Edition #402 Spotify goes from strength to strength, brands want in Apple News & Time removes its paywall. You might wonder why I dive into the odd earnings report, I like to keep up to date, but it is where meaningful changes have to be shared with the market. Also analysts prod, and ask questions, ignoring the answers just seeing what they ask tells you something. During earnings week, they tend to dominate the news, so other stories… Continue reading
Edition #401 On how the modern media landscape supports writers like Grann, behind Ubers $500m ad business and more. I liked Noahs David Grann appreciation edition. For those of you not in the know, he is an author, that goes super deep into a topic, for years, and like a detective uncovers stories previously untold, and then brings them to life in a remarkable manner. His latest book, The Wager: A tale of Shipwreck,… Continue reading
Edition #400 We hit our 400th edition! Wow, thank you. A note from me and the regular stories, from Instagram to Weather channel and streaming/search data. I thought I’d share more on why I continue to justify the time to do it and some of the behind the scenes. This newsletter has grown and evolved so much over the years. Initially it was just a recap of notable stories in the native advertising space, as there was… Continue reading
Edition #399 We get the trailer for The Grand Train Tour, Lemon8, the end of content and Nativo + Cision news. I’ve been thinking about this, where capital flows and how when it changes, that has big impact. One is, the funding of companies that relied on app installs, or easy sales via Instagram. That funding is not really going into those companies any more. VC funding has plunged 50% in the last 12 months. But it… Continue reading
Edition #398 A grand train tour of Switzerland, squashed workloads, Substack lets you become an investor & BuzzFeed’s creator score. Always be growing, that is a foundational rule of the internet. If you’re not growing, someone else is, and taking your share. Sucks hey. That is the concern or nagging fear with AI. That others will get ahead, and get ahead a lot faster. Leaving you for dust. Loss aversion, or the fear of loss is greater… Continue reading
Edition #397 On the challenging market, new content studios, payment for AI to use content in its models and the latest from MacPac. I saw this tweet earlier in the week, MORGAN STANLEY: what happens when one or more of these five things are happening? MORGAN STANLEY: what happens when one or more of these five things are happening? 1) $SPX forward earnings declining 2) yield curve inverted3) Unemployment… Continue reading
Edition #395 LinkedIn launches collaborative stories (with AI prompts), FTC issues guidance on usage of AI terms and a new AI conference. Events are back, well, the ebbs and flows of events are back. Earlier this week, I was catching up with a friend, then we were off to some industry drinks, in parallel there was another set of drinks and another event. It felt very pre-covidy New York, where lots was happening and all at once. And that… Continue reading
Edition #394 Spotify to become TikTok? Branded content inevitable? Acquisitions and Substack hits 2m subs. It’s been a bit of a crazy week – so will keep this note short. I really enjoyed Turners chat on Spotify introducing a feed. Which is how TikTok got started, as Musicly first, then TikTok. So it kind of makes sense, but Spotify is already big, they did it to help get big. Nonetheless, it would introduce more advertising options… Continue reading
Edition #393 ChatGPT chat drowns out Super Bowl, Netflix branded content and bad digital ads. All this and more in this weeks note. Can you not send a newsletter this week and only talk about ChatGPT. Ok. But people are asking because they’re curious, and there’s new lingo and it is potentially exciting. And it is something new to talk about, to look forward, to re-imagine the future. After this sustained period of things are rough, the future… Continue reading
Edition #392 On austerity measures, the easing economy and Uber Ads. All this and more in this weeks note. You may recall my top trend of the year was getting back on the tools. This week Bloomberg reported that Meta is asking many managers to get back to making things or leave. Yet another sign of, getting back on the tools. Austerity is the way. https://giphy.com/gifs/disneyplus-star-wars-the-mandalorian-madalorian-Ld77zD3fF3Run8olIt It’s also where companies are focusing, how can we get… Continue reading
