It's Been a Minute

The influencer era is dead. What's next?

Attention is just like a supply and demand business. At some point, there is going to be too much supply. And so, what we're seeing is a lot of these lifestyle influencers that, you know, 5, 10 years ago would have, you know, you know, with enough consistency, if they post something that looks aspirational and cool enough, people will find their audience. But now that kind of everyone has to be everything to everyone and everyone has to be reaching new For You pages all the time on every single platform, what worked 5 years ago is not working anymore.

Decoder with Nilay Patel

It's about ethics in journalism, with Ben Smith

In journalism, I have a lot of conviction that great stories aren't going anywhere. The need for high-quality insight isn't going anywhere. Great reporters aren't going anywhere. What surface this all lives on is up for grabs, and you can't be too ideological about that.

Decoder with Nilay Patel

It's about ethics in journalism, with Ben Smith

After all, I've been saying for a long time now that the original sin of digital media was Jonah and BuzzFeed betting they could so consistently go viral that platforms like Facebook would pay them for content — the way cable companies pay carriage fees for channels like ESPN. This was the big bet for a lot of companies all chasing BuzzFeed's influence and valuation, and it's mostly all come crashing down.