Comment by keiferski
1 year ago
I am not super familiar with AnandTech, but I question the idea that "tech journalism" is dead or dying. Marques Brownlee has almost 20 million subscribers on YouTube. Consumer Reports has 6 million members. Etc.
The difference, I think, is that media is shifting to video as the default, for better or worse. Looking at their YouTube channel, AnandTech only has about 20,000 subscribers, which looks like they never quite figured out how to transfer their content into video format.
Video was a mistake. Even high quality YouTube tech channels (like GamersNexus) work far better in a text format where you can compare benchmark results without running the video in mpv, taking dozens of screenshots, and then painstakingly comparing them. And that channel has a charismatic anchor, unlike many.
At least they have a website with the same material.
Have a look at rtings and try to come up with an idea how to make this work in a video format:
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/sony/wh-1000xm4-wi...
https://www.rtings.com/mouse/reviews/logitech/g305-lightspee...
without losing 90% of information and getting shitty jokes instead.
It doesn't really matter if it "was a mistake," because it's what the market is asking for. Cars were probably a mistake ecologically, vs. horses, but it's what we've got.
Horses caused a huge pollution problem in urban areas. By the 1890s, New York City had over 100,000 horses, which produced over 2.5 million pounds of manure per day. The streets were covered with manure and dead horse carcuses. Cars were seen as the far cleaner alternative.
> it's what the market is asking for
Facebook, for example, famously misrepresented market demand for video. Video is what advertisers were asking for: https://slate.com/technology/2018/10/facebook-online-video-p...
Was the market asking for tech review videos, or was the market asking for a platform that helps select, curate, and present content?
If this trend were merely about format, then websites that just host videos would be a viable model - they're not really. I think this is more about the power of platforms than of the format.
I'm sure the format _also_ helps, given how donation-dependent small-scale publishers are which works best if publishers are humanized, but I'd guess the more impactful matter is the way platforms can keep consumers onboard and help them discover new publishers than the format.
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Sure, but the least we can do is support the few sane places that still remain, like rtings. Lest they follow the way of AnandTech and we're forced to scroll through hours of video to get the same information contained in a ten-minute text article, with interactive charts and comparison tools.
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I don't agree that the market (consumers) are asking for video, they just refuse to pay for words, while Google (not the consumer) will pay for videos.
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The article hints at this, with the following sentence: "Still, few things last forever, and the market for written tech journalism is not what it once was – nor will it ever be again" (emphasis on the written).
Yeah, it's just weird to me that this entity with a big following and storied history isn't willing to adapt to the times, or even get a little creative and figure out how to do longform video combined with longform text.
I don't think Marques is a tech journalist. He is a consumer goods journalist.You wouldn't see videos about architecture of Zen processor and their impact from Marques. Not a criticism, different fields.
I would describe him as a tech enthusiast.
His content doesn't have the journalistic quality that feels like he is going out and digging for stories etc. The content is given to him by companies and he chooses to showcase what he is given.
There is not really anything wrong with that either but I don't expect any real scoops to come from his channel.
I agree, but so does the article; I quote: "Still, few things last forever, and the market for written tech journalism is not what it once was – nor will it ever be again."
>I am not super familiar with AnandTech
>Marques Brownlee ( MKBHD )
I think comparing Anandtech to MKBHD is quite offensive. There is at least multiple order of magnitude difference.
For worse.
The main reason for tech journalism being more sustainable on YouTube is non-skippable ads and the recommendation algorithm.
Unlike a random blog, I can pay YouTube to remove all the ads. I watch GN videos, and they get paid, but I never see ads other than GN's sponsor message and merch which are trivial to skip.
Compare AnandTech which has always been a user-hostile visual insult. The whole article is covered in ads. You can barely find the words. The articles are needlessly split over 25 pages so you click and load over and over. They really pioneered a lot of bad patterns.
> I can pay YouTube to remove all the ads
Yes, and I do that myself, but most people don’t, and the overall model wouldn’t work without the ads.
I'm more optimistic. Video may be clunky and largely difficult to search within now, but in the near future, with AI transcription and some kind of new UI, will become as easy to access as text is today.