Pivot to video

Streaming media technology has been available since the early 1990s, though it was relatively low-fidelity and not widely available until the mid-2000s.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/mar/01/history-streaming-future-connected-tv |title=A history of media streaming and the future of connected TV |newspaper=The Guardian |author= Zambelli, Alex |date=1 Mar 2013 |access-date=2018-10-18}} In 2007, traditional media publishers including the New York Times, Washington Post and Time Inc. created new divisions to develop web videos, and Facebook launched its video platform.{{cite magazine |last=Andersen |first=Kurt |title=You Must Be Streaming |magazine=New York Magazine |date= 24 Oct 2007 |access-date=2018-10-18 |url=http://nymag.com/news/imperialcity/28152/}} Twitter purchased micro-video service Vine in October 2012, began adding native video streaming in late 2014, and acquired video-streaming service Periscope in January 2015.{{cite magazine|url=https://digiday.com/media/native-video-means-twitter-users/ |author=Blattberg, Eric |title=What native video means for Twitter — and its users |magazine=Digiday |date=12 Jan 2015 |access-date=2018-10-18}}

An August 2014 profile on BuzzFeed noted the publisher's large investment into video production, and observed that "the future of BuzzFeed may not even be on BuzzFeed.com. One of the company’s nascent ideas, BuzzFeed Distributed, will be a team of 20 people producing content that lives entirely on other popular platforms, like Tumblr, Instagram or Snapchat."{{cite web |url=https://www.theawl.com/2014/08/content-distributed/ |title=Content Distributed |author=Buchanan, Matt |date=11 Aug 2014 |access-date=2018-10-18 |publisher=The Awl}}

On 7 January 2015, Facebook issued a statement about "the shift to video," reporting that "since June 2014, Facebook has averaged more than 1 billion video views every day."{{cite web |url=https://media.fb.com/2015/01/07/what-the-shift-to-video-means-for-creators/ |title=What the Shift to Video Means for Creators |publisher=Facebook |date=7 Jan 2015 |access-date=2018-10-18}} Media critic John Herrman argued that "What the shift to Facebook video means is that Facebook is more interested in hosting the things media companies make than just spreading them, that it views links to outside pages as a problem to be solved, and that it sees Facebook-hosted video as an example of the solution."{{cite web |author=Herrman, John |title=Territory Annexed |date=8 Jan 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150206053324/http://www.theawl.com/2015/01/everything-ends |archive-date=6 February 2015 |url-status=dead |url=http://www.theawl.com/2015/01/everything-ends}}

In February 2015, the digital video-journalism publisher NowThis announced that it would operate without a home page, producing content to be published directly on social media platforms.{{cite web|url=https://www.politico.com/media/story/2015/02/nowthis-scraps-its-website-goes-all-in-on-social-003427 |title=NowThis scraps its website, goes all-in on social |author=Barr, Jeremy |work=Politico |date=6 Feb 2015 |access-date=2018-10-18}}{{cite web |url=http://www.theawl.com/2015/02/the-next-internet-is-tv |author=Herrman, John |title= The Next Internet Is TV |publisher=The Awl |date=5 Feb 2015 |access-date=2018-10-18}}

In April 2016, Mashable fired much of its editorial staff, attempting to pivot away from hard news coverage while "growing Mashable across every platform" and doubling down on branded content and video.{{cite news |url=https://www.vox.com/2016/4/7/11585950/mashable-fires-news-staff-executives |title=Mashable Fires News Staff, Replaces Executives as Part of Pivot to Video Infotainment |author=Kulwin, Noah |date=7 Apr 2016 |work=Vox |access-date=2018-10-18}}{{cite web |url=https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/today-i-sent-note-mashable-team-pete-cashmore |title=Today I Sent This Note to The Mashable Team |author=Cashmore, Pete |date=7 Apr 2016 |access-date=2018-10-18 |publisher=LinkedIn}} By December 2017, following a sale to Ziff Davis, Mashable retreated from this focus on video; Bernard Gershon, president of GershonMedia, said that the announcement of many such "pivots" were actually aimed primarily at investors.{{cite web|first1=Sahil|last1=Patel|access-date=2019-12-30|title=Mashable is reeling in its video ambitions after Ziff Davis sale|url=https://digiday.com/media/mashable-scale-back-video-team-following-ziff-davis-sale/|date=8 December 2017}}

By 2017, "advertiser interest in video [was] insatiable... Any CFO is going to say 'How can we get more video?'" according to an executive of the publishers' trade association Digital Content Next.{{cite magazine |url=https://adage.com/article/digital/fire-writers-make-videos-latest-web-recipe-publishers/310280/ |title=Fire Writers, Make Videos Is Latest Web Recipe for Publishers |author=Bloomberg News |magazine=Ad Age |date=29 Aug 2017 |access-date=2018-10-18}} Publishers such as Vanity Fair, the Washington Post, and Sports Illustrated began adapting their own articles into cheap video content, either dictated by a newsreader or animated as a slideshow with captions, which could be shared on social platforms or even played alongside the articles themselves.{{cite web |url=https://www.theringer.com/2017/7/3/16045198/fox-sports-mtv-news-vocativ-layoffs-pivot-to-video-77e441a49cb7 |author=Curtis, Bryan |date=3 Jul 2017 |publisher=The Ringer |title=What "Pivoting to Video" Really Means |access-date=2018-10-18}}{{cite web |url=https://www.theawl.com/2017/06/when-the-video-plays-you/ |title=When The Video Plays You |author=Killingsworth, Silvia |publisher=The Awl |date=30 Jun 2017 |access-date=2018-10-18}}

June 2017 saw numerous high-profile pivots to video. Vocativ laid off at least 20 staff, including its entire newsroom, explaining that "as the industry evolves, we are undertaking a strategic shift to focus exclusively on video content that will be distributed via social media and other platforms."{{cite web |url=http://www.poynter.org/2017/vocativ-lays-off-whole-editorial-staff-in-shift-to-video-update/463391/ |author=Funke, Daniel |date=14 Jun 2017 |publisher=Poynter Institute |title=Vocativ lays off entire editorial staff in shift to video |access-date=2018-10-18}} Fox Sports eliminated its entire writing staff to focus on creating "premium video across all platforms."{{cite web |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-26/fox-sports-cuts-web-writing-staff-to-invest-more-in-online-video |title=Fox Sports Cuts Web Writing Staff to Invest More in Online Video |author=Shaw, Lucas |date=26 Jun 2017 |publisher=Bloomberg News |access-date=2018-10-18}} And MTV News announced a restructuring that would cut its writing team. Less than two years earlier, MTV News had hired Grantland co-founder Dan Fierman to lead a significant investment in "longform" political and cultural reporting, but Fierman left in April 2017, and in June MTV announced it was "shifting resources into short-form video content more in line with young people's media consumption habits."{{cite magazine |url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/7849323/mtv-news-restructuring-shift-video |title=MTV Restructuring News Department, Shifting to Emphasis on Video (Updated) |date=28 Jun 2017 |author=Gensler, Andy|magazine=Billboard }}{{cite magazine |url=https://variety.com/2017/music/news/mtv-news-1202481377/ |title=MTV News Shifts Toward Video, Targets Younger Audience (EXCLUSIVE) |date=28 Jun 2017 |access-date=2018-10-18 |author=Holloway, Daniel |magazine=Variety}}

In July, Vice Media laid off at least 60 employees, including the editor-in-chief of Vice Sports, while expanding video production.{{cite web |url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/vice-media-lays-60-employees-1023267 |title=Vice Media Lays Off At Least 60 Employees Amid Video Expansion |author=Jarvey, Natalie |website=The Hollywood Reporter |date=21 Jul 2017 |access-date=2018-10-18}}

August 2017 saw Mic cut ten writers and directed the remainder of the newsroom to generate videos for social platforms. CEO Chris Altchek said "When you think about how many hours people spend watching video versus reading, the audience has already spoken." The move was ultimately unsuccessful, and Mic laid off the majority of its staff a year later before being sold to Bustle Media Group for a fraction of its former value.{{cite news|last1=Ohlheiser|first1=Abby|access-date=2019-12-30|title=A pivot to video couldn't save Mic. The news outlet has laid off most of its staff.|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/11/29/pivot-video-couldnt-save-mic-news-outlet-has-laid-off-most-its-staff/|newspaper=Washington Post}}{{cite web|first1=Cale Guthrie|last1=Weissman|access-date=2019-12-30|title=Mic lays off most of its staff as the pivot-to-video bloodbath reaches its zenith|url=https://www.fastcompany.com/90274192/mic-lays-off-most-of-its-staff-as-the-pivot-to-video-bloodbath-reaches-its-zenith|date=29 November 2018|website=Fast Company}}{{cite web|last1=Digiday|accessdate=2023-07-06|title=Pivoting to nowhere: How Mic ran out of radical makeovers|url=https://digiday.com/media/mic-transformations-pivoting-nowhere/|date=30 November 2018|website=Digiday}}

In September 2017, the for-profit wiki-hosting company Fandom began adding commercially produced videos to its otherwise user-generated wiki subdomains, explicitly citing the need to "keep up with user and advertiser expectations" by "diversifying our content," claiming without substantiation that "consumer patterns are changing," necessitating the addition of "complementary video" to accommodate that supposed need. Objection to the content in these videos and its sharp contrast against the content of the wiki sites to which they were applied led to vocal user backlash, leading Fandom CCO Dorth Raphaely to offer the following non-committal response: "I agree that with these videos in particular we did not deliver the right type of content experience."{{cite web|last1=Jackson|first1=Gita|title=Fallout Fans Resist Wikia's Attempt To Pivot to Video|url=https://kotaku.com/fallout-fans-resist-wikias-attempt-to-pivot-to-video-1804145954|website=Kotaku|access-date=4 November 2022}}

Movie Pilot CEO Tobi Bauckhage explained his company's fall 2017 layoffs as part of moving "from a text-based publishing model to video... a reaction to the fact that Facebook has changed their algorithms in favor of video instead of referral traffic over the last 12 months and we were losing money in the publishing bit of our business."{{cite magazine |url=https://variety.com/2017/digital/news/movie-pilot-layoffs-webedia-sale-pivot-video-1202633579/ |author=Spangler, Todd |magazine=Variety |title=Movie Pilot's Sale to Webedia Came After Huge Layoffs in Pivot to Video |date=7 Dec 2017 |access-date=2018-10-18}} As part of the company's change in direction, the majority of its staff was laid off and its parent company was sold to Webedia.{{cite web|first1=Todd|last1=Spangler|access-date=2020-10-17|title=Movie Pilot's Sale to Webedia Came After Huge Layoffs in Pivot to Video|url=https://variety.com/2017/digital/news/movie-pilot-layoffs-webedia-sale-pivot-video-1202633579/|date=8 December 2017}}

In November 2017, magazine publisher Condé Nast cut jobs, reduced the frequency of several magazines, and shut down the print edition of Teen Vogue, then invested significant new resources in video production, with a senior executive saying "In the next 24 months, I hope that video is half our business... It’s critical. It’s the macro trend of content consumption."{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/02/business/media/conde-nast-teen-vogue.html |author=Ember, Sydney |title= Condé Nast Ends Teen Vogue's Print Run, Plans to Cut 80 Jobs |date=2 Nov 2017 |access-date=2018-10-18 |newspaper=The New York Times}}{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/style/conde-nast-bon-appetit-food-video.html |author=Safronova, Valeriya |title=What the 'Pivot to Video' Looks Like at Condé Nast |date=4 Apr 2018 |access-date=2018-10-18 |newspaper=The New York Times}}

In February 2018, Vox Media cut approximately 50 employees, primarily those assigned to "social video," as Vox CEO Jim Bankoff admitted that those efforts were not "viable audience or revenue growth drivers."{{cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/vox-media-fires-about-50-employees-scales-back-on-social-video-1519229513 |title=Vox Media Cuts About 50 Employees, Scales Back on Social Video |author=Mullin, Benjamin |date=21 Feb 2018 |access-date=2018-10-18 |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal}}

In August 2020, Facebook Inc. (now Meta Platforms) pivoted Instagram to video in an effort to replicate the success of TikTok and appeal to a younger audience, introducing "reels" as a form of video and promoting them aggressively. Reels accounted more than half the 20 most-viewed posts on Facebook; however, most of these reels were anonymous aggregations of content from TikTok.{{cite web|first1=Annie|last1=Rauwerda|accessdate=2022-07-16|title=Meta says pivot to video is working as it shoves Reels in front of users|url=https://www.inputmag.com/tech/meta-facebook-pivot-to-video-instagram-reels|website=Input}}{{cite web|first1=Shirin|last1=Ghaffary|accessdate=2022-07-16|title=Reels is Facebook's TikTok clone — and its future|url=https://www.vox.com/recode/23002679/reels-facebook-tiktok-video|date=30 March 2022|website=Vox}}

Elon Musk declared in early 2024 that X (formerly Twitter) was now a "video-first platform", which has been described by critics as a "pivot to video".{{Cite web |title=Elon Musk's X tries to prove that pivoting to video is a smart strategy rather than a punchline |url=https://fortune.com/2024/01/10/x-twitter-video-platform-elon-musk-announces/ |access-date=2024-01-13 |website=Fortune |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Dressed |first=Natalie |date=2024-01-12 |title=Musk wants Twitter to pivot to video |url=https://boingboing.net/2024/01/12/musk-wants-twitter-to-pivot-to-video.html |access-date=2024-01-13 |website=Boing Boing |language=en-US}}

In 2017, Journalist Brian Feldman said that {{"'}}Pivoting to video' has become a business strategy for digital publishers common enough in recent months to be a kind of cliché — a slick way to describe something else: layoffs."{{cite magazine |url=http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/06/the-lesson-of-mtv-news-is-not-that-longform-is-dead.html |author=Feldman, Brian |title=The Lesson of MTV News Is Not 'Longform Is Dead' |date=29 Jun 2017 |magazine=New York Magazine |access-date=2018-10-18}} In response, writers use the phrase as gallows humor shorthand for death or cancellation, as in "how do i tell my bf i want our relationship to pivot to video" (SkyNews' Mollie Goodfellow){{cite web |url=https://adage.com/article/media/pivot-video-failed/310675/ |title=Why the 'Pivot to Video' Has Failed |author=Dumenco, Simon |date=28 Sep 2017 |access-date=2018-10-18}} or "Horse broke its leg, so we had to take it out back and help it 'pivot to video'" (blogger Anil Dash).{{cite news |url=https://qz.com/1038396/publishers-are-desperately-pivoting-to-video-but-they-should-be-standing-up-to-facebook/ |author=West, John |title=Publishers are desperately pivoting to video—but they should be standing up to Facebook |work=Quartz |date=26 Jul 2017}}

In September 2016, Facebook admitted that it had reported artificially inflated numbers to its advertisers about how long viewers watched ads leading to an overestimation of 60-80%.{{cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-overestimated-key-video-metric-for-two-years-1474586951 |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |author=Vranica, Suzanne and Jack Marshall |title=Facebook Overestimated Key Video Metric for Two Years |date=22 Sep 2016 |access-date=2018-10-18}} Plaintiffs in a later court case allege the discrepancy was as high as 150-900%.{{cite news |url=https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/17/17989712/facebook-inaccurate-video-metrics-inflation-lawsuit |title=Facebook may have knowingly inflated its video metrics for over a year |website=theverge.com |date=2018-10-17 |access-date=2024-09-14}} Facebook apologized in an official statement and in multiple staff appearances at New York Advertising Week.{{cite web |url=https://www.facebook.com/business/news/facebook-video-metrics-update |title=Facebook Video Metrics Update |author=Fischer, David |publisher=Facebook Business |date=23 Sep 2016 |access-date=2018-10-18}}{{cite web |url=https://money.cnn.com/2016/09/27/technology/facebook-apology-tour/ |title=Facebook goes on apology tour following video metric mess up |author=Fiegerman, Seth |date=27 Sep 2016 |publisher=CNN |access-date=2018-10-18}}

Two months later, Facebook disclosed additional discrepancies in audience metrics.{{cite web |url=https://money.cnn.com/2016/11/16/technology/facebook-ad-metrics/index.html |title=Facebook admits it messed up more ad metrics |author=Fiegerman, Seth |date=16 Nov 2016 |access-date=2018-10-18 |publisher=CNN}}{{cite web |url=https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/11/an-update-on-metrics-and-reporting/ |title= An Update on Metrics and Reporting |publisher=Facebook Newsroom |date=16 Nov 2016 |access-date=2018-10-18}}

In October 2018, a California federal court unsealed the text of a class action lawsuit filed by advertisers against Facebook, alleging that Facebook had known since 2015 that its viewership numbers were highly inflated, that internal records showed it "was far from an honest mistake", that Facebook waited over a year before taking action to disclose or fix the problem, citing internal communications that "somehow there was no progress on the task for the year" and decisions to "obfuscate the fact that we screwed up the math."{{cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/advertisers-allege-facebook-failed-to-disclose-key-metric-error-for-more-than-a-year-1539720524 |title=Advertisers Allege Facebook Failed to Disclose Key Metric Error for More Than a Year |author=Vranica, Suzanne |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |date=16 Oct 2018 |access-date=2018-10-18}}{{cite web |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-committed-fraud-lawsuit-claims/ |title= "Far from an honest mistake": Facebook accused of inflating ad data

|author=Kates, Graham |publisher=CBS News |date=17 Oct 2018 |access-date=2018-10-18}}

This led many journalists and industry analysts to conclude that the shift to video was based on misleading or inaccurate metrics, which created a false impression that there was customer demand for additional video content.{{cite news|first1=Will|last1=Oremus|accessdate=2023-07-06|title=The Big Lie Behind the "Pivot to Video"|url=https://slate.com/technology/2018/10/facebook-online-video-pivot-metrics-false.html|newspaper=Slate|date=18 October 2018|issn=1091-2339|via=slate.com}}{{cite web|first1=Alexis C. Madrigal, Robinson|last1=Meyer|accessdate=2023-07-06|title=How Facebook's Chaotic Push Into Video Cost Hundreds of Journalists Their Jobs|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/10/facebook-driven-video-push-may-have-cost-483-journalists-their-jobs/573403/|date=18 October 2018|website=The Atlantic}}{{cite magazine|accessdate=2023-07-06|title=Was the Media's Big "Pivot to Video" All Based on a Lie?|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/10/was-the-medias-big-pivot-to-video-all-based-on-a-lie|date=17 October 2018|magazine=Vanity Fair}}

• Digital first, another shift in publishing production
• Enshittification
• Chokepoint Capitalism

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