid-west, now in New Hampshire, so although I’ve been in engineering development for years it was never in Silicon Valley. I am naturally suspicious of tech-company claims and hype but we all have to deal with it.
And as I write this my phone pinged, and Reuters tells me “US courts set to run out of money, begins furloughs as shutdown lingers” — yeah. And who does this benefit? Yeah Trump ! INSERT PROFANITY HERE.
Anyway here’s to another 25 years at TPM.
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