Curators Gain A New Power

As so much on the internet now is locked behind paywalls, there is a new opportunity for curators. Many subscription-based publications now allow their subscribers to share links that give full access to a particular piece. The subscriber can then post a link on social media, giving their followers access to the article and, at the same time, the publication gets to advertise to a new potential subscriber.¹ This gives another tool to the curator, who can not only recommend writing, but can also give the reader access they might not have had without following the curator.

This new system feels almost necessary when so many publications are putting their work behind paywalls. It’s a different landscape for those following the news on the internet than it was just a few years ago. The curator’s primary advantage is taking a large chunk of the information that’s out there and distilling it down to the best content. This was disrupted by the fact that paywalls that were put up by some of the top publications prevented the curator’s followers from accessing it. Now that many of those publications allow access through sharing, the value that the curator provides increasingly important.

For someone who uses this new power to the reader’s advantage, checkout Dave Pell’s NextDraft. Pell bills himself as the “editor of the internet” and does an excellent job summarizing the day’s interesting news.

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1. Now, if only Substack would catch onto this.↩︎

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