Paul Wells

Paul Wells

Share this post

Paul Wells
Paul Wells
The message factory
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More

The message factory

The End of Media, Chapter 3: Barnacles off the boats

Paul Wells's avatar
Paul Wells
Jul 08, 2023
∙ Paid
204

Share this post

Paul Wells
Paul Wells
The message factory
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
51
7
Share
The End of Media is an essay-in-progress about what happens after the national conversation frees itself from gatekeepers. Previous chapters:
1. Went Down to the Crossroads. About big media’s long near-monopoly over both information and commerce.
2. Every Phone a Printing Press. About the tsunami of new communications options that followed the advent of social media and smartphones in 2007.

Let’s recap.

Life used to move more slowly. The venues for a democratic conversation were limited in number and broadly shared: local papers, national papers, dinnertime news, network news, local radio. Wags used to say, don’t pick fights with somebody who buys ink by the barrel. The joke made sense because almost nobody owned that much ink.

About 15 years ago, everybody got handed magical telephones containing an infinite supply of flying digital ink. This eroded the commons, because each of us could concentrate on our own thing — Wordle, QAnon — instead of on whatever the evening news was saying. And it jacked up the amount of noise in any conversation to a constant roar.

You work at a large organization. A ballet company, the Supreme Court of Canada, Rogers, the political party nearest your heart, whatever. How do you tell the world about your good work?

You hold a news conference. Nobody comes. You send out a news release. It’s ignored. You tweet. In the replies, two people misunderstand and a third says your grandfather was a Nazi.

If you show up at some broad conversation, a trade show or academic conference, and say, well, our situation is complex. We’ve had setbacks. But we’re working on some exciting ideas. We hope for better results soon, that’ll be the only time you get a headline all year. It’ll say:

“WE’VE HAD SETBACKS,” SAYS PERSON IN CHARGE

Blames “Situation;” Can’t Say When Results Will Improve

In the body of the story, for balance, there’ll be a quote from your worst enemy: “How can anybody believe that bum?”


More than three-quarters of today’s post lies below this subscriber paywall. I’ve been tremendously encouraged by response to this series of essays. Paid subscribers receive access to all of the content in this newsletter, including an archive of every previous post. Thanks for supporting my work.

This post is for paid subscribers

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Paul Wells
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share

Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More