The Media’s Monetization Problem

The digital media industry is being gutted as it struggles to find a profitable business model that doesn’t rely on fleeting trends to maintain viability. As companies shift from advertising to video to subscriptions, only the biggest, most resilient institutions have been able to arrive at some semblance of stability. In 2019—before the Covid-19 pandemic bagan to take its toll—nearly 8,000 people lost their media jobs, more than the years between 2014 and 2017 combined. Silicon Valley also has yet to crack the monetization code, and has tended to foster an increasingly antagonistic relationship with journalism even as it further entrenches itself into the profession’s ecosystem of tools and opportunity.

We intend for Hypothesis to redefine the consumer relationship with digital media in such a way that it lays the groundwork for a system that amplifies the best, most equitable monetization efforts, and disincentivizes those that trade integrity for profit. While this is not necessarily an answer to the industry’s business model question, without first shifting away from the publishing and consumption habits driven by our worst, most depressing capitalist tendencies, most new models will continue to perpetuate them.