Metrics, Fees and Regulations

Metrics.

The basic way a media company works is, you make stuff, and you show it to people, and they like to look at it, and then you go to other companies and say "hey look how many people are looking at our stuff, would you like to put an advertisement for your stuff next to our stuff?" And they say yes, and pay you. And you develop metrics -- measuring how many people look at your stuff, and for how long, and how rich they are and how likely they are to buy products -- to convince the advertisers to pay you more. This is to some extent a matter of scientific measurement, but it is mostly a matter of persuasion: Your job is to craft a story about how, sure, not that many people are looking at your stuff, but they are all hip young influencers with disposable income, so the the advertisers should pay a lot to reach them. The art is not in measuring the raw numbers; it's in explaining the value hidden in those numbers.