His media company reaches more New Yorkers than the New York Times
PLUS: Why cable news castoffs are choosing Substack over YouTube
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His media company reaches more New Yorkers than the New York Times
You’ve probably never heard of Schneps Media, but if you live in any of the five boroughs of New York, you’ve likely encountered its content. Started as a single Queens newspaper in 1985, the company gradually bought up community news outlets all across New York, and it’s since expanded into Philadelphia and even Palm Beach, Florida. It not only targets audiences by locale, but also ethnicity. And most of its news is completely free to read.
How has Schneps Media continued to grow despite so many headwinds in local news? To answer this question, I spoke to CEO Josh Schneps. He told the story of how his mother launched that first Queens newspaper and explained why businesses continue to advertise with him despite having plenty of other options.
You can check out our interview in the video below:
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What’s the deal with Nickelodeon’s YouTube strategy?
This is fascinating: Nickelodeon is streaming a new kids show exclusively on YouTube instead of its linear TV channel or Paramount+:
“You can’t talk about kids without talking about YouTube,” says Ashley Kaplan, the executive at Nickelodeon behind the Kid Cowboy strategy. “Its impact on kids’ franchises can’t be ignored. With the exception of Bluey, every new big kids franchise has been born on YouTube.”
The animated series, created by Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer Freddy Wexler and executive produced by Emilio Estefan, has been streaming on YouTube since January. And while there’s no guarantee it’ll be the next Cocomelon, there are signs that it’s off to a good start. The first 10 “full-length” episodes — which run about 13 minutes each — are averaging 200,000 views each. (For comparison, the full episode of Paw Patrol, uploaded to YouTube two weeks ago, has 1.4 million views.)
This feels kind of like a watershed moment of sorts, in that I can't think of another example of a major studio doing something like this. I mean, we've seen plenty of one-off episodes and even older seasons posted to YouTube, but never a YouTube-first strategy.
I can't really say I understand the play here. Obviously, YouTube videos are monetized, but I can't imagine the show could get to profitability through Adsense alone. Meanwhile, Paramount continues to be a second tier streaming platform — far behind the likes of Netflix, Amazon, etc... — and it could probably use all the IP it could get. Is the goal to get kids addicted to the first season and then release all subsequent seasons on Paramount+?
Creative freedom vs financial freedom
Chuck Todd gave a wide-ranging interview to the Hollywood Reporter about his post-MSNBC podcasting and plan to launch a local news network:
In some ways, the podcast space, this space, is a better place to do it than anywhere on television. And frankly, I just enjoy podcast interviews much more than the traditional media interviews …
You get more context. I think the five to 10 minute interview is part of the problem in political communication. It’s a game, right? Can you run out the clock If you’re the interviewee? Can you get your gotcha viral moment if you’re the interviewer? It doesn’t serve the purpose of surfacing information that people need. There’s a goody two shoes part of me that likes this space. But the other part of this is that I really think there’s a huge opportunity here to rebuild the ecosystem from the ground up.
One consistent theme you find in just about every interview with a former cable news star who left to launch their own thing is how much they enjoy the creative freedom. Obviously, the ability to financially benefit from their own work is always a draw, but they also love getting away from the bureaucracy and office politics so they can just focus on topics that interest them.
This is why I have no desire to go back to work at a legacy media outlet and don't even bother freelancing anymore. Whatever thrill I once got from seeing my byline at these places is no longer there. I love that there's no gatekeeper between me and my audience.
The era of big digital media deals is over
Business Insider founder Henry Blodget has launched a new company on Substack:
His new venture, called Regenerator, debuted in a limited form on the newsletter platform Substack. Blodget will run the publisher as a solo operation at launch, with plans to add staff and eventually debut a freemium model.
“We’re for people who want to build a better future,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “We analyze the most important questions in innovation—tech, business, markets, policy, culture, and ideas.”
What's interesting about this is that Blodget has a lot of money and plenty of connections to rich investors, and yet he decided to come out of the gate with something that's super scrappy. It's further confirmation we've exited the go-big-or-go-home media launches that were common a decade ago.
It's also notable he went with Substack vs building out a website. It's a signal that the outlet's early growth will depend on Blodget's personal brand, which isn't insubstantial.
And if he does eventually raise money, my guess is it will be at much smaller amounts compared to his Business Insider days. His $500 million exit was one of the last big media deals for the foreseeable future, and he knows it.
Some good longform stuff
Over the past decade, song catalogs have become a hot investment asset, the idea being that a smart investor can take hit songs that will continue to have cultural relevance for years and increase the revenue generated by streams and licensing deals. But one of the biggest players in the space wildly overpaid for music rights — which, in effect, created an industry bubble — and its founder is now being accused of financial mismanagement. Many associates from his previous venture claim they saw it coming. [Bloomberg]
Bluesky is easily the world's most popular open source social network. Its growing user count therefore represents a big win for the open web, which has been under threat as enormous tech platforms consolidated much of the internet into algorithmically-controlled feeds. Bluesky is also draining influence away from the tech oligarchs, most of whom have lurched to the Right in recent years. [New Yorker]
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Why cable news castoffs are choosing Substack over YouTube
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There’s more consumer appetite for live events
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