Tech Policy Press - It’s Time to Acknowledge Big Tech Was Always at Odds with Journalism

Reporter Karina Montoya amplifies the contrast of lay offs and persistence between that of digital media platforms, such as BuzzFeed, and Big Tech corporations .

This year will be one of the bloodiest for digital media. BuzzFeed News is shutting down, following several layoffs at Vox Media, Insider, NBC News, Gannett, and CNN announced in the first quarter. As I write this article, the New York Times broke the news that VICE is preparing to file for bankruptcy.

Of course, tech firms such as Google and Facebook are also reducing headcounts. But first quarter earnings for those two tech giants, which beat market estimates and made their stocks soar, sent a clear message to investors: Big Tech corporations may be getting rid of some people here and there, but that doesn’t mean they are failing. They have, in fact, plenty of wiggle room to continue business as usual.

This sharp contrast between the tech behemoths and digital news media companies should help us recast the last 15 years of journalism in a new light, one that can help us see that market consolidation in the tech industry impacted journalism in ways we had not seen before. 

Perhaps, through this lens, we will be able to move on from the idea that the interests of a tech industry that wanted to grow big and fast were ever going to preserve journalism in the digital world — if that world was ultimately going to be run by a handful of market players with both infinite money and access to personal data. 

Read full article here.