Cultural criticism is thriving
PLUS: Video podcasts are the new cable news.
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Quick programming note
This newsletter is coming to you a little early because I’m leaving for a short family vacation on Tuesday. We’ll be back to our regular publishing schedule next week.
Do Media Organizations Even Want Cultural Criticism?
I currently listen to several film and television review podcasts that each have hundreds of thousands of listeners and seem to be doing well financially. There's an entire genre of YouTube video dedicated to dissecting pop culture, with the top channels boasting millions of subscribers. BookTok is an enormously influential cultural force in book publishing. I guess I'm just skeptical of the narrative that cultural criticism is on the wane because a handful of legacy publications laid off their critics. [New York]
Creators are leveraging CTV channels as added value for sponsorship deals
Creators are finding that licensing their YouTube videos to FAST streaming channels not only generates additional revenue, but can also expose them to new audiences that might not have otherwise come across them organically. These streamers are essentially placing creator content next to premium TV shows and movies that are unavailable on the free version of YouTube. [Digiday]
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The Fall’s First Blockbuster Is an 86-Year-Old Musical
This is kind of incredible: The Wizard of Oz, an 86-year-old movie, is probably going to generate $1 billion in the next year from playing at a single venue. The owners of the Las Vegas Sphere spent $100 million adapting the movie for its gigantic screen, and sold-out tickets are going for as much as $200 apiece. [Bloomberg]
(BTW, I used a gift link so you can access that article for free)
‘Axios Show,’ Featuring One-on-One Newsmaker Interviews, Set to Debut
Probably the biggest challenge for news broadcasters ranging from CBS News to CNN is that it really doesn't take many resources to spin up a video interview series that can gain access to the world's biggest newsmakers. There's just not a wide gulf between a decently-produced video podcast and what MSNBC puts out every night. [Variety]
ICYMI: How an interest in whiskey birthed a thriving media company
The Whiskey Wash capitalized on the rise of craft distilleries and is almost entirely funded through digital advertising.
How anime took over America
Outside of Japan, anime used to be a niche genre of entertainment; now, it's firmly in the mainstream, not only dominating the cartoon landscape, but also increasingly being adapted into live action TV shows and films. As recently as the 1990s, American anime enthusiasts were dependent on hobbyists creating bootleg VHS tapes with badly-dubbed English voiceovers. The Cartoon Network's licensing of Dragon Ball Z changed all that and set the course for the genre's current dominance. [NYT]
(BTW, I used a gift link so you can access that article for free)
Mehdi Hasan’s Zeteo wants to take on Politico Playbook from the left
One of the consistent knocks against Substack over the years is that it's a platform for opinion columnists and can't really financially support original journalism. Publications like Zeteo are proving that claim wrong. [Semafor]
My other newsletter: The best longform journalism we consumed this week
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