Should we keep MacDailyNews going?
It’ll be 22 years of publishing for MacDailyNews next month (September 18th).
So far we’ve published 81,579 posts. That’s an average of 3,708 posts per year or 309 per month.
When MacDailyNews.com started, it made just over $60 the first month. We didn’t start publishing until the 18th day of the month, so to generate $60 in 12 days was pretty good back then. Interest in Apple news was high. The site paid for its hosting that month (and every month since).
In the Steve Jobs II era, the site was lucrative enough to actually live on, with some excess which we used to invest in AAPL. Thank God and Jobs we did that! Several splits later, dividends, stock price increases – those investments in AAPL worked out well.
Today, the site generates almost exactly 1/8th of what it did when Steve Jobs was alive. It’s not enough to live on. Hourly, it works out to below minimum wage, which is why it’s becoming more and more difficult to devote a ton of hours to it.
Getting paid 1/8th of what you were once paid for the same amount of work is… something. So, we look on the bright side: it’s a unique situation that most people don’t get to experience. Also, it’s a challenge: Can we keep it going? Can we grow revenue to livable levels again?
When the U.S. FTC approved Google acquisition of DoubleClick in 2007, it was a huge mistake. Google monopolized search and digital advertising. The advertising rates held up for a couple of years and then the monopolist did what monopolists do. Rates declined.
It did not help that ad-blocking arose at that time, too. Nor did it help that at the same time Apple lost its charismatic, visionary leader. A live Steve Jobs keynote drew eyeballs!
This confluence of events ended up killing many small, independent publishers, including a huge portion of what was once referred to as the “Mac web.” We miss sites like MacSurfer (thankfully, we still have MacHash!), MacNN, and many others. The handful of us left are devoted to coverage of all things Apple.
Soon, there was no way to pay for the site’s operation but to look to reader contributions. We currently have a small group of contributors who keep the site going, but it’s not enough to live on, much less to allow us to turn off ads once and for all. Without our MacDailyNews contributors, the site would not have made it even to 20 years and we’re now nearly two years past that!
Thank you so, so much, MacDailyNews contributors! Without you, MacDailyNews simply would not exist.
Now, we’re trying Substack. This way – at macdailynews.substack.com – we can offer unique, extra AD-FREE content meant only for subscribers (plus, of course, everything else posted here on MacDailyNews.com).
Please consider subscribing to enjoy subscriber-only content with NO ADS and also to help keep MacDailyNews going for another 22 years!
Thank you,
MacDailyNews
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