Beyond the Twitter chaos, platforms and publishers re-evaluate their relationship: Media Moments 2022
For our latest season of the Media Voices Podcast, kindly sponsored by Poool, we’ll be publishing ten episodes exploring the biggest trends of 2022 and how they affect publishers; from podcasts and newsletters to advertising, subscriptions, emerging technology and more. Our eighth episode looks at the major social media platforms, and how their relationship with publishers has fared after yet another tumultuous year.
The story which has dominated much of the latter half of the year has been Musk's botched takeover of Twitter. Following months of will-he-won't-he, the billionaire finally completed the $44 billion purchase of the platform in late October. Since then, he has unleashed an unprecedented amount of chaos at Twitter HQ, from mass layoffs to badly thought-through verification plans. Publishers who are reliant on Twitter - or other products like their newsletter platform Revue - are now having to face the very real prospect of there being no Twitter left by the end of 2022.
Twitter aren't the only ones to be struggling with layoffs and mismanagement this year. Meta - the umbrella company for Facebook and Instagram - suffered the biggest one-day loss in history for a US company in February, wiping $230 billion off the value of the company. In a number of firsts, Facebook reported a drop in daily user numbers, and their first-ever drop in revenue in July. By the end of October, Meta's shares had tumbled 24% to their lowest level in nearly four years following a 'train wreck' earnings report. Its bet that the metaverse will be the future is proving costly; Meta lost $9.4 billion on its metaverse unit Reality Labs, and expects to have significantly wider operating losses next year.
Meta's rocky relationship with publishers is categorically over. As well as ending support for Instant Articles and pulling its new newsletter platform Bulletin, the company began telling news partners in the US that they no longer had plans to pay publishers for their content to run on the News Tab. Legislation looks unlikely to force any further movement on this. In response to Canada saying it would introduce an Australia-style bill to force payments to publishers, Facebook said it would simply block news content on the platform.
But as some platforms fall, others rise to take their place. TikTok has cemented its spot as the biggest platform for young people, and is expected to reach 1.8 billion users by the end of 2022. But it has yet to make any serious attempts to grapple with misinformation or data concerns that are frequently raised. Nonetheless, a growing number of publishers are exploring the platform as a way to connect with younger audiences.
This week we're joined by social media consultant and industry analyst Matt Navarra. Matt has over 15 years' experience in the industry, and also has first-hand knowledge of the publisher perspective, having been Director of Social Media for The Next Web. He runs the Geekout group and newsletter for social media professionals.
This topic will be one of the chapters we explore in detail as part of our Media Moments 2022 report, launching on November 30th. Find out more and pre-register here to receive the report.
This season of Media Voices is sponsored by Poool, the Membership and Subscription Suite used by over 120 publishers from around the world. The team behind Poool are industry experts who have put everything they know into the product, ready to respond to your ‘how’ of launching & developing a reader revenue strategy.
