In a recent piece on Poynter, a journalism training organization and think tank of sorts, addressed a clear and possibly present danger to our democracy -- paywalls. These paywalls are great for revenue generation, but they also cause information to be gated and not accessible to check facts, educated, and hold the powers-that-be accountable for their actions.

The only way this will happen is if election coverage, especially while it's relevant is free to consume, not just by subscribers but by EVERYONE.

So, this probably has less to do about marketing and more do with an industry disrupted by the internet as whole. It's an industry that is near and dear to my heart. I spent some of my best early years in my 20s working for newspapers in Pennsylvania. I lived my dream of being a "cub reporter" and covering the, often boring, but important local stories. I also got to cover some big stories too, some that have had both a positive and negative affect on me today.

Yes, this isn't so much a monologue about marketing as it is about the state of the fourth estate, but it's important to acknowledge and discuss. So thank you for humoring me. What do you think? Hit reply and let me know your thoughts and definitely check out the Poynter story.

Web Finds

• Instagram Tests New ‘Live Producer’ Tool to Facilitate More Professional Looking IG Live Streams
  It was bound to happen; Instagram is letting people produce higher quality Live Streams on the platform by providing a "Live Producer" tool. This could be really neat and make these videos more sticky and less amateur-looking.
• The Battle To Save The Internet Archive
  The Internet Archive has saved my ass more than once. The Wayback Machine alone has saved me from losing whole site builds. But also the archive stores my old podcasts that are no longer in production. The archive is in danger from publishers who don't like that they act like a library and lend out books and well... archive the internet for the good of humanity.
• 5 Ways to Deal With Negative Comments on Social Media
  Buffer, the app that lets you schedule your posts on social media, has a great post about how brands, and people in general, can deal with negative comments on social media. One of the biggest ones, is don't just ignore them. Especially if you're a brand. Address them head-on appropriately.
• “I Don't Think He's Screwed At All.” Musk Might Be In Better Shape Than You Think.
  Alex Kantrowitz of the Big Technology newsletter thinks Musk is going to be just fine and even better than before. This Twitter-Musk saga is a gift that keeps giving for tech journalists and pundits. I'm not sure I agree or want to agree. What do you think?
• 15 Newsletter Growth Tips: How I Grew #SEOFOMO from +1K to 17K Subscribers within 2 Years
  Aleyda is one of the best SEOs out there, in my opinion, she has an excellent newsletter that she puts out weekly called #SEOFOMO, which share some of the biggest news in the world of SEO from the past week. This is a great rundown on how her list went from 1k to 17k subs within a year. That's amazing growth.
• Why Expertise is the Most Important Ranking Factor of Them All
  Lily Ray is another fantastic SEO. In this article she talks about how having an expertise on a topic on your site really does matter to rank well. Have a focus and become an expert and you'll rank well.
• 7 Benefits of Temporary Habits
  An interesting read about how picking up habits for a short time then changing them up can actually be a good thing.
• Podchaser has been acquired by ACast
  This is big news as Podchaser is one of the few independent podcast directories out there. I'm personally really curious what this will change in the realm of podcasting. Of course, they claim nothing's going to change. But does that every happen? Thoughts?

Newsletter Of Note

Remember the days of the internet when it really was the wild west? AOL Instant Messenger was HUGE; Kazaa and Napster were not quite legal, but everyone was on them. Remember those days? I sure do. GarbageDay.Email is an email newsletter put out by Ryan Broderick, a freelance journalist. It won a Webby and is a Substack featured publication. All this is to say that, this newsletter covers all the great stuff online that can be missed. It has a free version, but for a few bucks it's worth getting the publication regularly. Hat tip to Kinsey Grant of Thinking Is Cool for putting me on to this newsletter!

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Until next week, stay curious!

Featured Image: Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash