Simon Owens's Tech and Media - The rise of the bookazine
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. If you fit into the latter camp and want to subscribe, then you can click on this handy little button: Let’s jump into it… Why Netflix is suddenly so interested in live sports Why are all the major streaming companies suddenly bidding on sports rights? Well, two reasons. The first is that the streaming market has reached the kind of mass adoption that will allow the major sports leagues to reach huge audiences. And the second is that most of the streamers have rolled out cheaper ad tiers and are hungry for live content:
The rise of the “bookazine” Those "special edition" magazines you see on newsstands at airports actually do make money. That's why we're seeing a shift within the industry where digital-only media companies are starting to put out print editions once or twice a year:
Monopolizing the subway commute The Evening Standard is attributing many of its revenue troubles to London introducing WIFI on its subway. It's a great illustration of how the internet eliminated the regional monopolies offered by print newspapers. Ad-supported streaming is still far superior to cable The New York Times writes about the rise of ad-supported streaming tiers and whether this undermines the claim that streaming apps offer a better user experience than cable:
Personally, I like the fact that I can at least pay a premium to TV streamers to get an ad-free experience. It's much better than the expensive cable bundle where the ads are not only mandatory, but incredibly interruptive. In the rare cases I find myself watching cable — usually in a hotel room — I'm astonished by how bad the experience is. How the Wonder Tools newsletter grew to 39,000 subscribers There’s this saying that “those who can’t do, teach,” but Jeremy Caplan actually practices what he preaches. By day, he instructs on entrepreneurial journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, and on his nights and weekends he writes Wonder Tools, a newsletter about the internet’s most useful websites and apps. Jeremy launched Wonder Tools in 2020 and has since grown it to 39,000 subscribers, which is pretty remarkable considering he’s still running it as just a side hustle. In a recent interview, he walked through all the strategies he uses to grow his audience, including:
Check out the interview over here. Local newspapers are doing away with editorials There's been a sharp decline in editorials published in local newspapers.
It’s never too late for a media career Vanity Fair published a great profile of a burnt-out lawyer who switched careers in her 40s and became MSNBC's top legal analyst.
AI companies are attempting to weed out partisan bias So far, the large AI LLMs have shown zero interest in signing licensing deals with highly-partisan media outlets. But does that mean that these LLMs aren't still harvesting content from those outlets? Who knows?
How Netflix completely transformed Hollywood Ted Sarandos reflects in a long NYT interview on how much Hollywood has changed since Netflix launched its first original series:
How the Creator Economy is upending media talent relations ESPN's struggles to manage Pat McAfee are a clear indicator of how much the media ecosystem has shifted toward the personal brand. It's hard not to draw parallels to when ESPN regularly disciplined Bill Simmons around a decade ago for relatively minor infractions:
I’m looking for more media entrepreneurs to feature on my newsletter and podcast One of the things I really pride myself on is that I don’t just focus this newsletter on covering the handful of mainstream media companies that every other industry outlet features. Instead, I go the extra mile to find and interview media entrepreneurs who have been quietly killing it behind the scenes. In most cases, the operators I feature have completely bootstrapped their outlets. In that vein, I’m looking for even more entrepreneurs to feature. Specifically, I’m looking for people succeeding in these areas:
Interested in speaking to me? You can find my contact info over here. (please don’t simply hit reply to this newsletter because that’ll go to a different email address. ) Want a daily dose of media industry news? I only send this newsletter out twice a week, but I curate industry news on a daily basis. Follow me on one of these social platforms if you want your daily fix: Invite your friends and earn rewardsIf you enjoy Simon Owens's Media Newsletter, share it with your friends and earn rewards when they subscribe. |
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Are publishers overthinking their ecommerce strategies?
Monday, June 3, 2024
Media companies don't need to achieve Steve Jobs-level product design in order to succeed in ecommerce. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
The power of news app push notifications
Monday, June 3, 2024
PLUS: How The Guardian generated a massive amount of reader revenue without a paywall ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
How Philip Taylor built FinCon, the leading conference for personal finance creators
Thursday, May 23, 2024
You can't open up YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram without encountering an influencer who gives advice on how to make and save money. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
The Creator Economy is pivoting away from Meta
Thursday, May 23, 2024
Meta has dabbled in paying creators, but its approach has always been half-assed. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
The rise of influencer fatigue
Friday, May 17, 2024
PLUS: A successful Substack writer gives advice on running a paid newsletter ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
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