Welcome! I'm Simon Owens and this is my media industry newsletter. If you've received it, then you either subscribed or someone forwarded it to you.

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Let’s jump into it…

Quick hits

"Facebook remains one of the most powerful and far-reaching distribution platforms in the world. By further limiting the reach of trusted news publishers ... they will only exacerbate the information crisis in America they’ve helped to create.” [WSJ]

I've been around long enough to see many supposed "Google killers" come and go. The company employs some of the smartest AI people on the planet, and so I'm skeptical that Chat GPT poses a real threat to its dominance. [Insider]

Media companies should really stop investing in expensive office space. Not only does it add unnecessary overhead, but it severely limits their ability to hire the best people for open job roles. [Digiday]

Instagram's algorithm continues to be absolutely terrible at surfacing high quality videos. I'm consistently astonished by the amount of dogshit content that it pushes into my own feed. [New Yorker]

"The resulting gap between user adoption and monetization has left publishers investing in vertical video on the premise that the returns will materialize as the space matures." Hmm, where have we encountered that logic before??? [Adweek]

How to build a successful B2B media company

B2B used to be the least sexy space in media, but in the last decade we’ve seen a new crop of B2B media companies that are proving to be far more innovative than their B2C peers. Recently, I convened a panel of experts to talk about all the various aspects of B2B media — including running events, launching paid subscriptions, finding sponsors, and building out niche editorial products.

Below is a recording of the live Zoom call I had with my newsletter’s paid subscribers. After the call, I received two unsolicited emails from attendees. Here’s the first:

Hi Simon,

Just wanted to thank you again for the invitation yesterday. You really managed to gather a nice crowd and the information shared was super relevant to what I do.

And here’s the second:

Simon,

Today's "Office Hours" was great. Whether intentionally or not, you are allowing aspiring content creators/entrepreneurs access to people who have been there, done that.

That access is both rare and valuable. Thanks again for a great presentation.

Anyway, watch the conversation embedded below:

Do you live in the Washington, DC area?

I’m tired of Zoom calls — my goal for 2023 is to organize social gatherings for industry people. If you want to be invited to one of these social gatherings, then reach out. I’m compiling a spreadsheet of local content/media operators.

Want to read more of my day-to-day media commentary?

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Have a great weekend!