7 Comments

I think you're doing the same thing with Puck that we did all those years ago with BuzzFeed and Vice. We overanalysed them and thought they were the next best things since sliced bread. See where they are now. Will Puck be different? Time will tell. There's more than enough time to be right or wrong. It's a new experiment, let's see how things play out.

Expand full comment

This reminds me of journalists like Johnny Harris and of late Cleo Abrams who have successfully transitioned into solocreators...anyway great article as usual...twas a great read!

Expand full comment

Niche editorial products would be cool

Everything in recent years appears to have defaulted to outrage porn in a quest to reach the broadest range of audiences

The question is: what is the business case for niche editorial? The TAM will by its very nature be small. Where is the growth going to come from?

Expand full comment
author

As Axios showed, you can keep expanding into more and more niches, both at the industry and regional level. Industry Dive did this as well: launch dozens of niche verticals that all add up to a pretty big market.

Expand full comment

You need expertise to expand into more and more niches (if you plan to do it right at least) and that costs money, which means margins are thinner

Expand full comment

What’s your take on the globally minded Semafor? One cofounder comes from BuzzFeed, the other from Bloomberg. On the surface I don’t see much difference, insomuch that the news they cover I’ve already read in the NYT or Axios. Perhaps their extra sprinkling of international news can make them stand out?

Expand full comment

Semafor looks interesting to me. But not sure about the sticking power of the business model. They are really just a glorified aggregator from the looks of it

Expand full comment