Why WordPress Isn’t Scared of Facebook, Snapchat, or the Future of Publishing. I reached out to five tech companies for this story: Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Medium, and WordPress. At this point, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat are practically publishing platforms, even if they may not define themselves that way. The lifespans of networks like Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and Medium could hinge on how they anticipate the future of publishing. WordPress has a different goal. They told me that there’s no foreseeable future in which publishers cede control of their content entirely to social networks. “Platforms have to make it as easy as possible for you to publish once and distribute through all of these and other channels.” This reality leaves media companies struggling with that issue of control. It’s indicative, though, that WordPress’s goal of integration between the various social networks is predicated on one thing: the continued importance of the website. It looks like media companies will always need websites as central hubs, no matter how popular or important a social network gets. Or, to put it another way, empires rise and fall, but WordPress expects to stick around for a while.
I reached out to five tech companies for this story: Facebook,
Twitter, Snapchat, Medium, and WordPress.
All five have vested interests in the publishing world. Medium
and WordPress are the obvious ones: They’re both well-known content
management systems. At this point, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat
are practically publishing platforms, even if they may not define
themselves that way.
I approached each company with a simple premise: We live in a
world where cell phones and tablets are becoming more popular than
laptops and desktops. Google, for example, announced last year that
it receives
more search requests on mobile devices than computers in the
U.S., Japan, and eight other countries. Does this mean that
websites are knocking on death’s door? Does the future of
publishing lie in the hands of apps?
Snapchat and Twitter ignored my interview request entirely.
Facebook asked to comment only on background, which defeated the
purpose of receiving the brand’s thoughts. Medium sent me a series
of one-sentence answers via email, few of which were specific
enough to answer the question.
Frustrating.
WordPress and its parent company Automattic were more
responsive. WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg put me in touch with
the company’s editor, Mark Armstrong, who is also the founder of
Longreads. We had a nice conversation on the phone and continued it
via email. As we spoke, Armstrong shed some light on why the other
companies were being so cagey.
The lifespans of networks like Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and
Medium could hinge on how they anticipate the future of publishing.
The more they court publications to post directly to their
platforms, the more they become competitors—and nobody wants to
reveal trade secrets.
WordPress has a different goal. “Publishers do want to pursue
these social platforms, but they’re not going all-in in a way that
they’re going to lose their control of the audience and ultimately
what they want to publish,” Armstrong said. “And that’s what we’ve
been working on. How do you connect those worlds?”
The publisher’s dilemma
The media experts I contacted agreed with Armstrong. They told
me that there’s no foreseeable future in which publishers cede
control of their content entirely to social networks. They’ll still
need a central hub.
“We want it to be black or white,” Robert Hernandez, an
assistant professor at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and
Journalism, told me. “The truth is, it’s both. Owning your own
website, you have control of the narrative and the presentation,
aka your destiny.”
The real conversation for media companies, according to
Hernandez, isn’t about websites and apps. It’s about audience and
control. Platforms like Facebook need the content—otherwise, they
wouldn’t be courting publishers to the tune of
millions of dollars. Publications need the targeted
distribution those platforms can provide, especially since
almost half of Americans regularly get their news from social
media.
It’s a symbiotic relationship, not a zero-sum game.
“Empires rise and fall,” Hernandez said repeatedly
throughout…
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