COVID-19, Journalism & AllYourScreens.com

Even before this pandemic decimated the worldwide economy, operating a small, independent news site wasn't seen as an especially smart career move. All the best people running their small blogs in the aughts ended up with jobs at legacy news outlets and have pretty much declared the small blog/web site to be "dead." And the latest generation of budding content monkeys seem to have settled on the revolving and precarious career path of cranking out freelance pieces for as many outlets as possible.

And to be fair, running a web site like AllYourScreens is often a harrowing experience. Even large successful sites from Buzzfeed to Variety make as much money from events and VIP research packages as they do from advertising. And over the past few years you've seen those sites cram as much auto-playing video and "click on this insane headline" advertising as their increasingly bloated web pages can hold. It is a reasonably successful business model, but it's not one that smaller sites can pull off.

AllYourScreens is essentially a one-man web site. I do have some part-time help I can bring in and you'll occasionally see freelance pieces here. But for the most part, I'm here cranking out as much new content as possible, while juggling screeners, pitch emails and all of the mundane tech problems that can arise with any independent web site. 

I sometimes describe AllYourScreens as the old country store of the entertainment/media news business and I think it's a pretty accurate description. I don't try and cover every single show that's on the air. Aside from the fact that it's impossible for one (or even five) people to do given the hundreds of shows on the air each week, being a completest isn't what gives this web site value to visitors. No one needs to read another hot take on "Westworld" or "Better Call Saul." And even if I want to cover those stalwart shows, it's difficult for me to cut through all of the SEO clutter from much bigger web sites.

The sweet spot for AllYourScreens seems to be filling the role of the television equivalent of the veteran record store clerk or the "I've seen everything we rent" video store employee of the 1990s. We highlight stuff you might not be aware of, interview people you haven't read fifty other places and provide all sorts of random, fun features & photos on your favorite TV shows. Plus an unpredictable grab-bag of pieces on music, books and whatever else strikes my fancy.

At the end of the day, the stuff that is generally on AllYourscreens is the stuff I think is interesting and that's lured in an increasingly large audience. According to the site's Google Analytics, just over 1.5 million unique visitors in March and a return rate that's well above the industry average. And that traffic provides a nice, middle-class income that has been reasonably predictable.

But a lot has changed for AllYourScreens as the COVID-19 pandemic impacts the world-wide economy. 

In theory, more visitors would mean more money and traffic in April has surged. But the digital advertising market in general has been substantially impacted, which is one reason you're seeing so many much larger sites laying off journalists, cutting salaries or even shutting down completely. I can't speak to the health of their revenue streams, but I can give you some insight into what is happening here.

The bulk of the site's revenue comes from banner ads. I've purposely stayed away from things such as auto-play video and other advertising I find intrusive to the site's user experience. Yes, banner ads are old-school and in the low-hanging fruit of digital advertising. But in normal times, my site traffic more than pays the bills. Unfortunately, global pandemics have a way of changing the economic models of just about every business.

Generally speaking, banner ads come in two varieties: CPM and CPC. With CPM ads, the publisher receives a set amount per 1,000 ad impressions. This rate is generally pretty low (sometimes just a few cents per 1,000), but it can add up quickly when you're delivering millions of impressions per month. CPC (cost per click) advertising means the publisher gets paid ever time someone clicks on the banner ad. Generally, the publisher gets paid whether or not the customer makes a purchase or performs any other action other than visiting the advertiser's web site. CPC ads generally pay from 75 cents to several dollars per action. Which can rapidly become a strong revenue stream.

Rates for both types of ads have plunged in recent weeks. For AllYourScreens, the CPM rate is down 20-40% percent (depending on the ad service) & CPC rates have dipped around 25%. As you can imagine, that's led to some belt-tightening. I've put a very much needed site makeover on hold, stopped soliciting freelance pieces and cut other industry-related expenses. The fact that I can't travel for festivals or set visits saves some money. But things are definitely tight and are likely to get even tighter before this is all over.

My apologies for the length of this, but I wanted to let all of you know how things are going here at AllYourScreens. The site isn't going anywhere and I'm going to provide as much new content as I can. Although the fact that my wife has been sick with the coronavirus for 10 days has put a bit of a crimp in my workflow.

I'm not going to ask for donations to a Patreon account or suggest other ways to donate to the cause. But if you'd like to help keep this site healthy in both the short and long-term, just keep visiting. And support our advertisers, who are the lifeblood of the site. 

Thanks to all of you for your support!

Rick Ellis
Founder
AllYourScreens.com
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Twitter: @aysrick