“If We Call the Search and Social Era Dead, the Subscription Era Is Where We’re Going”

Chris Janz believes that starting Capital Brief in 2023 was “pretty bloody stupid”. 

“It’s the most disrupted period of journalism, media, and news business in history,” he said.

An emphasis on search and social have always been detrimental to journalism, the former Nine exec argued, incentivising the need to sensationalise in exchange for traffic.

“If we call the search and social era dead, the subscription era is where we're going. That aligns the business incentive of a newsroom. You're rewarded for producing journalism that people value because they're putting their hand into their pocket and they're paying for it.”

Chris believes that the News Media Bargaining Code is a “really misunderstood piece of legislation” that was never intended to be a silver bullet. He mentioned its success during 2021, serving as a negotiation tool for news platforms as they locked in payment for their news from Google and Facebook. 

“Fast forward to today, the problem with the code is that they don’t require any investment in journalism,” he said. Chris said the issues include enforcement being a political decision, and the fact it doesn’t encourage the growth of a media ecosystem. 

“It lines the pockets of our biggest companies.” 

Duncan Greive, founder of The Spinoff, said it’s slightly different in New Zealand, “Australia’s little brother.” Despite the physical proximity, Duncan feels New Zealand is currently where Australia was in February 2021, but isn’t hopeful that the outcome will be the same. 

“As soon as that happened in Australia, my sense is that Meta and Google were like, ‘Okay, what we plan to do now is make sure that we never, ever, ever have to [pay for news],’” he said. 

Duncan said the New Zealand media landscape is “cuddly” and lacks some of that brute force leverage over the government that Australian news businesses have. The current “battle” betweening tech and news in New Zealand was described as a “very tense staredown,” with Google threatening to remove news from search in the market.

Lucy Blakiston, co-founder of Shit You Should Care About, touched on the importance of owning her audience. “Instagram doesn’t pay me,” she said, noting the difference between her social platform and Substack subscription model. 

She feels lucky to have started her business when social media was booming. Those foundations allow her to experiment with how she delivers news, she said. 

“I always say, throw enough shit at the wall and see what sticks.”

Duncan added platforms like Substack invite people to create a community. “You’re paying for one writer, rather than a newsroom of 30.” 

Chris added, “My optimism kind of stems from the subscription era that we're entering into. People aren't going to pay for journalism that just tells them stuff that they already know. They're going to pay for journalism that really they find valuable.”