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Ben de Pear fears TV news has 'lost power' as he moves on from Channel 4 News editorship — www.thedrum.com

Here's an interesting one. We've spoken about the diminished power of newspapers in the age of digital information, but less about the potential for TV news to go the same way. Now, as he leaves his role as Channel 4 news editor after a full decade, Ben de Pear speaks about why he fears that the stripping away of TV news will have a deleterious impact on journalism and the public:

"It’s great streamers exist but if you were on a desert island and all you had was Netflix and Amazon you wouldn’t have a clue what was going on in the world. Most of their best factual or documentary content starts life at a public service broadcaster (PSB) and they have yet to prove that they fundamentally care about much other than the bottom line."

While there are good video news sources on, say, YouTube, they tend to be niche. He's definitely right that the free general news alternatives (where they exist) are prone to inaccuracies, bias and ultimately lack the power of a well-funded PSB. It's a worrying potential collapse, and further evidence that C4 needs to retain public funding.

YouTube is adding new ways for creators to make money with Shorts and shopping — www.theverge.com

Publishers (and podcasters!) might have their distribution strategies in place for YouTube - but are they ready to sell on there? We know that there's a lot of money to be made via ecommerce for trusted publishers - so could this move from YouTube power an actually viable pivot to video? 😮

Binance, led by the world’s richest crypto billionaire, is taking a $200 million stake in Forbes — www.cnbc.com

There's a lot going on with Forbes and crypto at the minute, with a rapper/Forbes contributor accused of a plot to launder $4.5bn in crypto funds. Beyond that madness, the move shows the increasing influence of the crypto industry with the sector's first big investment in a traditional US media property.

Mark Zuckerberg is a liar, and he's lying to you about the metaverse — ez.substack.com

Ed Zitron isn't mincing his words in this one. He very effectively accuses Meta in general and Mark Zuckerberg in particular at throwing buzzwords and repackaged old ideas at commentators in an attempt to distract us from Facebook's woes. Worth a read, even if just for the schadenfreude.

This week's podcast:

Editor and Founder of Paranting Magazine Sophia Waterfield on creating a new type of lifestyle magazine — voices.media

In this episode we hear from Sophia Waterfield, editor and founder of Paranting Magazine. It’s a magazine for parents that don’t have time for some of the aspirational BS that a lot of lifestyle magazines cover. We spoke about the name, funding a start-up with the aim of actually paying freelancers – oh, and accents.

Shortlist 2022 - The Publisher Podcast Awards — publisherpodcastawards.com

We’ve been listening to podcasts pretty much solidly since Christmas, and are delighted to finally be able to reveal the shortlist for 2022’s Publisher Podcast Awards. Over 120 podcasts have made the list, and it really does reflect the best of the best in the industry. Check it out and - if you're on a shortlist - celebrate yourself!