Re:ViralNova acquired for $100M, while The Dissolve shuts down
by camillomiller on Sunday July 12, 2015 @04:12AM
(#9872880)
I agree. This is, unfortunately, the biggest point old media have been delusional about.
We might also add that the way old media tried to stick to old ways of displaying advertising has contributed to fuel the current status quo of Internet Advertising. It was their model that pretended to make every pair of eyeballs equal, now they pretend that they shouldn't be when it comes to content quality...
It's obvious that the current page views based model of Advertising is going towards self annihilation. In the meantime you can still exploit it with explosive growth and cash in on that, like viral nova did in just 2 years.
That is, to me, the core problem in the article. It seems to suggest that Dissolve deserved to be given money since other less worthy sites are being acquired for millions.
That's not how the Internet works. The 20th century "highbrow" journalist enjoyed a certain income because he had a monopoly on access to media. A widely read newspaper only needed one film critic. But on the Web, any group of people can start a site like Dissolve.
It's not a special privilege reserved to media elite, and that seems to annoy the author: Dissolve had "Pitchfork credentials", which apparently implies that it would have deserved financial success based on that association.