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- Friday 3rd March: Magazines are the original creator economy
Friday 3rd March: Magazines are the original creator economy
Good morning! Today's newsletter is brought to you by Esther.
This is a wonderful piece to go into the weekend with. Here, Daisy Alioto eloquently explains how magazines were the original taste-makers, and that's why they've remained so revered in popular culture. Influencers and creators are in some ways the next iteration of taste-makers. But whatever comes next in terms of content creation, it won't be something the machines produce.
There are some fantastic quotes here but I'll try and keep it to just one of my favourites to give you a flavour (before you click):
"Look around, everyone is trying to be a media company. What sets one low-ABV beverage startup apart from another? Branding and media. What will determine which NFT projects succeed or fail? Branding and media. Oatly is a media company. Robinhood is a media company. For the past 10 years, taste couldn’t be monetized. Soon it will be one of the only things that can."
Talking of magazines...Peter is launching a new PRINT magazine with the brilliant Joanna Cummings called Grub Street Journal, for people who love magazines. Issue 1 - asking what kind of idiots still make magazines - is open for pre-order now and has an excellent cover. Check out the link below to see it in all its glory.
I was really surprised to read yesterday that Axel Springer is restructuring its German business as it shifts its focus to the US (from the WSJ - we didn't include it as it's paywalled). Here, Brian Morrissey gives a neat overview of the context around that decision, and why CEO Mathias Döpfner is so keen to become a big player over the pond.
The Audiencers is putting out some really good stuff at the moment. This piece sets out a path for local newsrooms to create and grow financially successful email newsletters, but there are a lot of neat examples and advice for anyone with a newsletter.
Lots to think about here: "The use of premium content to train AI models is akin to fueling your machine with gasoline you “found” in someone else’s garage. It doesn’t inherently mean that the machine is not powerful, or useful. But that fuel was not free to create. If your machine can’t run without it, something is not quite right with the system."
This week we hear from Bonnie Kintzer, CEO of Trusted Media Brands – which includes brands like FailArmy, Family Handyman, and Reader’s Digest. She tells us about the opportunities she saw to turn around the company when it was facing bankruptcy in 2013, how the business has weathered some of the storms of the past decade, and why she thinks it’s vital to focus on where the audiences are regardless of platform algorithms. She also explains why a ‘re-start-up’ mentality helped TMB get ahead.
