-
It's interesting to see the Great Vertical Unbundling start to reverse itself. As I've noted in the past a diverse set of URLs able to operate on different Facebook pages was a pretty effective strategy often executed by content fraud / fake news along with legit publications...
-
As it became clear that Facebook was prime traffic maker on campus and that it put heavy value on 1 to 1 Facebook Page <> URL set ups a lot of publishers who were paying attention and had the capability started to pull out verticals into their own sites.
-
Everything from food to culture that had enough editorial voice behind it got spun out especially by sites that couldn't easily fit in a single Topic / Category of Facebook page or content.
-
But now that Facebook is dropping traffic like a stone, publications are returning to their previous strategy, URL Primacy. Search Engines accrue credit or rank to single URLs so the more content, non-social traffic, and links rolled to one URL the better you do.
-
As Facebook becomes less relevant for news publications its conceptual approach of mapping single topics to single unique web domains is falling to the wayside. All those niche URLs that captured tons of FB traffic are getting rolled back up to the mothership site.
-
This is one of the times where how publications reshape themselves towards distribution methods online is fairly transparent. When the verticals began to get unbundled to Racked and Tasty and the rest the cause wasn't obvious. But in hindsight things are clearer.
-
The one exception is Buzzfeed News, which was likely getting down ranked because of non-news content on social AND search and needed its own domain to survive the storm of automated link trust and checking that is happening at FB and Google.
-
I honestly don't know if the Facebook change will net positive or negative on fake news. I guess we'll have to see.
-
Wow the Racked Facebook page went down *quick* facebook.com/rackednational/
-
The Great Vertical Re-bundling continues emilybell/1058004026262982658
-
You live by Facebook, you die by Facebook newspicks.us/news/1250086/body/
-
The Vertical Re-Bundling continues. vox.com/recode/2019/5/1/18518885/vox-recode-partnership
-
I do think subscriptions are a part of the thinking here, especially beccause the nature of app browsers make maintining signin on even one site frustrating. But a lot of this is happening outside the subscriber space and I think a big reason is FB. ^ simonowens/1123790683997970438
-
The Recode Facebook page also went down REAL quick facebook.com/RecodeDotNet/
-
Things can shift fast, but watching the end of standalone vertical sites is a fascinating show of how much publishers can end up warping & bending themselves to fit external platform requirements. Required watching for those who believe Facebook has a deformative effect on news.
-
The Recode Facebook page still exists, but it has moved, and notably includes Vox's name as a great example of keywords in urls https://www.facebook (dot) com/RecodeByVox/
-
Waypoint returns to the Vice mothership. waypoint/1125394595154726912?s=19
-
Unlike some of the other vertical rollups, this appears to be a full rebranding as well.