The Open Web Is Roadkill—And Investors Are Driving the Truck
Walk down Bedford Avenue this Friday night and try to find anyone under 40 who still lands on a publisher’s homepage. You won’t. The open web is fossilized, and the so-called ‘digital innovation economy’ is the one dumping sand on its grave. Publishers are bleeding out on the curb, but the money guys couldn’t care less—unless you’re spinning up another closed-walled AI playground or SEO hallucination farm.
I’ve seen the investor decks. Not a single slide mentions ‘open access’ or ‘reader trust.’ It’s all “engagement tunnels,” “AI stickiness,” and—my favorite—”algorithmic content flywheels.” Translation: build a moat, set up toll booths, and let the open web rot. Meanwhile, if you’re a publisher still clinging to the old dream of audience growth through actual journalism, congrats: your traffic graph looks like a ski slope in July.
And let’s talk about Facebook, that eternal zombie. Scroll through any group or feed this week and it’s a parade of AI bros with rented Lambos, selling “prompt engineering” to other AI bros. The platform’s become a holding pen for the same grifters who murdered the idea of a public commons in the first place. If you’re hoping for referrals from social, get real—Facebook is now a low-effort, low-trust spam zone, and the best you can hope for is a handful of bot clicks and a phishing DM.
The real-world result? The open web is now a fossil on display for VCs to point and laugh at during their rooftop parties. The only people who still care are the ones without enough runway to jump onto the next AI bandwagon. The rest are too busy chasing fractional ad shares from platforms that would rather set themselves on fire than send you a single high-intent user.
You want the real recommendation? Stop pretending the open web is coming back. Get your content off rented platforms, kill your dependency on Google, and build direct, human-to-human distribution: newsletters, events, actual community. If your business model requires Facebook or some AI aggregator to send you traffic, you don’t have a business. You have a hospice bed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the article say the open web is dying?
The article argues that investors and platforms now prioritize closed ecosystems, AI-driven content, and engagement metrics over open access and genuine journalism, causing the open web to decline.
How are publishers affected by the decline of the open web?
Publishers are struggling to survive as their traffic sharply declines and they become increasingly dependent on platforms that no longer send them meaningful users.
What role do investors play in the decline of the open web?
Investors focus on building closed systems with ‘engagement tunnels’ and ‘algorithmic content flywheels,’ ignoring open access and reader trust, which accelerates the demise of the open web.
What does the article say about Facebook’s current state for publishers?
Facebook is described as a low-effort, low-trust spam zone dominated by AI promoters and grifters, offering little valuable traffic to publishers.
What solutions does the article recommend for publishers?
The article recommends moving away from reliance on Google and Facebook and instead building direct distribution channels like newsletters, events, and real communities.
