Online publishing is not for the faint-hearted. At the whim of big tech algorithms driven by unfathomable AI, you go to bed each night knowing that you may not have a business in the morning.
Many come to online publishing because they have a genuine interest in a specific subject. Passionate about their area of expertise, they may start by using social media to express their views and opinions. From there, they might progress to running a blog, freelancing for others in the same field, and eventually starting their own website. They are finally an online publisher. And that’s when the fun really begins.
At first, it goes really well. You start getting solid referrals from social media, and Google begins to rank your content. You find a decent adtech partner to start earning money from online advertising, and then expand by hiring friends and other like-minded individuals. Before long, you have a thriving business. You’ve made it! What could possibly go wrong?
Well, pretty quickly, reality kicks in. First, much of that social media traffic dries up. Why? You have no idea. As a small player, you have no direct access to advisers at any of the big tech platforms. You send a few emails to addresses you’ve found randomly on the internet and search for any social media editorial guidelines you can locate. Finally, you try a few chat forums – perhaps there are others like you, other small publishers who have been through this before.
And that’s when it hits you: the big social media platforms have been busy changing their algorithms. They no longer want to link out to lots of publishers; instead, they want as much reader engagement as possible happening on their own platforms. Organic referrals from social media are now close to zero.
But at least you still have Google, right? Well, maybe not. Until about a year ago, you had never heard of a Google core algorithm update. Now you dread them, as each one (and there are four or five a year) results in fewer Google referrals, sending your traffic into a steep decline.
You begin to lose money. The future of the roles you’ve created for your friends becomes uncertain, and you find yourself using savings to support the website. Sleep becomes harder to come by, with a growing pressure of trying to find a way to turn things around.
It’s so frustrating because you feel like you’ve done everything right. You’ve followed Google’s advice and guidance (the bits you found online), created what you believe is good-quality content, and made significant improvements to your website’s look and feel. Yet your traffic crashes with every core update. Then AI comes along and swallows up even more of your traffic.
But who do you turn to now? There’s no one at Google to talk to, you can’t afford to hire an SEO professional, and your adtech partner, once eager to work with you when you were profitable, is now of little help.
In the end, you have to face reality. You lack the skills, experience, or resources to stay in business. You own just one website, and all your eggs are in that one basket. You’ll have to close down or sell—if you can even find a buyer willing to offer a halfway decent price. Your dream is over. It all seems so unfair, but you gave it your best shot. It was (mostly) fun while it lasted.
But you can’t help wondering: why would anyone want to enter this industry nowadays? The barriers to success are enormous, and the resources required to survive are significant. And you can’t help thinking, are we witnessing in real time the death of the small independent online publisher?
Ask any smaller publisher and they will tell you that there are numerous challenges and headwinds; it’s a slog just to survive. Many feel that the future is in the hands of big publishers with huge resources.
It would be good to end this article on a positive note, but this is not a Disney movie. Unfortunately, for many, there appears to be no happy ending in sight.
Vic Daniels is the executive chairman and co-founder of GRV Media, one of Europe’s largest online sports media businesses. The company was formed 23 years ago and is now home to 140 employees and content creators, including a dedicated SEO team of 20 people.
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