Having seen the web grow from something used by the savvy minority to a ubiquitous part of life, things have changed tremendously over time. In the vast majority of senses, the progress made on the web has been for the best. There is one troubling trend that I have noticed over the past several years however: it’s something I like to call the Cable TV-ification of the Internet.
In the early days of technology reporting on the web the focus was almost exclusively on depth. We had a new medium for content that didn’t come with the same restrictions as more traditional forms. We could present as much data as we felt was necessary and we could do it quicker.
As the web grew, so did the approach to gaining readership. In many cases, publishers learned from the tips and tricks of more traditional media to growing their audience. The focus shifted away from ultimate understanding of what was being reported, to producing content significantly motivated by increasing traffic, or revenue, or both. Thorough observations were out; sensationalism, link baiting, and the path to shallow 10-o’clock-news reporting were in.
While I believe it’s definitely easier to produce content by going this route, I don’t believe it’s the only way to build a well read website. At the same time, I don’t believe the web needs to be academic reporting or sensationalist garbage - as long as there’s a balance, I’m happy.
A personal goal of mine and our mission at AnandTech is to be a part of that balance. I don’t believe the web has to go the same route as the majority of television news reporting. We should learn from the mistakes industries have made in the past, not repeat them with sweeter technology. No AnandTech writer is ever told to be quickest to post a story, but everyone at AnandTech is challenged to be the best that they can possibly be when working on a story. Focus on quality first, then timeliness second. There’s value in both but there’s more value in one. Many of our editors have backgrounds in engineering or computer science, which aids in our quest to explain and analyze the subjects of our reviews.
We don’t paginate articles to increase page views, we break them apart across logical boundaries to improve readability. If you want everything on a single page, we’ve offered the Print this Article view for over a decade now. Our headlines and article titles are specifically forbidden from being misleading or sensationalist in nature.
I believe that a publication’s readers are a reflection of their writers. If we resort to shameless tricks to attract readers, I don’t believe we’ll attract the sort of audience I’m looking for.
There’s an unwritten contract between AnandTech and its readers. You support us by simply reading the site and we owe it to you to do the best job possible. Our loyalty is ultimately to the readership and not treating you like idiots is the first necessary step to holding up our end of the deal. We also rely on you more than other sites to help spread the word of our content if you believe it’s something worth sharing. I’d much rather rely on our readers to help extend our reach than lower our editorial standards to do the same.
A core belief that Anand and I have held dear for years, and is still on our About page to this day, is AnandTech’s rebuke of sensationalism, link baiting, and the path to shallow 10-o’clock-news reporting. It has been our mission over the past 27 years to inform and educate our readers by providing high-quality content – and while we’re no longer going to be able to fulfill that role, the need for quality, in-depth reporting has not changed. If anything, the need has increased as social media and changing advertising landscapes have made shallow, sensationalistic reporting all the more lucrative.
For all the tech journalists out there right now – or tech journalists to be – I implore you to remain true to yourself, and to your readers’ needs. In-depth reporting isn’t always as sexy or as exciting as other avenues, but now, more than ever, it’s necessary to counter sensationalism and cynicism with high-quality reporting and testing that is used to support thoughtful conclusions. To quote Anand: “I don’t believe the web needs to be academic reporting or sensationalist garbage - as long as there’s a balance, I’m happy.”