build/news-websites-are-dumpster-fires/index.html


1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
	<meta charset="utf-8">
	<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
	<meta name="color-scheme" content="dark light">
	<link rel="icon" href="data:,">
	<title>News Websites Are Dumpster Fires</title>
	<link href="/atom.xml" type="application/atom+xml" rel="alternate" title="Atom feed for blog posts" />
	<link href="/rss.xml" type="application/rss+xml" rel="alternate" title="RSS feed for blog posts" />
<style>*{box-sizing:border-box;}body{font-family:sans-serif;line-height:1.33;margin:0 auto;max-width:650px;padding:1rem;}blockquote{background:rgba(0,0,0,0.1);border-left:4px solid;padding-left:5px;}img{max-width:100%;}pre{border:1px solid;overflow:auto;padding:5px;}table{text-align:left;width:100%;}.footnotes{font-size:90%;}</style>
</head>

<nav>
	<a href="#menu">Menu &darr;</a>
</nav>

<main>
<h1 id="news-websites-are-dumpster-fires">News Websites Are Dumpster Fires</h1>
<p>2019-05-29</p>
<p>Online news outlets are a dying breed and many users have decided to consume information elsewhere. Why? Because the news industry has become a cesspool of anti-consumer and blackhat practices that has eroded trust for the sake of money.</p>
<h2 id="what-news-sites-get-wrong">What news sites get wrong</h2>
<p>I could write up an entire essay about all the shady practices that <em>most</em> news sites are guilty of, but here are just a few top level issues:</p>
<ul>
<li>Clickbait headings with misleading information</li>
<li>Disabling the user from reading if ad-block is present</li>
<li>Tracking the user with 3rd party scripts</li>
<li>Taking massive performance hits (specifically on mobile due to huge JavaScript blocks)</li>
<li>Pop-up ads</li>
<li>Fixed headers or footers which leads to harder readability &#47; accidental element interactions</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="but-they-need-ad-revenue">But they need ad revenue!</h2>
<p>If your business is solely dependent on tracking scripts, tricking users with clickbait titles and using archaic ads - then you&#8217;re destined to fail regardless. These practices create an unsafe and unhealthy web for everyday users - not to mention most browsers have announced that future updates <a href="https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/content-blocking">will be blocking ads by default</a>. <em>News outlets need to adapt or die</em>.</p>
<h2 id="whats-the-solution">What&#8217;s the solution?</h2>
<p>I don&#8217;t have a <em>fix all</em> band-aid to replace current revenue streams for news websites. I&#8217;m sure someone much smarter than I can come up with better ideas, but just off the top of my head:</p>
<ul>
<li>Switch over to a monthly subscription plan (if no one pays for it maybe you weren&#8217;t as useful of a source as you thought)</li>
<li>Partner with brands to create sponsored articles (without ruining the user experience of course)</li>
<li>Place a larger emphasis on user donations or promotions</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="the-news-shouldnt-be-spam">The News Shouldn&#8217;t be Spam</h2>
<p>Most traffic flowing into news websites are there for one thing: <em>the content</em>. News outlets should not be spamming their main revenue supply (<strong>the users</strong>) or misleading people with false information.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re a regular consumer of news and you happen to run across a platform that is guilty of any of these practices, shoot them an email explaining why you won&#8217;t be returning to their website (unless they change their ways). These anti-consumer practices will only stop when these organizations start losing money.</p>
<footer role="contentinfo">
    <h2>Menu Navigation</h2>
    <ul id="menu">
        <li><a href="/">Home</a></li>
        <li><a href="/projects">Projects</a></li>
        <li><a href="/uses">Uses</a></li>
        <li><a href="/wiki">Wiki</a></li>
        <li><a href="/resume">Resume</a></li>
        <li><a href="/colophon">Colophon</a></li>
        <li><a href="/now">Now</a></li>
        <li><a href="/donate">Donate</a></li>
        <li><a href="/atom.xml">RSS</a></li>
        <li><a href="#top">&uarr; Top of the page</a></li>
    </ul>
    <small>
        Built with <a href="https://barf.btxx.org">barf</a>. <br>
        Feeds: <a href="/atom.xml">Atom</a> & <a href="/rss.xml">RSS</a><br>
        Maintained with ♥ for the web. <br>
        Proud supporter of <a href="https://usefathom.com/ref/DKHJVX">Fathom</a> &amp; <a href="https://nextdns.io/?from=74d3p3h8">NextDNS</a>. <br>
        The content for this site is <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">CC-BY-SA</a>.<br> The <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~bt/bt.ht">code for this site</a> is <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~bt/bt.ht/tree/master/item/LICENSE">MIT</a>.
    </small>
</footer>