Wikipedia’s donation request drama

Contributors felt the messages were unethical.

Jacob Cohen • December 20, 2022

Media winter is coming

December is often the season for media layoffs, and damage is especially severe this year.

Mark Dent • December 6, 2022

TikTok’s queen of the bestseller list

Colleen Hoover has had an unconventional path to literary superstardom.

Rob Litterst • October 14, 2022

Publishers and Hollywood are a perfect match

Publishers need revenue, and Hollywood needs better stories.

Rob Litterst • September 21, 2022

The ‘Wordle’ glow up, explained

The New York Times is making big moves to take Wordle to the next level.

Samir Javer • September 1, 2022

The NYT’s next era isn’t about news

As digital consumption rises, The New York Times is evolving into a product company.

Rob Litterst • June 15, 2022

Has BuzzFeed had it with millennials?

What is “news for Gen Z”? No one’s quite so sure.

Jacob Cohen • May 27, 2022

Don’t rely on Google Docs’ new writing tool to do your work for you

Google Docs’ new inclusive writing tool needs some work.

Juliet Bennett Rylah • April 21, 2022

How fantasy novels blew away Kickstarter’s record

Author Brandon Sanderson doubled Kickstarter’s previous record for most-funded project with a good campaign and a passionate fan base.

Juliet Bennett Rylah • April 6, 2022

A school board banned a book. Now everyone wants it

After a school board banned Art Spiegelman’s critically acclaimed graphic novel, Maus, it shot to the top of bestseller lists.

Juliet Bennett Rylah • February 4, 2022

Can CNN make streaming work?

CNN+ is launching in March with a line-up of celebs including Alison Roman, Eva Longoria and Audie Cornish.

Trung T. Phan • January 27, 2022

Artists are making millions creating digital stickers

On Line, Japan’s most popular messaging app, 4m creators have fueled a booming sticker economy.

Rob Litterst • January 18, 2022

New public domain just dropped

A host of new works are now public domain, including the 1st Winnie-the-Pooh book. Here’s what that means.

Juliet Bennett Rylah • January 5, 2022

BuzzFeed has crashed as a public company — but there’s a silver lining

BuzzFeed is down 39% as a public company. But it now has public stock for acquisitions.

Trung T. Phan • December 13, 2021

Who invented the ‘face with tears of joy’ emoji?

Emojis were popularized in Japan in the late 1990s. The precursor to 😂 was created by Japanese telecom SoftBank.

Trung T. Phan • December 6, 2021

Macy’s solution for the retail apocalypse? Selling ads.

Macy’s new advertising network is pulling in tens of millions of dollars, and could be the company’s next big revenue stream.

Rob Litterst • December 1, 2021

Who’s actually benefiting from the creator economy boom?

The top 1% of podcasters and video streamers earn the majority of revenue for those media verticals.

Trung T. Phan • October 14, 2021

The Ozy Media collapse, explained

Ozy Media raised $70m+ as the next great media startup. But it all collapsed after the NYT reported that its COO potentially committed securities fraud during a fundraising episode with Goldman Sachs.

Trung T. Phan • October 4, 2021

CAA is buying ICM, creating a super-agency to take on a changing Hollywood

CAA’s purchase of ICM will create a super-agency to take on a changing entertainment industry.

Rob Litterst • September 30, 2021

Red Ventures profits off of giving you advice

Red Ventures’ media empire includes leading advice sites like CNET, Lonely Planet, Bankrate and The Points Guy.

Juliet Bennett Rylah • August 23, 2021

Automattic, the parent to WordPress, is a private company you should know about

Automattic, the parent company to WordPress, recently executed a $250m buyback, valuing the company at $7.5B.

Rob Litterst • August 20, 2021

Using AI to write better, faster, smarter

Startups are using technology to learn your writing style and give you a better text editor.

Juliet Bennett Rylah • June 11, 2021

How Vimeo went from CollegeHumor side project to a multibillion-dollar company

Vimeo’s customers include Amazon, Spotify, and Intuit. It was once bought by accident.

Jacob Cohen • May 27, 2021

Publishing startup Piano gets an $88m boost

Piano gives tools for big media brands like TechCrunch, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist to build subscription products.

Kolby Hatch • May 21, 2021

Facebook wants you to read before you share

Facebook rolls out a new feature that encourages users to read an article before sharing it.

Juliet Bennett Rylah • May 12, 2021

The Washington Post is quietly building a SaaS powerhouse, with Papa Bezos’ help

Powered by AWS, The Washington Post’s publishing software is used by 1k+ websites.

Kolby Hatch • April 28, 2021

Publishers are riding the NFT wave… and it’s working

Publishers are trying their hands at NFTs, with some looking to turn written work into digital collectibles.

Jacob Cohen • April 8, 2021

OpenAI is open for business

OpenAI’s GPT-3 is known for generating text that reads awfully close to human writing. Now, it’s trying to capitalize on the tech.

Jacob Cohen • April 1, 2021

Ghost: The open-source startup helping creators turn audiences into a business

Ghost is an open-source alternative to Substack for newsletter publishers. Creators are already making $2m a year on its platform.

Steph Smith • March 31, 2021

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