The Washington Post looks to be exiting the tech business PLUS a Vox retro from one of its co-founders

December 08, 2022

I am still focused on the major report at work so this will be brief and a bit more like my old style. Normal service resumes tomorrow.

The rumours about the Washington Post exiting the tech business are heating up and at least when it comes to their adtech offering Zeus have already started. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that WaPo is looking to spin off its Arc XP CMS business, and Axios is reporting that the company is bringing its adtech biz in house.

And as Buzzfeed lays off staff, it and other media companies are foregoing lavish holiday parties. And Matthew Yglesias writes about lessons learned in co-founding Vox.

Plus, a New York Times roundtables about sustainable models for news, especially local news. American Press Institute rewards grants, and I was surprised to see how many of them have an element of testing postal delivery. And Facebook and other tech platforms push back against Aussie-style legislation in the US.

Company has embraced digital experimentation under tech-billionaire owner; spinoff of Arc business also possible

The Post created Zeus Prime, a software product, in 2019.

Talent is scarce, training is hard, and the competition is smarter than you want them to be

The battle for talent and attention.

BDG, BuzzFeed, Hearst and The Washington Post will host in-person holiday parties this year, though they will not be the stereotypical soirées.

The American Press Institute awarded grants to four news organizations participating in the Beyond Print program, a cohort designed to guide publishers away from print-centric revenue models toward a sustainable digital future. The challenge fund granted $15,000 to each participating organization to help them test new ideas to create and expand their digital models. Since […]

Are the challenges of home delivery a retention problem? Could be. Why not improve digital delivery?

For a DealBook task force, a lack of trust, political polarization and a troubled business model are among the news industry’s challenges.

An interesting round table that started about diversifying audiences but turned into a business model discussion. This is what I. wrote on Twitter about it.

The AI era is dawning — are any of us ready? PLUS: The Twitter Files

ChatGPT is the this week’s buzzy tech. And it is reverberating across multiple industries right now, Some smart pieces about it including this one.

Tim Davie outlines vision for a world of ‘infinite choice’ where broadcast TV and radio are being switched off

I can see this happening - the digital TV and radio switch off. Other industries are getting hungry for spectrum.

Social Media news: Platforms lobby against US legislation and the giant sucking sound of Meta’s metaverse

Social Media Today

Threats as the US considers Aussie-style legislation to support news. The lobbying from Tech is intense.

The bill would have allowed publishers a temporary exemption from antitrust laws to negotiate jointly for the use of their content by the large tech companies.

A major study from the Reuters Institute shows that half of leading news publishers in 44 countries regularly use Tiktok.

Twitter never fulfilled its promise. Don’t expect its current crop of replacements to, either.

The company now known as Meta has spent staggering amounts on creating an immersive successor to the traditional 2D internet. But what has it got to show for it, apart from 11,000 job losses?

Interesting, but how prevalent is this voice of dissent in the company?