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Why women and politics site The 19th is forging ahead with a launch in a pandemic — www.niemanlab.org

It's all too easy to fall back on the 'wait and see' method of product launches right now (as the next story in this newsletter shows). Instead of playing it safe, however, women and politics site The 19th is planning to launch come hell or high water.

While Emily Ramshaw and Amanda Zamora's site had planned to launch with a tour in April, the plan is now to launch this summer. Ramshaw tells Nieman Lab's Laura Hazard Owen that the circumstances surrounding Covid-19 made the launch more important now than ever: "For us, the primary obsession this summer and into the fall will be the politics of the pandemic and what that means for women — deeply exploring the ways in which women are disproportionately affected by this moment, which may be a heck of a lot longer than a moment."

By an amazing coincidence we have our own interview with Amanda Zamora, recorded in March.

Jeffrey Katzenberg blames coronavirus for Quibi’s rough start — www.nytimes.com

Meanwhile, co-founder of the shortform mobile-first video platform Quibi says Covid-19 is exclusively responsible for the service's initial lack of pickup, stating: “I attribute everything that has gone wrong to coronavirus. Everything". Given the talent and money involved, don't count Quibi out quite yet - but it's a long road to undisputed success from here.

NME launches new gaming channel — www.nme.com

Taking advantage of the flood of mainstream interest into gaming, NME has announced the launch of a brand new gaming channel. As lockdown continues (and time spent in Animal Crossing booms) there are few areas better suited to publisher exploration than gaming. The audience is there - and brands are hungry to reach them.

Love in the time of coronavirus: dating apps buck the downward ad spend trend — www.thedrum.com

While gaming is an obvious win, dating apps are an unlikely success story of the past two months. They're predicated on acting as a prelude to a real-world meet, the grease that gets a wheel turning. But many have managed to pivot sharply into being a destination in and of themselves - and as publishers feel the pinch when it comes to ad spend, the dating apps are reaping the benefit.

Podcast:

Flashes and Flames founder Colin Morrison on surviving digital transformation and the pandemic — voices.media

This week Colin Morrison, founder of Flashes & Flames, takes us through his path into the industry, what makes for smart media analysis, and who will be the big winners and losers from the coronavirus crisis.

And finally...

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