[This is the second installment of a serial article that is being gathered here. -D ]
In the beginning, there was Microsoft promising a computer in every living room, and AOL promising to make the Internet as prevalent as the television or telephone. And that happened.
Before the advent of the popular World Wide Web, online communities were already thriving in various forms, sprouting grotesque new limbs and eyestalks. Bulletin board services (BBS), Usenet newsgroups, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), and multi-user dimensions (MUDs) provided early platforms for people to connect, communicate, share information, share misinformation, and be horrible to each other online.
The launch of the Mosaic web browser in 1993 was a big day in the history of the internet. As the first “graphical” web browser, Mosaic made the internet more accessible and user-friendly, paving the way for the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web.
(That’s the generally accepted story. Those of us who were working tech support around then would argue that, for most people, the ability to click something did not make it accessible or user-friendly.)
The release of Netscape Navigator, a commercially-produced browser, followed shortly after in 1994. By the turn of the millennium, more than half of American adults were "internet users," according to the Pew Research Center, though it’s likely that many of those were AOL or MSN users and not doing a lot of “web surfing.”
The early 2000s saw the emergence of the “social media platforms” on the web. Myspace, launched in 2003, and Facebook, launched in 2004, quickly gained popularity, attracting millions of users worldwide. By 2008, Facebook had surpassed 100 million active users, far outpacing the subscriberships of traditional internet service providers like America Online (AOL) and Microsoft Network (MSN), which had peaked at 26.7 million users in 2002 and 9 million users in 2001, respectively.
Alongside the rise of social media, platforms like Geocities (1994), SHOUTcast (1998), and YouTube (2005) emerged, enabling user-generated content at an unprecedented scale. These platforms “democratized content creation,” allowing anyone with an internet connection to share their ideas, creativity, and passions with a global audience. They also, it must be said, allowed for whole new ways to violate copyrights and decency laws.
The launch of iTunes in 2003 and Spotify in 2008 further disrupted the media landscape, helping the transformation of how people found their music.
The rise of smartphones and mobile apps added another layer of complexity to the already rapidly evolving media landscape. The widespread adoption of mobile devices provided people with constant access to the internet and social media, further accelerating the shift towards digital content consumption. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram capitalized on this trend, developing mobile-first experiences that kept users engaged and connected on the go.
By 2008, media giants were very much off-balance. The seismic disruption was fundamentally altering the way content was created, distributed, and consumed, challenging the now so-called “traditional” media outlets to adapt - or risk becoming obsolete.
(That up there is what we call foreshadowing.)
Television and cinema faced declining and distracted audiences as viewers increasingly turned to streaming services and online platforms for their entertainment needs. The rise of binge-watching and on-demand content consumption, facilitated by services like Netflix and Hulu, forced traditional broadcasters and film studios to rethink everything from their production approach to their distribution strategies.
The print industry, meanwhile, found itself in an even more dizzying position. As readers migrated online and print advertising revenues plummeted, newspapers and magazines struggled to adapt to the new, digital, reality. Once-unshakable publications, including prestigious newspapers, trade magazines, and niche titles, found themselves competing with blogs, social media influencers, and other user-generated content for audience attention and advertising dollars.
The rise of digital advertising platforms, such as those from Google and Facebook, further compounded the challenges faced by the “traditional” media. These platforms offered advertisers unprecedented ability to target ads, based on user data and behavioral tracking, allowing for highly precise and cost-effective campaigns. Almost overnight, advertisers took their budgets away from traditional broadcast TV and print publications (which relied on costly blanket campaigns to reach broad audiences) and spent their dollars on digital platforms that promised both more measurable results and higher returns on investment.
The economic impact of this shift was unprecedented. The News Media Alliance said that "for every $1 lost in print advertising, publications were making only about $0.14 in digital advertising," highlighting the unsettling disparity between the declining revenues of traditional media and the growing dominance of digital platforms. Television networks, too, struggled to adapt, investing heavily in their own streaming platforms, data analytics capabilities, and digital ad sales operations in an attempt to recapture the audiences and ad revenue being siphoned away by digital players.
The disruption wrought by the digital revolution had far-reaching consequences for the media industry and its workforce. In the US newspaper industry alone, an estimated 60% of jobs were eliminated between 1990 and 2016, dropping from around 456,000 employees to just 183,000, according to the Pew Research Center. While the tech and internet sectors experienced explosive job growth, adding over 400,000 new roles from 2010 to 2018, many of the skills required for these positions did not transfer easily from traditional media.
The big-picture economic impact of the digital revolution on the media industry was equally jarring. Newspaper advertising revenue in the United States dropped by over 60% between 2005 and 2020, falling from $49 billion to under $20 billion annually, as reported by the Pew Research Center. Meanwhile, digital advertising spending in the US surpassed traditional ad channels for the first time in 2019, reaching a staggering $109 billion, according to eMarketer.
But that’s all ancient history. Right?