It’ll be 22 years of publishing for MacDailyNews next month (September 18th).
So far we’ve published 81,579 posts. That’s an average of 3,708 posts per year or 309 per month.
Sometimes, we’re even a bit prescient: Is Apple building ‘The Device?’ – December 10, 2002
When MacDailyNews.com started (we wrote our own CMS using a simple language to create and maintain a database with some rudimentary HTML – you can see what the first site looked like here), it made just over $60 the first month. We didn’t start publishing until the 18th day of the month, so to generate $60 in 12 days was pretty good back then. Interest in Apple news was high. The site paid for its hosting that month (and every month since). At our height, hosting alone cost over 25x our original hosting bill (of course, many of our earliest visitors were still on dial up! We started the site on dial up 😲!).
In the Steve Jobs II era, the site was lucrative enough to actually live on, with some excess which we used to invest in AAPL. Thank God and Jobs we did that! Several splits later, dividends, stock price increases – those investments in AAPL have worked out well.
Today, the site generates almost exactly 1/8th of what it did when Steve Jobs was alive. It’s not enough to live on. Hourly, it works out to below minimum wage, which is why it’s becoming more and more difficult to devote a ton of hours to it.
See also: Visionary: Hear Steve Jobs, at the dawn of App Store, predict the future of mobile (and mention MacDailyNews) – July 26, 2018
Getting paid 1/8th of what you were once paid for the same amount of work is… something. So, we look on the bright side: it’s a unique situation that most people don’t get to experience. 🙂 Also, it’s a challenge: Can we keep it going? Can we grow revenue to livable levels again?
When the U.S. FTC approved Google acquisition of DoubleClick in 2007, it was a huge mistake. Google monopolized search and digital advertising. The advertising rates held up for a couple of years and then the monopolist did what monopolists do. Rates declined.
It did not help that ad-blocking arose at that time, too. Nor did it help that at the same time Apple lost its charismatic, visionary leader. A live Steve Jobs keynote drew eyeballs!
This confluence of events ended up killing many small, independent publishers, including a huge portion of what was once referred to as the “Mac web.” We miss sites like MacSurfer (thankfully, we still have MacHash!), MacNN, and many others. The handful of us left are devoted to coverage of all things Apple.
Soon, there was no way to pay for the site’s operation but to look to reader contributions. We currently have a small group of contributors who keep the site going, but it’s not enough to live on, much less to allow us to turn off ads once and for all. Without our MacDailyNews contributors, the site would not have made it even to 20 years and we’re now nearly two years past that!
Thank you so, so much, MacDailyNews contributors! Without you, MacDailyNews simply would not exist.
Now, we’re trying Substack. This way – at macdailynews.substack.com – we can offer unique, extra AD-FREE content meant only for subscribers (plus, of course, everything else posted here on MacDailyNews.com).
Please consider subscribing to enjoy subscriber-only content with NO ADS and also to help keep MacDailyNews going for another 22 years!
Thank you,
MacDailyNews
Longtime MDN reader here. (Probably 20 years or more.) Longtime Mac user. (My first Mac had dual floppy drives and no hard drive. Remember dogcow?). Longtime AAPL stockholder (secured my financial future, over time, from a very modest investment). Came here for Mac news and stayed for broader Apple News. Left for a time after political comments and right-wing trolling got out of hand, encouraged by MDN itself. Returned, tentatively, after a while, as this is/was a great site for Apple news aggregation IF you can overlook certain commenters (at least one of whom I’ve always suspected is MDN’s anonymous founder himself). MDN could have policed the comments but chose not to, hoping that allowing itself to be a platform for right-wing lies and propaganda would give it a strong reader base of people who are susceptible to that. Instead, it chased away folks who can see through the nonsense and had no need and no patience to put up with such schoolyard name-calling and bullying. (Not one of them ever makes a single serious political point. It’s all self-important boasting and blather.) Why MDN chose to alienate such a huge portion of its audience remains a mystery. Youthful arrogance, perhaps? Now, you’re asking me to pay to be verbally abused in such a manner? No, thank you. I’ll stick around for a while, and I’ll be a little sad when you ultimately close down this site. You had a good thing going, and you could have kept it going and increased its popularity with just a little bit of editorial integrity. But ultimately, it was your choice to turn the comments section over to the trolls and let them run it off a cliff. Too bad. Too bad for you, too bad for me, and too bad for a lot of other readers who just wanted to visit (and otherwise would have supported) you as a lively Apple news aggregation site. Too bad for all of us. I’m sorry to see you fall into the “beleaguered” category. Truly, I am. Sorry to see to endless reminders of Michael Dell’s infamous quote when AAPL hit a new all-time high go away. Sorry to lose MDN’s snarky “takes.” But the political vitriol that flourishes under your watch ultimately isn’t worth it to me. Too much sound and fury signifying nothing but bitterness and insult. Better luck in your next endeavor. (And yes, when the trolls react to this, I will ignore them.)
So, in a nutshell:
Sonomaman and his ilk would be fine with it, if MDN censored conservative viewpoints like pre-Musk Twitter did. Sonomaman etc.. would then be able to bathe together in a warm puddle of groupthink where their warped leftist views would go forever unchallenged.
You people lack such self awareness.
Ignore this!
You probably had no troubs reading DED’s Roughly Drafted which was loaded with left politics, and heavy criticism of the right. He was ridiculous at what he did/does on the Apple side and so is/was MDN.
Where Mac news comes first! (And Rush and friends are a close second!)
Haha.
It will be sad if you leave. But understandable. It’s not just you but the entire mac web is basically slowly dying. 9 to 5 has gone lefty political so they are dead to me. So it leaves very few good web sites that get technical in anyway. The big ones being AppleInsider and MacRumors. Also a few others here:
https://www.macintouch.com
https://eclecticlight.co/category/macs/
https://www.cultofmac.com
As to why. I think it’s a bunch of things. The quality of reader has gone to crap (much like macOS and iOS apps). Everything ran to the lowest common denominator and to bottom of barrel pricing. There are no more good programmers. The days of rock stars like Bill Atkinson are over (he’s snapping photos). You have library/script mills in india producing subscription crap. Also, even apple has lost a lot of its luster. It produces Skully like revenue and then some, but sadly, even less inspiring tech and even less responsive to enthusiast users. They don’t market to ‘think different’ people, they market to mass drones.
So the readership is of suck quality. And the subject matter itself, apple, is now suck subject matter, and so enthusiast think different people have scattered. Some to the retro scene where there are often cooler things going on than in the mainstream scene.
It’s sad, but it’s where we are. And it’s a smaller microcosm of a very sad culture.
As for all the think different folks, I hope we can still find each other, and meet again, and enjoy many more fun times. But if we do not, fair thee well. And fair thee well and well done MDN. And thank you for many years of enjoyment and fighting the good fight!
You are spot on with thoughts on Apple. It is not the same Apple as when Steve Jobs was at the helm. There was an excitement when he was around and Apple was innovating. With Jobs, it felt like the focus wasn’t on revenue and profits, but creating and building the best products possible. Since Tim took over, it seems things reversed. Apple seems focused now on increasing revenue and profits, rather than innovating and creating the best products.
These days, Apple is quite boring and rigid. In the past, I was a huge Apple fanboy and had nearly every product in multiples. Now days, I use Android (like the customization) for my phone and tablet, and Ubuntu Linux for my desktop OS (on a Dell laptop). For work, I do still have a MacBook Pro.
Macs are the last Apple product I continue to use. Macs and macos, as well as, most Apple products continue to be very polished. That said, they also feel too restrictive and locked-down.
I feel for you all, you are in a tough position. I can sympathize as my income now is what is was 10 years ago; however, my expenses are 3x+ what they were back then, and, I have moved to one of the most expensive areas of the country due to work. It doesn’t add up. One can only live on savings for so long until they are depleted.
While I think capitalism and free market are good things, I also think they need to be reigned in a bit. The US has got to the point where all the money and power is with large corporations and billionaires and they continually take more and more from the bottom and put it up top. It is nearly impossible for a small business to thrive and for many people to earn enough to get ahead. I am not advocating for socialism, capitalism, or any other form of government. I just want to see fairness and equal opportunity available to all; not free handouts, but the ability to do well if you are willing to put in the work.
While I would hate to see MDN leave, I understand. While I would love to be able to pay for a subscription to keep it going, unfortunately the money is not there. Companies are all on the subscription bandwagon — even HP tried it with printers! Look at what streaming subscriptions have done; I was paying more for all the subscriptions than I did for cable (I’ve since cancelled all subscriptions).
Sorry for the rant. I want to say thank you for the years of content. I hope you can find a way to remain online; however, I understand if you shutdown. I wish you all the best!
I’ll keep requesting it. Allow Litecoin as a payment. You set up a Coinbase account or even just self custody it and I’ll send small amounts to you regularly, not just monthly or annually.
Gotta love the “If the article/comments doesn’t meet my agenda it must be taken down”
But if it was left wing you would be ok with it
I also run a tech news site since 2006 and have thought about hanging it up a few times. I asked for donations, thought about a paywall, and other things to try and keep going, but with everybody paying for all of these streaming and other “more important” services, you’re NOT going to find persons willing to pay for content that they can get somewhere else for free.
I too thought about a paywall, but like I said above, with everyone paying for all of these streaming services, good luck in trying to get subscribers – let alone a donation here and there.
Tell us you don’t really visit and read MDN without actually telling us.
https://macdailynews.com/?s=how+to
I’ll have to think about it. I love the news, but could do without the frequent political commentary.
This used to be a site I visited daily. Multiple times a day. I used to make it a point to click your ads to generate some revenue for you. However, the political jabs and bias drove me away. I now visit maybe once a month or so. You and the posters may not like this answer, but its a truthful one.
You should keep the Mac News and jettison everything else this site has done, especially allowing off topic posts. Moving to a different spot on the internet won’t solve the fundamental problem, you’ve already driven away the vast majority of your nonmaga audience.
#stop all the politics
I really hope you an continue. You’re my #1 Apple site I use. So awhile back when you asked for support, we signed on. Unfortunately Iit was the minimum support as my wife and I are both retired, taking care of her mom and living on limited income. So, at this point all we can do is hope that enough others will step up to also help. Here’s to more MacDailyNews!
You guys should have let me donate Bitcoin years ago!
I gladly support MDN and so I subscribed for a year. But I don’t like how Substack works. It seems complicated and is frustrating. All I want to do is read MDN news.
I’m an Apple user and long time investor who doesn’t live in America. Any site which contains off-topic political stuff of any persuasion is a massive turn off for me. Quite frankly, too many people here act like dicks. Just look at some of the comments already in this thread.
I used to be quite active on this site, but for a few years I started stepping away because it has long since stopped being a civilised place where mature and intelligent Apple discussions can take place.
To everything there is a season. I feel that for MDN, that season has been drawing to a close for a while now. It has lost sight of its original raison d’être. It has become something quite different and often rather unpleasant.
Please keep it going! Not only myself, but many friends and family members as well rely on this site/app to get their daily Mac news. I already make a monthly contribution, but am happy to increase it if doing so will ensure the continuation of your operation.
Personally, I enjoy the article, but the comments half the time are just pro-trump messages that barely have anything to do with the actual post.
Keep politics out of tech news…
Whatever you are spending to keep this website going, you should put that money to some other use.
I purchased an annual subscription to support MDN. But I am not happy with Substack Why don’t you just offer a subscription model yourself: Homepage visible to anybody, article itself only for subscribers. I already cancelled my subscription with Substack after it runs out.
About 20 years ago, around the “I’m a Mac/I’m a PC” days, I purchased a t-shirt which simply says “I owned a Mac before they were cool”.
I could imagine a similar shirt now reading “I read MDN when they were cool”.
I used to obsessively come to this site several times a day to check on Everything Apple. And then about 6-7 year ago, on this site Everything Apple seemed to intertwine with Everything Political. In articles, MDN takes, and comments. It didn’t matter if I agreed or disagreed with views being made, that was not what I came here for and it just became a huge turn-off. Now I briefly catch up on the site maybe every 2 weeks. I’m very sorry for your financial situation and I have donated to your site many times in the past. But it looks like our roads are finally veering away from each other. I cannot bring myself to pay for what should be straight-up Apple news but need to wade through a ton of various political commentary to find it.
Best of luck and THANK YOU for the many, many years of great articles and takes. Incidentally, you helped make me a rich man by reinforcing what I’ve alway known, Apple and Steve Jobs made the best computers and then other devices in the world.
I have been John Gee on this site for over 20 years. Where are the rest of you name changers!?
Before we go can we have a roll call of the classic posters on this site just for nostalgia and some continuity?
If you posted anywhere from 15 to 20 years ago sound off!!! (And if you changed your handle post that too…)
TowerTone…Kent…Botvinnik…where you be??
Do what’s best for you. I honesly couldn’t care.
I started reading this site way back in the early 00’s.
It’s lived throught the good times. Now it’s infected with American right wingers and apple news is less prescient, I pop by once a week.
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