Talking Points Memo is doing a fun series about the last 25 years of digital media

"Individuals trying to support themselves via subscriptions are as dependent on the whims of the marketplace as those working for large corporations, and it's not just the lack of health care and 401ks that make the career of a patron-supported creator precarious - it's the rawness and immediacy of the relationship."

"For all of the derision that traditional journalism heaped upon them, I'd argue that good bloggers have better editorial judgment than any other type of writer. Pulitzers? No. A quarter century of teaching stuffy old news publications what it looks like to boil news down to its absolute essence and present it in an interesting way? Yes. They won't tell you this in journalism school, but the best bloggers have a defter touch with tone, style, and length than your average Pulitzer-winning newspaper reporter."

"We got a lot of early press coverage when Gawker had fewer than 20,000 users a month, which at the time seemed like an astronomical number of readers, but in the age of social media, SEO, syndication, and site referrals, would be considered an epic failure. And those people were what product people would refer to as power users. They were invested as regular readers: they sent me emails and tips, thoughtful feedback, and sometimes very, very detailed critiques, lengthy and baroque."

Independent creators who rely on subscriptions face the same marketplace vulnerabilities as corporate journalists, compounded by lack of benefits and the emotional intensity of direct patron relationships. The immediacy of patron-supported work produces financial and personal precarity. Many bloggers developed superior editorial judgment by boiling news to its essence and refining tone, style, and length to engage readers effectively. That compact, interesting presentation pressured legacy publications to change how they deliver news. Early blog audiences were often small but highly invested power users who provided tips, feedback, and detailed critiques that influenced content and community.

Read at Nieman Lab