Thursday 24th September: More journalists go solo and launch their own newsletters

September 24, 2020

Good morning! Today's Media Roundup is brought to you by Esther.

Casey Newton, The Verge's longtime Silicon Valley editor and the creator of The Interface newsletter, is leaving the publication to start a newsletter on Substack called Platformer. In this interview, Casey talks about the pros and cons of going independent, the deal he's got with Substack and The Verge (who have kindly let him keep all 20k subscribers), and the economics of subscription models.

If this is the first time you've heard of Casey, you'd be forgiven for wondering why I'm highlighting this story. But apart from producing a must-read newsletter for anyone interested in the swings and roundabouts of platforms, his move to go solo is just one of a number in recent months which points towards some interesting trends in the industry (Digiday's Brian Morrissey announced just yesterday he is leaving Digiday, and will be launching his own newsletter looking at the rebooting of media.)

If you're a publisher employing talented staff with a following, is this something you should worry about? Will your journalists up and leave you as soon as they're big enough to go solo? A number of people have been posing this question, and Jarrod Dicker wrote a brilliant piece a few months ago about what lessons publishers can learn from record labels when it comes to managing talent, which is worth a read.

In the meantime, we're working on a special podcast episode doing a deep dive into this topic. Watch this space!

Text-based notifications have a decidedly mixed reputation amongst publishers. But there are some seeing success with delivering news via text, and one publisher who has taken this a step further and has based its entire business model on paying to get text notifications. Whereas we'd never advocate putting all your eggs in one basket quite like this, it's an interesting example of how text-based news can be used as a way to deliver more general topics.

Remember that ad boycott everyone was talking about in July? Well there's been some progress. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, in collaboration with the Global Alliance for Responsible Media have agreed to adopt a common set of definitions for hate speech and other harmful content. This piece from The Drum rounds up the progress that has been made so far.

The Public Interest News Foundation will seek money from tech companies such as Google and Facebook – along with wealthy philanthropists, charitable trusts and members of the public – before deploying the cash to support news outlets it selects as meeting qualifying criteria.

Throwback Thursday:

Simon has just 5 days left of a new round of crowdfunding to keep Film Stories and Film Stories Jnr "alive, kicking, and celebrating the movies", so our throwback this week is him talking to us about the potential of independent magazines, and the importance of giving new voices a chance to be heard.

The latest in our mini series is now live. History Extra's Dave Musgrove shares his secrets to success, including giving the podcast time to grow and find its unique voice.