Why newsletters are just getting started

The Future (and Past) of newsletters

Despite the closure of Revue, and Facebook backing away from newsletters, they still have a very healthy future in publishing and audience circles. At least, that’s the case I try to make to Ian Silvera of Future News and Tech, Power & Media in this interview:

(It's an interview with me… illustrated with a photo of Andrew Sullivan?)

Ian’s written up his take on it, including summarising my reasons for eschewing Substack:

So, why didn’t Adam choose Substack like everyman and his dog’s favourite celebrity writer? Substack’s VC-backing (the company raised $65m last March in a Series-B round and is backed by Andreessen Horowitz) was a turn-off and so was another related factor: as Substack seeks to generate more revenue and make its users stickier, it has become more like a platform (rather than a simple email sender and list builder).

I’d love to know what you think of the interview. And yes, I know that I need to stop swivelling in the seat… 🤦‍♂️

WEF #Humblebrag with Ben Smith

This morning’s Semafor media email is almost the dictionary definition of #humblebrag:

My colleagues Liz Hoffman and Steve Clemons and I spent the last week in Davos (ugh I know, what an annoying way to open).

Ick, as the young people say.

LinkedIn pushing newsletters harder

An email dropped into my inbox this morning, letting me know that the LinkedIn-based newsletters I subscribe to will become public in a couple of weeks…

To aid in this discovery, we are making newsletter subscriptions visible to others, including on profiles. Starting February 11, 2023, you’ll be able to see which newsletters members find value in, the same way you can see your shared interests, pages, and groups.

This is a pretty clear swipe from Substack — but should aid discovery.

Quickies

• 💥 The Muskageddon is reducing Twitter’s already small impact on traffic generation.
• 🥶 Microsoft has laid off the vast majority of its AR/VR teams. The Metaverse winter is here.
• 🔇 Google has removed the ability to play podcasts straight from search results - probably because nobody was using it…
• 🐢 Your WordPress theme might be sabotaging your SEO in the way it handles images.

Twitter and The Mirror in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g

Here’s a question:

And here’s the answer:

Twitter is testing a new feature that sees verified journalists identified alongside a logo for their publication. Several Daily Mirror journalists on the platform now have a new symbol showing the Mirror logo next to their blue ticks linking to the brand’s own Twitter account. Parent company Reach said Twitter invited the Mirror to get involved in the trial run.

These are actually a newish variation on the Verified status called “affiliations”:

Remember my post from last year about the impact of the Twitter layoffs on journalists? Well, we have part of an answer to my final question: Twitter has some element of a news partnership team still functioning, doing deals like this.

Weekend photo chaser