The open web as we knew it is now a zombie.
The animating life force used to be this deal:
1) Publish the best content you can.
2) Let it be indexed.
3) The front doors of the Internet send traffic to the best things.
4) Once users are on your site you can show ads or try to upsell to a subscription.
5) Use your revenue to create more good content.
If any step is missing, the loop doesn't close.
That deal has been on life support for years in the late stage of the web.
But now LLMs put a stake through the heart of it and its soul is well and truly dead.
Step 4 is now completely replaced, because LLMs can just generate a high-quality summary on demand.
Now the only way publishing content makes sense is for the small number of publishers that are well known enough to get a critical mass of subscribers and put their content behind a paywall.
Cozy little bright spots locked away; a barren desert everywhere else.