The Professional Content Creator Is (Almost) Dead
The creative arts are facing a crisis. The rise of cheap, generic content and the looming threat of AI are making it increasingly difficult for creators to survive.
Who or what is a professional content creator today?
Long gone are the days when a content creator could simply focus on crafting compelling narratives. The professional creator was a storyteller then, a weaver of words, a purveyor of information. We’d sit down at our typewriters, lost in the world of our imaginations, crafting tales that would captivate and inspire. As a journalist, you were a writer in a rush, unlike your fiction-writing peers, quickly producing news reports or opinion pieces with the hope of shaping public opinion.The only thing we had to worry about was the editor’s red pen.
Today, we’re told that everything is content — product descriptions, internal communications, shorts, reels, e-books, research papers, and much more.
From largely proper nouns we’ve become common and even collective nouns.
Today’s content creator is expected to be a digital nomad, a jack of all trades forced to juggle the roles of writer, marketer, SEO expert, tech master, social media guru, and psychic (trying to predict what the ever-changing search algorithms will demand next), all rolled in one. And let’s not forget about the constant need to stay updated on the latest tech trends and tools. It’s like trying to drink from a firehose while juggling chainsaws.
Of course, content creators must also be software/hardware wizards. We must be proficient in using intricate tools — WordPress, Figma, even HubSpot, with a little bit of Jira thrown in for that extra kick.
It’s like asking a chef to not only cook a gourmet meal but also design the menu, wait tables, and handle the marketing campaign.
If you don’t believe me, just read a JD for a content creator/strategist, whatever. I kid you not — in most cases, it reads something like this: Must be proficient in writing, SEO, marketing, social media, data analysis, blah, blah, blah. Oh, and did we mention you’ll be expected to work for free?”
Yes, even though THEY throw around phrases like “Content Is King”, the content creator finds himself a pauper today, almost always on the lowest rung in the professional pecking order. Because, you see, urban legend has it that anybody can churn out content. Anybody with access to Microsoft Word or a smartphone camera. So why pay top dollar? Indeed, why pay for content at all?
The bitter truth is — Regurgitation is King.
Hey, Ma, Look, Free Content!!!
It’s as if the world has decided that content should be as abundant and free as air. Newsletters, once a coveted subscription, are now expected to be delivered to our inboxes daily, at no cost. Blog posts, once a niche form of expression, are now expected to be optimized for search engines, shareable on social media, and engaging enough to keep readers clicking. But dare ask someone to pay for the subscription….
The idea for this post came from a market survey I carried out while planning to launch a content service. Of the 25-odd people I asked, every one of them said YES to receiving the service but NO to paying for it.
The days of being paid for quality content seem to be fading into the rearview mirror.
Gen-AI Has Destroyed This Career
Which brings me to generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI).It would not be a tall claim if I were to state that the one profession that this new technology has destroyed is content creation. Clients just do not give a fig between shit content and quality content. Because that’s the way the Internet is configured. Intentionally. By profit-hungry search engines that have encouraged perfect SEO over shitty content. Organic SEO is a never-ending struggle, more convoluted than Elon Musk’s plans for Mars (just consider the constant flood of algorithm changes).In contrast, paid ads are like candy for search engines — they can’t get enough. Then again, don’t forget, a huge chunk of clicks come from either bots or people hired to mindlessly click on random ads.
Creators have been enslaved by online platforms, then be it social media, a publishing platform, or a search engine. We do not create for real people, we create for profit-making and profit-hungry platforms, products, and services. And, if in return, if they do pay you, it will be in pennies and cents. So please, please do not fall for those stories that tell you how to become a millionaire on any of these platforms. That’s the PR, honey. They need your content to keep their money wheels moving. For that one Mr. Beast, there are millions of unsuccessful creators out there. One swallow doesn’t make a summer and all that jazz.
At first, content creators were expected to give away their work for free. Many did, hoping that the exposure would lead to more opportunities. Till they realized the con job. For in a world saturated with content, exposure alone is no longer enough.
Now, with gen-AI and automation in the picture, the last of human content creators are on their way out. Poof. Before long, they’ll disappear, much like an ancient tribe lost to time — preserved only in museums and remembered in history books. We can keep talking of the “value” of quality content till kingdom come, but nobody’s listening. It’s not because they are deaf. It’s because they now have gen-AI (automation) that will cater to at least 95% of the total content demand.
The world is on the brink of losing talented writers and thinkers because of cheap, stingy clients and gen-AI. Nobody seems to care.
You may call this post a rant — I care a damn. I know that most content creators will agree with me, though not openly. Never in my wildest dreams would I’ve predicted that there would come a day when I would have to compete against a machine in producing content. Sadly, that is today’s reality.
