He founded one of the earliest tech blogs. Now he edits a newsletter
Welcome! I'm Simon Owens and this is my tech and media newsletter. If you've received it then you either subscribed or someone forwarded it to you. If you fit into the latter camp, then you can subscribe over here. Or just click on this handy little button:
Hey! Sorry I’ve been radio silent pretty much all month. I went on two mini vacations right in a row, and when I came back I had a ton of client work to tackle, leaving me virtually no time to work on my podcast or newsletter. This week’s issue will be fun for anyone who was really into tech blogs circa 2005 to 2009. Before there was TechCrunch or Recode or The Verge, there was ReadWriteWeb. Let’s dive into its history...
He founded one of the earliest tech blogs. Now he edits a newsletter
ReadWriteWeb was one of the earliest tech blogs to ride the Web 2.0 wave. It was once syndicated by The New York Times and later acquired by a larger media company. For his latest writing project, founder Richard MacManus decided to eschew blogging entirely and launch a newsletter instead. Here’s why. [link]
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I have a secret Facebook group that’s only promoted to subscribers of this newsletter. I try to post exclusive commentary to it every day and have regular discussions with its members about the tech/media space. Go here to join. [link]
Other news:
Something publishers have to contemplate: what happens when every brand with a 7-figure advertising budget decides to take that budget and use it to launch its own content studio? [link]
"If you’re not Adam Sandler or Stranger Things, there’s a good chance your show just won’t appear on Netflix’s home page. And if it’s not on the homepage, it’s as good as gone." [link]
One of Amazon's fastest growing business sections is advertising, and it's only just starting to dip its toes into allowing ads on Alexa. [link]
There was something like a 15-year period when nearly all news websites could post monthly growth because internet usage was steadily growing at a rapid pace. That era is pretty much over. [link]
Spotify has been trying to break into hosting original, differentiated content for years. Here's a timeline of all its various content launches, from original video to a news aggregation app. [link]
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