Ben Young
Ben Young
December 21, 2018

Happy Holidays! This will be the final installment of the year. As you read this I will be somewhere over the Pacific Ocean to New Zealand for a decidedly summer Christmas and New Years.

Looking back at the audience we’ve grown since starting this humble, passionate newsletter, I’m so grateful for the notes and the support. We’ve had 44% YOY growth with over 53,000 reads! It has been a tumultuous year in media and on a lot of cultural and political fronts, but the sharp people that we get to interact with in our industry make everything much more interesting and inspiring. Have a great break, and we will see you in 2019.

I’ll leave you with our best native of 2018, highlighting work that lifts the standard and our end of year infographic. Enjoy, and until next year!


Notable stories this week

  • Facebook data leaks are more serious than previously disclosed and now the DA is taking action. Governments have been toppled for less intrusions of privacy, this truly is unprecedented. Making 21 scandals this year.
  • Publishers don’t have an ad problem. They have a product problem. A reminder of the things pubs can control.
  • DoubleVerify expands their partnership with Facebook in to the stories product. Takeaway, Facebook is investing early in the lifecycle of its new ad product to get ahead of prior measurement challenges.
  • [Long read] A good look in to how being an influencer is a real risk in some countries.
  • Related: How up-and-coming Influencers are using fake ads to gain clout. Truly fake it till you make it.
  • I really enjoyed this interview with Rafat from Skift, from their recent acquisition, to riff on VCs in media and how to build a sustainable business.
  • Burger King UK Kanye West tweet becomes the most ‘liked’ branded tweet of all-time.

  • Challenges, Missteps and Hope Abound for Digital Media.
  • Why subscriptions – and not free content is the future of media. A lens from TechinAsia.

Deals/M&A

  • Sovrn acquires Viglink to add to their publisher stack.

Campaign of the week

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKYABI-dGEA

  • Reducing our plastics and waste has become a top priority in the Young household so I enjoyed this piece with Amazon on Brit + Co, 4 Smart + Simple Ways to Have an Eco-Friendly Holiday.
  • Starbucks partners with Martha Stewart to help you holiday your way.
  • And given the market turmoil of recent, from Vanguard on NYTimes, How to Decide When the Time is Right to Invest. I like the play part of this, enter an amount then pick a NYTimes headline to see how it impacted. Engaging, smart and gets the message across.
  • PressBoard also shared their take on the top 50 branded content executions of the year. Hmu with any others.

Datapoints of note

  • Politico turned over $113m globally in 2018 and expects to hit $135m in 2019.
  • A reminder we collate and organize all these in to one post over on our blog.

Thanks,

-Ben

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