Trolls, weight loss, and digital revenue

Here’s what I’m talking about this morning.

1. “Fake news” trolling: There’s been a lot of hand-wringing over the age-old problem of fake news. A relatively new phenomenon is that people are starting troll legitimate news sources by calling real stories fake.

We get that all of the time at the newspaper, and I’ve even started to see it on this blog.

I’ve found that most of the negative comments come from people who fall into one of four categories:

1. Those who genuinely disagree with the author.
2. Readers who assume that the author is exaggerating or misrepresenting facts due to ulterior motives.
3. Non-readers who are just reacting to a headline, tweet, or social-share image without fully reading a post.
4. Pure-trolls who solely want to write negative comments to harass or bully the author.

You can work with people in category #1, but #2-4 are lost causes.

2. Uber: Living in the gayborhood means that I have Dallas’ most popular gay bars and restaurants within walking distance. I do however take Ubers frequently because I get lazy. Apparently the company has some shitty security safeguards for consumer data, so that sober-cab isn’t totally without risk.

3. Weight loss: The New York Times has an article about sustainable weight loss being a mixed bag. Some people manage their weight by calorie-counting, others use medication or exercise. It’s another one of those unsatisfying articles that tells us the boring, nuanced truth.

And makes me hungry.

4. Media revenue models: Online advertising bigger than ever, but few of those dollars are going to media websites. According to The New Republic, Google and Facebook vacuumed up 85 percent of all new online advertising spending in the first quarter of 2016.

Those sites also dominate the online traffic numbers of most media outlets which is a huge problem. Back at Thomson Reuters, I had several clients whose website traffic was penalized by Google. The firms who didn’t have a strong client pipeline suffered tremendously because they relied on Google for all of their referrals.

The similar over-reliance on a pair of traffic sources for media websites is just as dangerous, which is why I think it’s important to have a robust presence on non-Facebook-backed social platforms and to own distribution outlets like newsletters. (Then again, I’m biased there as the newsletters editor for a paper.)

Alternative distribution networks are great insurance for that day Facebook and Google cease to dominate the internet or stop favoring your stuff.

5. Big Box: I’m starting a new ad campaign with Big Box soon. It’s on Twitter only, so be on the lookout for the promotion!

Tonight

Here’s what’s going on in the gayborhood tonight.

Cruising the Crossroads: A bar crawl / happy hour featuring $2 well-drinks and domestic beers.

• 9-9:30 p.m. – Jr’s Bar & Grill
• 9:30-10 p.m. – Sue Ellen’s
• 9-11 p.m. – Station 4
• 10:30 – 11 p.m. – TMC

Drag show at Station 4 around 11 p.m.