你是否厌倦了YouTube和TikTok等大型平台上为你推荐视频的算法？或者，你是一个视频创作者，厌倦了那些不把你的作品推送给潜在观众的算法？安德鲁·莫尔斯想和你聊聊。莫尔斯曾在大媒体机构工作多年，最近则在地方新闻领域任职（《亚特兰大宪报》），他目前正在打造一家名为Phareo的初创公司，希望有朝一日能与互联网媒体巨头匹敌。
Are you sick of the algorithms that serve you video on giant platforms like YouTube and TikTok? Or are you a video-maker who's sick of the algorithms that don't serve your stuff to would-be watchers? Andrew Morse would like to talk to you. Morse, who spent years working in big media and most recently in local news (The Atlanta Journal-Constution), is building Phareo, a startup he hopes will one day rival internet media heavyweights.
他说，秘诀在于：他自己研发的AI驱动发现引擎，将让视频观众和视频创作者都满意。说得客气一点，这是一个非常艰巨的任务。但这仍然值得一谈，因为莫尔斯正瞄准一个如今在创作者圈子里经常被提及的问题：内容创作者从平台获得的待遇越来越差，因为他们无法控制谁能看到自己的作品。Phareo（这个名字暗指古代亚历山大的法罗斯灯塔）表示，可以通过收入分成和期权等手段，给创作者实实在在的激励，让他们为公司制作独家内容，从而解决这个问题。
The secret sauce, he says: his own AI-powered discovery engine that will make both video-watchers and video-makers happy. This is, to put it politely, a very tall order. But it's still worth talking about, since Morse is homing in on a problem you hear a lot about in creator circles these days: the sense that people who make content are getting increasingly bad deals from platforms, because they can't control who sees their stuff. Phareo (the name is an allusion to Pharos, the ancient lighthouse of Alexandria) says it can solve that problem by giving creators real incentives to make exclusive stuff for the company, via levers like revenue share and options.
莫尔斯计划在1月上线，首批将有25位创作者入驻。这款应用最初将是免费的广告支持服务，但他希望最终能推出付费层级。本周我与他聊了他的计划、不断变化的媒体格局，以及为什么他在推出一个创作者经济应用的同时，却越来越担心创作者经济。以下是我们对话的编辑节选：彼得·卡夫卡：你面临一个典型的先有鸡还是先有蛋的问题：除非新应用上有消费者在别处得不到的吸引人的内容，否则他们不会使用它。
Morse plans to launch in January with an initial group of 25 creators. The app will start out as a free, ad-supported service, but he hopes to eventually offer a paid tier. I talked to him this week about his plans, the shifting media landscape, and why he's increasingly worried about the creator economy — at the same time he's launching a creator economy app. This is an edited excerpt of our conversation: Peter Kafka: You have a classic chicken/egg problem: Consumers are not going to use a new app unless it has compelling content they can't get somewhere else.
而内容创作者除非有庞大的受众，否则也不愿意把自己的作品放上去。安德鲁·莫尔斯：这是我们必须要解决的最重要的问题。它始于不满，始于消费者和创作者的一种信念——他们目前没有得到尽可能好的服务。
Content-makers don't want to put their stuff there unless there's a big audience. Andrew Morse: It is the most important question we have to solve. It starts with dissatisfaction, and it starts with a belief from consumers and creators, that they're not being currently served as well as they could be.
所以我们正在与那些认为必须有更好替代方案的创作者合作。考虑到平台的发展方向，以及他们的创作对并不服务于他们的算法的过度依赖，我们其实没有什么可失去的。我们将与创作者一起建设，努力打造一个极具热情的核心群体，并以此为起点发展壮大。但YouTube、TikTok、Reels等平台在给我提供大量视频方面做得很好。
So we're working with creators who believe that there has to be a better alternative. We don't really have anything to lose, given the direction that the platforms are taking and given the overreliance that their creative work has on algorithms that don't serve them. We're going to build with creators and try to build a super-passionate core and grow from there. But YouTube, TikTok, Reels, etc do a great job of giving me tons of video.
而且它们的内容无限。你怎么让我从我已经在用的平台转移过来？这是一个具有讽刺意味的难题——我们试图解决发现的问题，但我们自己却需要被发被发现。多年来，我见过很多公司说他们在试图解决发现问题。但消费者似乎并没有发现的问题。有问题的是内容所有者，他们难以让自己的作品呈现在消费者面前。消费者有什么动力去转向内容所有者喜欢的平台呢？
And they have unlimited content. How do you move me over from the platforms I'm already using? It's an ironic conundrum — we're trying to solve the discovery problem, but we have to be discovered ourselves. Over the years, I've seen many companies say they're trying to solve a discovery problem. But it doesn't seem like consumers have a discovery problem. It's the content owners who have a problem getting their stuff in front of consumers. What's the incentive for consumers to move to a platform content-owners like?
这里有一个固有的假设，即消费者对现有平台感到满意。我不认为那是真的。我认为消费者之所以在这些平台上，是因为他们不得不在那里。他们是否能以高效的方式获得想要的内容，完全是另一回事。对你那些现在为大卫·埃里森工作的前CNN同事有什么建议吗？专注于工作本身。重要的始终是新闻业。真相、事实和出色的叙事永远会脱颖而出。
There's an inherent assumption that consumers are satisfied with the platforms. I don't think that that's true. I think consumers are on these platforms because they have to be. Whether they're getting what they want in an efficient way is an entirely different story. Any advice for your former CNN colleagues who are now working for David Ellison? Stay focused on the work. It's always the journalism that matters. And the truth and the facts and great storytelling will always rise to the top.
我们看到源源不断的记者离开CNN这样的地方，开始自己做。你认为随着人们意识到靠个人媒体谋生有多么困难，这一趋势会加速还是会停滞？我担心这种创作者经济——它实际上是关于建立在YouTube背上的生意。如果你回到2016年、2017年，许多非常聪明、非常有创造力的生意是建立在社交平台背上的。
We have seen a steady stream of journalists leaving places like CNN and starting their own thing. Do you think that trend accelerates or stalls out as people realize how difficult it is to do solo media for a living? I'm concerned about this creator economy — which is really about about businesses that have built themselves on the back of YouTube. If you go back to 2016, 2017, a number of really clever, really creative businesses were built on the back of social platforms.
当算法改变时，这些企业几乎不可能维持生存。对我们CNN来说也很艰难，但我们的业务规模足够大，能够减轻影响并渡过难关。而对其他这些公司来说，这是灾难性的。我认为你会看到越来越多的人试图单干——而这正是让我害怕的。因为我认为，局势可能开始发生一些转变。
When the algorithms changed, it became almost impossible for these businesses to stay afloat. It was hard for us at CNN, but we had a big enough business that we were able to mitigate and ride the wave. For these other companies, it was disastrous. I think you're going to see more and more people trying to go out on their own — and that's what scares me. Because I think that the sands may begin to shift a little bit.