February 14, 2024

[+] 14 Feb 2024

This is the beta of foofaraw[+], the temporary home of something new.

Thanks for coming along for the ride, let me know what you think and if you have any ideas for how it can be improved.

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Thinking about using these Wednesday [+] issues to dive into data or write an essay about a topic that I have longer thoughts on. I’m not much of a writer, so it’d be more in the Axios brevity style, but would allow me to go a little longer and worry less about links on Wednesdays.

But that doesn’t start this week (well I guess I did go a little deeper on this first link). Today I’ve got a smaller spattering of links.

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Why New York Magazine’s the Cut is expanding at a time when many media companies are cutting costs - Digiday

This is exciting. As you’ll see in the next link, Slate is also doing well too. I think one of the biggest problems in entertainment and media is companies just chasing the tail of the latest trend in business models. When what they should be doing is figuring out what their core competencies are and matching that up with a business model that makes sense.

Slate is killing it with podcasting, as both an early entrant and efficient and effective production. Between the Political Gabfest and Slow Burn, they have two hits and have figured out a way to monetize in a way that makes sense for their product and competencies.

Something similar could be said for New York Magazine. I have an interview fortcoming with Sam Circle of Last Week’s New Yorker Review and he mentioned NY Magazine:

sets the terms of the conversation.

So they’ve found a way to capitlize on that. Yes, in the old fashioned magazine business, but from an outsiders perspective, they’ve figured out how to use their brand to set those terms. While they have a spattering of secondary brands, they’ve pulled back in place, and figured out how to use those brands in a way that makes sense for them. For example, Vulture and The Cut no longer show up as separate channels in Apple News like they used, but they’ve almost become legacy brands themselves in their dedicated arenas, and bring additional cache and audiences back to NY Magazine. They are looking at the landscape, investing their dollars where it makes sense for them and NY Magazine and Vox benefit from it.

Slate reports best year | Semafor

Podcasting now accounts for 50% of the company’s advertising revenue, with the other 50% coming from digital ads on its website

Paramount Global to Cut 800 Jobs in Drive to Boost Profitability

It’s a shame really, but we knew this was coming, unfortunately.

Former Apple Executive Among CEO Candidates for New Sports-Streaming Venture — The Wall Street Journal

Pete Distad, who was a top executive at Apple in charge of its video and sports businesses before leaving the tech giant last spring, is among the top candidates the companies are considering

Interesting. I don’t know the name, but maybe I should..? Apple TV+ and the MLS package were an overall success, so he has that going for him.

🎁 Iger’s ‘Spulu’ Starter Marriage — Puck

This unnamed service may be ostensibly geared towards the never-cord consumer or the post-cord consumer or the cable-frustrated consumer, but it’s really an R&D lab for its proprietors, especially Iger.

Unspoken in the announcement is the reality that Spulu is an experiment, not an end state, as all three companies adjust their offerings for the streaming future. In fact, I expect we will see more of these types of rollups as the still-crowded streaming industry is eventually reduced to three or four major players.

Sarah Silverman’s lawsuit against OpenAI partially dismissed

The biggest claim of direct copyright infringement is still on the table.

Steph Curry, Simu Liu to Topline Peacock Shows

I really don't want to see Steph Curry act... but the Simu Liu show from James Wan could be excellent.

Coyote vs. Acme in Peril: Why Warner Bros Hasn't Sold It

This is such a bummer. I hate this and the Batgirl situation... It sucks that people work hard on something to never be seen.

The MCU Problem James Gunn Hopes His DC Universe Can Avoid

Reading Fiction for Status - by Chris Jesu Lee

Videos

Monkey Man | Official Trailer

This one is a bit older, but I’m stoke for it.

Waxahatchee - "Bored" Music Video

New Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire Trailer

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