It's called "Three Rules for Making a Company Great."
The first rule is:
1. Better before cheaper
Demand Media severely violated rule number 1. They were all about cheaper before better. Their entire business model seemed to be about producing as much low quality content as possible. No wonder Google wanted to penalize them.
Think about this: If Demand has built their empire on producing super-high-quality articles, they would have had Google as an ally, instead of a threat. Google would have done what it takes to make sure they stuck around. Because Google wants high quality content. Instead, they abused Google's search engine, generating as much content as they could -- with very little focus on quality.
It is fortunate that many companies today are focusing on quality first. The fate of Demand Media is a good lesson for us all.
If we want to build something that lasts, we'll have a much easier time if we're building something that people actually want to stick around.
Who thinks the "content" produced by Demand Media is worth fighting for?
Their investors. Anyone else? I highly doubt it.
http://hbr.org/2013/04/three-rules-for-making-a-company-trul...