Are we in a digital content bubble?

Are we in a digital content bubble?

This author follows up on a study done by the Reuters Institute on the merits of seven media businesses, such as Business Insider, HuffPost, Mashable, Quartz, Vice, et al.

It’s no secret that many of the world’s largest digital publishers are operating at a loss; whether they’re backed by venture capitalists or offline revenue, many pundits think investors may someday lose their patience in what seems to be an unsustainable business model for many companies.

It’s not a new model -- we’ve heard plenty of stories about emerging Internet companies competing for eyeballs and future fanatics while they burn lots of cash along the way. As companies confront this question, some large newspapers are turning to a pay model (only a few - notably the most prominent ones - can make it work).

I thought this quote to be particularly interesting, especially in context of the data points provided:

Given that people do not seem willing to spend all that much time (about 8 minute per day in the U.S.) or money (8 percent of online news users in the U.S. say they have an ongoing subscription) on digital news — and given that news media compete head-to-head with large technology companies for both attention and advertising — should we expect to see the digital content bubble burst after 20 years of investment in which only a few have seen a sustainable robust return? Or is this just a shakeout, where the most vulnerable brands implode and others emerge stronger?

In the next few years, I suspect many brands will implode. The main sources of implosion will be some combination of failing to define a niche (horizontal media) and failing to implement revenue streams outside of advertising, such as membership fees, pay-walls, etc.

http://www.niemanlab.org/2017/12/is-the-digital-content-bubble-about-to-burst-for-some-of-the-publishers-chasing-the-broadest-scale-maybe/