The Shuffle Edition / Shopify for News
Hello friends! You likely signed up for this after reading one of my essays on Medium or seeing something on Twitter. I send this thing every few months, mostly a wrap-up of stuff I'm working on, thinking about, and the best reading from around the web — all ending with a sweet flag. See past issues here. Now, to the newsletter:
Avenue A in the East Village after a short sunshower. Which, apparently, is a phenomenon that has different names depending on where you're from.
Welcome to the shuffle edition
Back in the Napster days my hard drive only had space for 100 songs. Each song took hours to download so every file was carefully curated and considered with longevity and flexibility in mind. Was it possible to listen to “I Just Wanna Love U” while playing Starcraft 1? While cleaning my room? Is “No Brakes” as enjoyable on the weekend as it is after school? And, most importantly, can I just click “shuffle” and let all 100 songs ride without ever wanting to skip?
Consider this the Napster shuffle edition. Bits of thoughts and ideas that are “stuck” in my brain like Fabolous was stuck in my 100 song playlist.
Shopify for publishers
(Expanding from my Tweet thread…)
Do you remember what it was like to start an online store in 2008? You had to know payments systems, fulfillment, web design, web hosting, marketing, shopping carts… That’s not even mentioning the actual goods you were selling or creating. Starting an online store took a lot of specialized knowledge and, as a result, it was hard for the one-man shop to exist.
Now? We have Etsy and Shopify and Squarespace and tons of other platforms that enable you to spin up a store in seconds. As a result, we have an explosion in micro-brands selling specific items to a passionate fan base and a rise in people making a living on their art. Or woodwork. Or...
I think the same thing is going to happen to publishers. Given current tools it is hard for one person to build a publishing empire. Plus, advertising and the race to $0 CPMs makes it harder each year. Now publishers are (re?)awaking to direct reader payments like subscriptions, events, and courses.
There’s just one problem: Most people use digital duct tape to combine a bunch of services to make their “publishing stack.” You need one service to host a course, another for your mailing list, and another for your content. But what if it were easier? What if tiny publishers got their Etsy moment, where they could spin up a publication that handled all of the externalities of running a tiny media business?
And, for the big guys, we're seeing that it's the ones that own the entire stack that will flourish. Think of the Athletic, Vox's Chorus, Buzzfeed's CMS, and WaPo's Arc.
After Tweeting about this a few people reached out to me saying they are working on such a thing. The folks at Substack were kind enough to give me a demo. If you’re thinking of spinning up your own micro publication, check them out.
Somebody is going to figure this out, and it's going to lead to an entirely new kind of media brand.
Why are we talking about this?
[UNDERSTATEMENT ALERT] It was frustrating to watch our president equivocate when discussing the Nazi that murdered Heather Heyer. Perhaps just as frustrating was watching the discourse quickly moving on to the merits of Confederate statues.
Last week reminded us all of a flaw with how media is produced: Each publication with resources has been conditioned to think that more is better, and writers are encouraged to stake out new territory with takes on every angle on every event. It ensures that we'll quickly move to the second order effects of an event before truly processing the event itself. So while we should have been coming to grips with Charlottesville, we were all distracted by the Culture War standby of removing Confederate monuments.
“We’re moving forward in a circle”
A must read for people who publish things on the internet: 032c's profile of Hypebeast and Highsnobiety — two street culture blogs based in Hong Kong and Berlin, respectively.
It’s long but a passage stuck with me: “From its beginning in 2005, Ma recognized that the power of Hypebeast rested in its ability to translate the ornate, obsessive, and troll-laden world of sneaker forums into material that could be consumed by the general public.” In the category of “there’s nothing new under the sun” you can draw a straight line from the sneakerhead forums to Hypebeast. I wonder what other Web 1.0 communities and forums are still waiting for their version of Hypebeast?
I wrote earlier this year how media brand essentially trade their readers trust for profits. Highsnobiety is pretty candid about this:
- Related question: Do culture sites have to "flood the zone" like this to be successful? Consider the success of Highsnobiety and Hyperbeast with something like Monocle. If you're going to build a BRAND, is volume required?
(•_•)
<) )╯Always
/ \
\(•_•)
( (> Own
/ \
(•_•)
<) )> Your platform
/ \
I believe, very strongly, that media brands should not lean on “platforms” they don’t own. Is it easier to scale leveraging platforms? Yep! But many publications are going overboard, leaving themselves extremely vulnerable for the whims of the platform. Example?
Remember when Facebook wanted everyone to shoot live videos? Jk jk jk now they want brands to shoot “TV-quality” shows. And some brands have had it with the schizophrenia. Though others will inevitably capitulate to whatever Facebook wants, forever staking their livelihoods on the whims of a notoriously fickle and secretive company. And I’ll bet that FB pivots away from “TV-quality” videos to whatever other shiny thing before the year is out.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Brand brand brand.
When it comes to owning your platform, it looks like WaPo’s newish women’s publication The Lily isn’t listening. I fear the worst, but there’s one thing I do appreciate: The Lily knows that if you’re not going to own your platform, you better have a strong, recognizable brand. THAT I can get behind.
- I’ve been spending most of the time at my day job worrying and crafting a new version of the brands I work on. Hopefully more to report here for next newsletter.
Twitter is not real life.
Latest example: Heat Street’s (RIP) Stephen Miller bought a ticket to the “all-female” Wonder Woman screening that caused such an internet dust up. And you’ll never guess what happened… Just kidding. Nothing happened. And that’s the point.
Or maybe one can look at the "Free Speech Rally" rally in Boston where counter protesters far outnumbered the rally participants?
It's always important to remember that whatever your social media circle is discussing or worried about... you're probably in the minority. And I have a hunch we're going to continually shocked by elections and other things until we come to grips with this fact.
Love for Freddie
A quick shoutout and get-well-soon to Fredrik deBoer, one of the most thoughtful and brave writers out there. His writing has influenced my thinking tremendously and I hope he's back at the keyboard some day.
Rapid-fire round:
Official newsletter flag (for now)
Mexico. Fun fact: I eat Mexican food for 75% of my meals. Funner fact: The Mexican flag’s tricolor was in place before the similar Italian version. Mexico actually predates “older” nations like Italy, Greece, Germany, and Spain.
The one difference between the Italian and Mexican flags, of course, is the coat of arms which depicts an Eagle eating a snake on a cactus in a lake. If that seems like oddly specific imagery it’s because Mexico City (neé Tenochtitlan) was founded after settlers saw such an image which was prophesied by an Aztec legend.
Side note: In researching Aztec traditions and legends are I found The Tovar Codex, a book written in the 16th century by Mexican Jesuit Juan de Tovar which contains amazing illustrations worthy of hanging on your wall.
Dear reader, I’d hang a picture of you on my wall. Thanks for making space for this in your crowded inbox.
--Sean
Avenue A in the East Village after a short sunshower. Which, apparently, is a phenomenon that has different names depending on where you're from.Welcome to the shuffle edition
Back in the Napster days my hard drive only had space for 100 songs. Each song took hours to download so every file was carefully curated and considered with longevity and flexibility in mind. Was it possible to listen to “I Just Wanna Love U” while playing Starcraft 1? While cleaning my room? Is “No Brakes” as enjoyable on the weekend as it is after school? And, most importantly, can I just click “shuffle” and let all 100 songs ride without ever wanting to skip?
Consider this the Napster shuffle edition. Bits of thoughts and ideas that are “stuck” in my brain like Fabolous was stuck in my 100 song playlist.
Shopify for publishers
(Expanding from my Tweet thread…)
Do you remember what it was like to start an online store in 2008? You had to know payments systems, fulfillment, web design, web hosting, marketing, shopping carts… That’s not even mentioning the actual goods you were selling or creating. Starting an online store took a lot of specialized knowledge and, as a result, it was hard for the one-man shop to exist.
Now? We have Etsy and Shopify and Squarespace and tons of other platforms that enable you to spin up a store in seconds. As a result, we have an explosion in micro-brands selling specific items to a passionate fan base and a rise in people making a living on their art. Or woodwork. Or...
I think the same thing is going to happen to publishers. Given current tools it is hard for one person to build a publishing empire. Plus, advertising and the race to $0 CPMs makes it harder each year. Now publishers are (re?)awaking to direct reader payments like subscriptions, events, and courses.
There’s just one problem: Most people use digital duct tape to combine a bunch of services to make their “publishing stack.” You need one service to host a course, another for your mailing list, and another for your content. But what if it were easier? What if tiny publishers got their Etsy moment, where they could spin up a publication that handled all of the externalities of running a tiny media business?
And, for the big guys, we're seeing that it's the ones that own the entire stack that will flourish. Think of the Athletic, Vox's Chorus, Buzzfeed's CMS, and WaPo's Arc.
After Tweeting about this a few people reached out to me saying they are working on such a thing. The folks at Substack were kind enough to give me a demo. If you’re thinking of spinning up your own micro publication, check them out.
Somebody is going to figure this out, and it's going to lead to an entirely new kind of media brand.
Why are we talking about this?
[UNDERSTATEMENT ALERT] It was frustrating to watch our president equivocate when discussing the Nazi that murdered Heather Heyer. Perhaps just as frustrating was watching the discourse quickly moving on to the merits of Confederate statues.
Last week reminded us all of a flaw with how media is produced: Each publication with resources has been conditioned to think that more is better, and writers are encouraged to stake out new territory with takes on every angle on every event. It ensures that we'll quickly move to the second order effects of an event before truly processing the event itself. So while we should have been coming to grips with Charlottesville, we were all distracted by the Culture War standby of removing Confederate monuments.
“We’re moving forward in a circle”
A must read for people who publish things on the internet: 032c's profile of Hypebeast and Highsnobiety — two street culture blogs based in Hong Kong and Berlin, respectively.
It’s long but a passage stuck with me: “From its beginning in 2005, Ma recognized that the power of Hypebeast rested in its ability to translate the ornate, obsessive, and troll-laden world of sneaker forums into material that could be consumed by the general public.” In the category of “there’s nothing new under the sun” you can draw a straight line from the sneakerhead forums to Hypebeast. I wonder what other Web 1.0 communities and forums are still waiting for their version of Hypebeast?
I wrote earlier this year how media brand essentially trade their readers trust for profits. Highsnobiety is pretty candid about this:
- Related question: Do culture sites have to "flood the zone" like this to be successful? Consider the success of Highsnobiety and Hyperbeast with something like Monocle. If you're going to build a BRAND, is volume required?
(•_•)
<) )╯Always
/ \
\(•_•)
( (> Own
/ \
(•_•)
<) )> Your platform
/ \
I believe, very strongly, that media brands should not lean on “platforms” they don’t own. Is it easier to scale leveraging platforms? Yep! But many publications are going overboard, leaving themselves extremely vulnerable for the whims of the platform. Example?
Remember when Facebook wanted everyone to shoot live videos? Jk jk jk now they want brands to shoot “TV-quality” shows. And some brands have had it with the schizophrenia. Though others will inevitably capitulate to whatever Facebook wants, forever staking their livelihoods on the whims of a notoriously fickle and secretive company. And I’ll bet that FB pivots away from “TV-quality” videos to whatever other shiny thing before the year is out.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Brand brand brand.
When it comes to owning your platform, it looks like WaPo’s newish women’s publication The Lily isn’t listening. I fear the worst, but there’s one thing I do appreciate: The Lily knows that if you’re not going to own your platform, you better have a strong, recognizable brand. THAT I can get behind.
- I’ve been spending most of the time at my day job worrying and crafting a new version of the brands I work on. Hopefully more to report here for next newsletter.
Twitter is not real life.
Latest example: Heat Street’s (RIP) Stephen Miller bought a ticket to the “all-female” Wonder Woman screening that caused such an internet dust up. And you’ll never guess what happened… Just kidding. Nothing happened. And that’s the point.
Or maybe one can look at the "Free Speech Rally" rally in Boston where counter protesters far outnumbered the rally participants?
It's always important to remember that whatever your social media circle is discussing or worried about... you're probably in the minority. And I have a hunch we're going to continually shocked by elections and other things until we come to grips with this fact.
Love for Freddie
A quick shoutout and get-well-soon to Fredrik deBoer, one of the most thoughtful and brave writers out there. His writing has influenced my thinking tremendously and I hope he's back at the keyboard some day.
Rapid-fire round:
- New favorite Twitter feed: Naval Ravikant
- Favorite post where all I can say is "just read the damn thing": This Is How Your Fear and Outrage Are Being Sold for Profit
- Favorite ice cream flavor: Peanut Buttah Cookie Core
Official newsletter flag (for now)
Mexico. Fun fact: I eat Mexican food for 75% of my meals. Funner fact: The Mexican flag’s tricolor was in place before the similar Italian version. Mexico actually predates “older” nations like Italy, Greece, Germany, and Spain.
The one difference between the Italian and Mexican flags, of course, is the coat of arms which depicts an Eagle eating a snake on a cactus in a lake. If that seems like oddly specific imagery it’s because Mexico City (neé Tenochtitlan) was founded after settlers saw such an image which was prophesied by an Aztec legend.
Side note: In researching Aztec traditions and legends are I found The Tovar Codex, a book written in the 16th century by Mexican Jesuit Juan de Tovar which contains amazing illustrations worthy of hanging on your wall.
Dear reader, I’d hang a picture of you on my wall. Thanks for making space for this in your crowded inbox.
--Sean
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