“That’s it. That’s the gig.”

Dan Ackerman in his Tech Support newsletter about web traffic in 2026:

I generally take a long view, as I’ve been doing this since before web traffic was a thing. And it looks like I’ll be here after, as well, if the Google Zero train keeps rolling. One thing I’ve come to realize over all that time is that even as the media biz faces crisis after crisis, the core of what we do doesn’t change. It may evolve, but it doesn’t change. And that core mission is to create things -- articles, videos, newsletters, podcasts, etc. -- that either inform, educate, or entertain. Sometimes all three.

The same basic advice I gave people years ago feels truer than ever. The real metric isn’t pageviews or CPMs, or watch time. Those change constantly. Some years it’s raw pageview traffic that’s important. Some years its unique visitors. Or signups. Or some other metric. (AI citations!)

[One aside: As a longtime media industry middle manager, no matter what metric you’re succeeding at, someone higher in the food chain will always insist that it’s actually some *other* metric that’s really important.]

The goal is to create something that a reader/viewer/listener can consume and feel like their time and attention was well-spent. That’s it. That’s the gig.

Exactly this. This is why I started writing again. This is why this new site exists. I want to create content that people will enjoy without worrying about hitting some random metric that’s ever changing. Or, for many years, making enough money to provide for my family.