UP322 Vice, Buzzfeed and the TikTok-ifaction of Everything

Likes, Followers, Shares, Video Views: these are the currency of digital publishing.
But as Matt Locke argues in today's conversation, change is coming.
The importance of the Like as a metric of audience engagement is quickly diminishing. As the dominant social platforms are converging to become video-led TikTok clones, engagement metrics have shifted from clicks to viewing. From TikTok to Netflix, the most important numbers now are not the big ones, but the long ones - it's all about how long something keeps your attention, not if it inspires you to click a button.

What does this mean for many of the biggest sports teams, athletes, leagues and governing bodies, which have sought to redefine themselves as entertainment companies.
Social media follower numbers have become the basis of a football club's valuation, separating the so-called Super League clubs from the rest.
And what are the lessons from the recent demise of Vice and BuzzFeed, two of the most influential digital entertainment businesses of the last decade or more?

Matt Locke co-founded the strategy and content company Storythings in 2011 and is executive producer on projects for clients including BBC, PBS, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Wellcome Trust. Before that Matt was Head of Innovation at BBC and Head of Multiplatform at Channel 4.

Here are some details on his work on the history of attention metrics, How To Measure Ghosts and the Storythings newsletter, Attention Matters, referenced in the podcast.

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