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As a journalist formerly employed (indirectly) by Microsoft, I have many thoughts. I'll share a few disorderly ones, on MSFT doing news, on AI curation and on the plight of tech contractors. (I see you, reporters: Don't look for insider info here, I've got none.) 1/ https://twitter.com/jimwaterson/status/1266617740187615232
First, yes Microsoft does news. Think AOL – the cool kids of the internet wouldn't be caught dead using it, but if you look at the numbers, it's still huge. You open a browser window, a link catches your eye, you click, you read and you have no idea how you got there. 2/
If you hate what tech is doing to journalism, don't be too quick to rejoice: MSN is one rare curation service operating on partnerships. Microsoft is PAYING publishers for hundreds of feeds and has been for years. If it goes, it's one more revenue stream that goes. 3/
Microsoft was a pioneer among tech companies in hiring journalists. No it didn't fund original reporting, but it curated & edited using news judgment, audience knowledge and ethics, and that too is part of journalism. And it employed HUNDREDS of people to do that. 4/
So, paying publishers + hiring journalists = Microsoft quietly did for years everything the media industry has been begging Silicon Valley to do. 5/
When we were acquired by MSFT, my first thought was "holy crap, GOLD, look at that headcount!" I had 20 people around the world; they had, I heard, 800. We were a tiger team of innovators only limited by the hours in the day; they were an army. Surely we could do something. 6/
But we couldn't: the product was stale, the culture was slow, and we were too far apart. But why would they get invested when no one was invested in them? They were contractors with no stake in the future of the company or the product. 7/
Hiring contractors only bc you're not sure the product will last guarantees the product won't last. You don't get the best people or their best effort. Commitment is a two-way street. Tech has got to stop relying on contractors as so many 2nd-class employees. 8/
Of course contractors are easier to let go & continue to claim you're a humane company. Even in strong cultures, solidarity in tough times only extends to FT employees. 27 cuts in UK, 50 in the US reports @GeoffBakerTIMES at @seattletimes: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/local-business/microsoft-is-cutting-dozens-of-msn-news-production-workers-and-replacing-them-with-artificial-intelligence/ 9/
It's shit when you know $MSFT stock has gone up 4x since 2015 and has completely recovered from covid slump. And I KNOW bc being a full-time MSFT employee and therefore a shareholder has transformed my life financially. Not so for contractors. 10/
Let's talk AI curation. I've seen a few algos over the years. They're generally good at taxonomy and killer at telling you what people will engage with. (Let's not relitigate the outrage economy.) They're shit at deciding what's good journalism. 11/
AI curation is magic when the machine handles sorting & labelling, and editors worry about quality, context, serendipity... The algo breaks down the mountain and throws out most of the useless rock. You still need humans to sift the dust for gold particles. 12/
Armies of people, the right economic stance re: publishers, 100s of partnerships, unimaginable reach... it'd be a waste of an opportunity if this was just shuttered. The layoffs reported are certainly not the whole org and I hope they won't be. Much love to those affected. 13/
And before you ask, don't go imagining this means anything for LinkedIn. The companies are separate, LI editors do v different work, hard to automate & embedded in the product org as FT employees. The new CEO created the team & is very supportive. They're solid. 14 & fin
