Does a subscription paywall make you less influential?
PLUS: The New York Times wants to become CNN before CNN can become the New York Times.
Welcome! I’m Simon Owens and this is my media industry newsletter. If you’ve received it, then you either subscribed or someone forwarded it to you.
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Quick hits
Noah Smith, who writes one of the most popular politics newsletters on Substack, published an interesting essay arguing that his influence has diminished over time, in part because of the economic incentives created by paid newsletters. His basic argument is that subscription businesses encourage writers to focus on serving a loyal, hardcore readership rather than engaging with the broader public. That dovetails with another argument I’ve seen gaining traction: because many of the publishers producing the highest-quality journalism now keep it behind paywalls, a shrinking share of the public is exposed to that reporting. [Noahpinion]
It used to be unheard of for a Congressional intern to seek the spotlight; now it’s becoming increasingly common for such staffers to upload day-in-the-life and get-ready-with-me videos to TikTok and Instagram. From what I can tell, there’s really no political content in these videos, hence why their bosses are mostly comfortable with the attention. [NYT] (BTW, I used a gift link so you can access that article for free.)
The Hill is launching a $5.99-a-month subscription product that gives customers access to exclusive podcasts and newsletters. To me, it always reeks of desperation when a publication known for pumping out high volumes of clickbait content and inundating visitors with abusive adtech suddenly decides to slap on a paywall. You have to pick a lane — advertising or subscriptions — and The Hill picked its lane a long time ago. [THR]
ICYMI: Inside the career of a successful ghostwriter
Jonathan Rick’s writing appears in hundreds of mainstream publications, but it rarely includes his byline.
That case study actually sits behind a paywall, but if you’re not ready to subscribe, I also included it in an ebook that you can download over here.
More quick hits
The Atlantic assembled a bunch of stats to argue we’re in a literacy crisis — that Americans are not only reading fewer books, but the ones they do read are far simpler. Not only that, but a greater share of people say they prefer consuming their news through video as opposed to text. [The Atlantic]
To paraphrase Ted Sarandos, the New York Times wants to become CNN before CNN can become the New York Times. It’s basically pushing head first into video, cajoling its text-based reporters to appear more and more in front of the camera. Editor in chief Joe Kahn says he wants TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts users to be exposed to NYT content even if there’s no clear way to monetize it. [Business Insider]
MrBeast will be a guest judge on Shark Tank, which once again leaves me wondering why he continues to subject his company to so much key man risk. He has an entire cast of characters who are famous for regularly appearing in his videos — why hasn’t he launched a bunch of spinoff channels that will allow those people to build out their own programming? He’s been smart about launching spinoff products like Feastables, but hasn’t really done the same for his media properties. [THR]
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