Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/06/27/the-downfall-of-people-magazine-from-human-interest-powerhouse-to-seo-farm.html
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And nothing of value was lost…
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WTF is SEO? You should tell us in the article that it is Search Engine Optimization, and not force us (or is it just clueless me) to go searching for it.
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and here i was sure it was Synthetic Engine Oil
Senior Executive Officer
State Engineer's Office
Survivability Enhancement Options
Siemens Exchange Object
System Engineering Office
Sports Entertainment Organization
Secondary Equity Offer
Super Entity Obstructer
Stora Enso OYJ, American Depositary Receipts
Student Employment Office
Social Engine Optimization
Sheer Excitement Optimization
Sponsors for Educational Opportunity
Special Engineering Order
Sell Everything Okay
Subtransfer Earth Orbit
Search Engine Optimization
Structural Element Object
Subscriber End Office
Synthetic Engine Oil ...
[winky emoji]
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People en Espanol has been bad for years. I used to avidly read Readers Digest (yes, I was in my 60’s when I was 20), so my wife wanted to have a magazine she’d enjoy. For some reason, she decided on this one. It was basically a gossipy, Spanish Enquirer. I was pretty glad when she let me lapse the subscription, mainly because there was nothing worth reading anymore.
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This is part of a larger trend of creating “content” without using labor. So, instead of employing actual journalists who conduct actual interviews and do research, and also employing fact checkers to make sure you’re not publishing any blatant falsehoods (yes, People has always been into celebrity gossip, but unlike the National Enquirer, they actually used to try to verify everything they published), it’s much cheaper to just publish lists, repost social media posts, and print ads. That requires almost no labor, and once they fully integrate some version of “AI”, they probably won’t have any labor involved. See also television networks going to more and more unscripted reality shows and game shows. Why pay writers and actors and other creatives when you can just use “AI” and amateurs who will provide the content for either exposure or a chance to win some money?
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Good analysis… I think this really shows just how little writing as a skill is valued in our society (whatever kind of writing we’re talking about - fiction, non-fiction, journalistic, etc). Good writing takes work, research, etc. It doesn’t just happen.
Again, I make my argument over the need to fund humanities more fully, as it’s a good for society.
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It’s very difficult to define an initialism like Surrogate Equine Ovary (SEO) the first time you use it in an article. Who has time for that? It’s not like there is any standard or that it was taught in school. It’s just the Wild Wild West (www) out there.
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I see these people posting after many years and ask myself, was their password “12345”?
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What’s more likely is they reused an email + password combo on some other site that got exposed, but that’s a pretty lame punchline.
And signing up as a standpipe for Sinclair. A perfect marriage with an AI “author”.
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Over the years, they’ve done a lot of good cult articles.
December 10, 2015
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So you’re sayin’ people who need People aren’t the luckiest people in the world???
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