Demand Media has found a system and are exploiting it. The reason everyone continues to say that ‘Content is king’ is because there are so many thrones these days. 24/7 news cycle needs content and it needs it fast. A well thought out article, written by someone with detail, scholarship and elegant prose – cannot sustain itself on a factory styled system.
Furthermore, outlets refuse to pay for that quality. The price of valuable journalism is going down and that is forcing writers into other jobs and while we still get our quantity we lose our quality. I admire Demand Media for feeding the system and using its data analytics but I still buy magazines off the rack sometimes to support a solid 12 page feature on something interesting. Good writing takes time – be patient. Go read the Ebert article posted several days ago and you will agree.