- Digital Media Products, Strategy and Innovation by Kevin Anderson
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- Media industry cools on SPACs PLUS Clubhouse lays off staff and pivots away from news
Media industry cools on SPACs PLUS Clubhouse lays off staff and pivots away from news
Maybe it was just the long Jubilee weekend that followed the long Memorial Day weekend in the US, but things seemed relatively quiet. That being said, after a lot of light and heat in the media industry about using SPACs to fund mostly consolidation - roll-up, roll-up - things have cooled. I think some of this is down to riskier investments suddenly being kryptonite as interest rates rise to fight the nastiest spike in inflation in decades - at least 40 or 50 years for a lot of nations. But I also wonder if this points to a pause in consolidation. When it comes to digital media, I would say that it is only a pause as buyers look for new ways to finance the acquisitions.
But the other story that caught my eye was layoffs at Clubhouse, which kicked off a wave of audio chatroom services. The real news for folks in media is that Clubhouse is pivoting away from news and sport, which makes a lot of sense. The app really seemed to find its place giving Silicon Valley and other high-tech industries including private space companies a space to talk. It didn't scale well outside of that. Whether that means that this is a company-specific challenge or a more general trend that bodes ill for audio chatrooms aka Twitter Spaces. For the record, I actually like Twitter Spaces and have found them intuitive to use and actually useful, well that is if I had time to join many of them.
PLUS Reddit shares insights into how it is used on mobile. The incoming NYTimes supremo says that reporters need to show their value on NYTimes' properties not just on social media (I think the headlines is misleading). Beware of partisan 'pink slime' sites - fake local news sites in the US pumping out partisan propaganda. Wired has an interesting piece in how we have all been turned into content machines, and US pub media group KQED in San Francisco launches a media literacy course.
Reddit Shares New Insights into Tech and Mobile Carrier Discussion in the App [Infographic] | Social Media Today — www.socialmediatoday.com
Social Media Today
What Forbes' decision to terminate its SPAC plans signals in the media investment market.
Incoming 'NYT' Chief Joe Kahn Says Reporters Must Show Their Value On Paper, Not Social Media - 06/03/2022
The company moves away from categories like news, sports
Three women tweeted their departures from the company on June 1st, including Nina Gregory, a National Public Radio alum who led news partnerships, Anu Atluru, head of community, and Aarthi Ramamurthy, head of international. Sean Brown, head of sports partnerships, announced he was leaving last month. Stephanie Simon, who was in charge of brand evangelism and development, left in late April.
Beware partisan ‘pink slime’ sites that pose as local news - The Washington Post — www.washingtonpost.com
The "West Cook News" sham shows why you should ask more questions before sharing a spicy story.
Two new books examine how social media traps users in a brutal race to the bottom.
San Francisco public radio station KQED this week announced it is launching a free workshop and self-paced online course to help increase media literacy.