Thursday 8th July: MEL magazine finds a buyer

July 08, 2021

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

Men's health and culture publication MEL Magazine - formerly owned by Dollar Shave Club - has been acquired by Recurrent Ventures. Dollar Shave Club ended its financial relationship with MEL back in March, leaving the staffers without jobs. But the acquisition will mean 18 of them can be rehired, and longtime editor-in-chief Josh Schollmeyer will remain.

Given how picky Schollmeyer has been about finding the right investor, I can imagine this will be a great opportunity for the brand to stand on its own feet. Recurrent Ventures is a private equity firm which specialises in helping brands monetise, and monetisation is something Schollmeyer has been keen on building out for a while (something he was unable to really take advantage of under DSC ownership).

Whether they'll eventually return to their planned paid newsletter launches remains to be seen, but we wish them the very best with their early August brand relaunch.

David Tomchak has been tasked with finding a way to fund high-quality journalism as Chief Operating Officer for the New Statesman Media Group. Peter Houston talks to him about their lead generation initiative, and how their niche Monitor verticals are helping establish a solid revenue stream for the business.

Half a million comments a month is way too much for a team of human moderators to sift through. And so Kronen Zeitung, one of Austria’s largest news publishers began experimenting with artificial intelligence-powered tools that were brought into the newsroom to help clean up the comment section.

"The Electric" will be written and led by Steve LeVine, and will be about batteries, electric vehicles, and future transportation. Consumers will pay for access to the publication separately from The Information, and Lessin will be running it as a stand-alone business. Yes...there will be a newsletter!

This week's episode:

This week, we hear from Chris Duncan, CEO of UK Publishing at Bauer Media Group. He joined the company just a few weeks after last year’s lockdown, so he talks about what it’s been like leading Bauer through such a turbulent year, their wins and losses throughout the pandemic, and which trends he’s seen accelerated in the business.

Thanks to your really kind Ko-Fi tips, we've each allocated ourselves a bit of cash to upgrade our mics and sort out our sound. My 'studio' (aka repurposed cupboard) is finally sorted, with some foam panels and a new mic funded by Ko-Fi. Any donations really do make a difference and lift our spirits when we record early on a Sunday morning.