Better distinction

Thinking about publishers vs carriers, ran into a concept that isn’t usually included.

Carriers are roads, postal systems, railroads, telegraphs, telephones, and the hardware of the Web.

A carrier makes money by quantity, not quality.

Roads formerly charged tolls by weight, and a few still do. Postal systems charge by weight and volume. Railroads and freight services (UPS) do the same. Telegraphs and telephones charge by length of message. The web hardware (Comcast, Verizon) charges by the megabyte.

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Publishers also distribute materials, especially abstract materials like sound and text and images. They add value to the material by selecting, editing, censoring, and advertising the material. Advertising may be headlines and large fonts and attractive book covers to boost the more valuable material, or may include ads in other places to attract people to the material.

A publisher makes money by quality, not quantity.

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Facebook and Twitter select, edit, censor and advertise the material they distribute. Advertising may be just algorithmic preference (front page headlines) or may include ads in other places.

They are publishers.