Media companies have to stop promoting access to eyeballs. Who wants to buy eyeballs anymore? There is too much fraud. I can buy 1000's of eyeballs from some Russian robot for $100. Media is loosing, I don't think anyone really knows who is consuming the content. Relative to Facebook and Google they have no idea who their audience is. Sadly, I don't think the media really want to know, if they did know they would have to face the fact that, these days, it's audience is incredibly diverse. The diversity is expensive to cater for, so rather than solve it, better to ignore it, burry the head and sell click bait cats and international junk content. Often buying the international junk content comes with 1000's of fraudulent clicks from Russia anyway. How would an exec upstairs at NZME even know. Just looks like a bunch of clicks to them right. They can spew this up on some unsuspecting brand owner and ask them to buy it. Too easy...buy cheap content that comes with clicks, everyone gets to go home at 5. Meanwhile.... the entire country becomes munter stupid on a diet of crap that some weird digital fraud engine convinces low tech execs that the population likes to look at.

The decision makers are looking at a faulty gauge that tells them they are doing ok. They ignore the good stories and great jouralists because their broken gauge tells them to. The gauge is 20 years old, its ancient and it's based on some really broken assumptions.

Ask any big sophisticated international media buyer...

Media has become like the used car sales man, flogging an old beast with a shiny paint job but has done too many k's and has a worn out gear box.

This sux for all you awesome journalists trying to encourage some kind of rigour and excellence in your field. I feel for you guys and wish you could raise 100 million and start again.