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Why this is the year of vertical media — jryedinak.medium.com

The real title of this post from Aging Media's John Yedinak is 'Why 2019 is the Year of Vertical Media'. But every year is the year of vertical media - amirite - so I'm recommending this three-year old post to you because the arguments John made for vertical or niche media 100% still stand.

He resurfaced this post in response to a flurry of negative stories this week about the future of media. Just yesterday Brian Morrissey's newsletter announced all signs point to the end of the boom times. Brian's usually more right than wrong, but that just strengthens the vertical media arguments.

John's takeaway, whatever the doom-laden headlines say, is that there are plenty of companies quietly reinventing media and building real businesses, one industry or vertical at a time. His advice - attract specialised audiences and get paid a premium to do it.

Elon Musk’s shadow looms over Twitter ad announcements — www.thedrum.com

After the news Elon Musk advanced $44 billion to buy Twitter, the social media platform has announced features to calm jittery advertisers. A leaked email from Twitter has said that no matter how toxic the newsfeed might become, any advertising content will remain ‘separate’. The bottom line, however, is that advertisers buy audiences and Musk’s free-speech absolutism could up-end the audience profiles that are Twitter’s core appeal.

‘Extra level of power’: billionaires who have bought up the media — www.theguardian.com

Talking of toxic, Mr Musk's Twitter takeover has been described as a “chilling development” by media analyst Clare Enders. Reacting to the latest chapter in the 'Billionaires buy the world’s media' playbook, she said it was now possible to “count on one hand the big media brands that aren’t owned by an oligarch or other billionaire”. This the day after we learned that working class representation in UK journalism hit a record low. What a time to be alive!

Annoying ads are also bad for the environment — digiday.com

Sustainable digital advertising is clearly a noble cause, but Digiday is reporting that advertising execs are also starting to see the business opportunities in developing low-carbon ad offerings. “Interestingly, it turns out that some of the ad experiences that consumers find the most annoying are also bad for the environment,” said one eco-friendly ad-tech exec.

Podcast Awards

Publisher Podcast Insiders - Marketing & Audience Development — docs.google.com

Media Voices is hosting the first in a series of Publisher Podcast Insiders sessions focused on the challenges and opportunities you see as podcasters. The first session will be a mini masterclass on marketing and audience development for your podcast. The Podglomerate's Joni Deutsch will lead a 20-minute presentation, followed by a 40 minute Q&A. Please note the number of spaces for this session is restricted.

Become a supporter of Media Voices — ko-fi.com

We may be on Easter break from the podcast, but you may have noticed it's not much of a break! We've needed a LOT of coffee this week. If you're able to contribute anything either as a one-off or a subscription to keep us going, we really appreciate it.

The podcast will be back next Monday featuring an interview with Snigdha Sur, Founder & CEO of The Juggernaut.