Pivot to Ice Cream, Cool Xbox Job, Twitter Isn't Real

Links: July 8th, 2022

Sweet Baby Bells

The EFF is against the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA), preferring a Baby Bell-style breakup of the digital ad giants.

Tech giants like Google and Facebook have indeed harmed journalism, but not by providing links to articles. Rather, their control of digital advertising markets and the vast majority of data in those markets means they can squeeze publications and advertisers by extracting higher shares of advertising revenue.

For example, starting in 2015, many online media companies started “pivoting to video,” gutting their traditional newsrooms and spending large amounts of money to build video journalism operations from scratch. Part of the impetus for that pivot was metrics showing that audiences preferred video to text—metrics provided, in large part, by Facebook. In 2014, Facebook claimed that “Facebook has averaged more than 1 billion video views every day.”

Facebook’s “Pivot To Video” era was only the most ruthlessly dishonest example of what they, Google, and—to a somewhat less clearly pernicious degree—Amazon Affiliate did to wrest ad spend power away from the advertising industry to the tech industry.

But funnily enough? I could argue that video is actually the most active format for independent journalism in 2022. (If I bothered to look up any stats, which I will not.)

I’m always down for a big ol’ industry breakup, but you can’t even suggest a unified gadget plug these days without people popping off. Seems unlikely that the ad monoliths are in much danger.

The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act Will Produce Neither Competition Nor Preservation [EFF]

Send Guns, Money, and Hackers

Reuters identified 35 legal cases since 2013 in which Indian hackers attempted to obtain documents from one side or another of a courtroom battle by sending them password-stealing emails.

The messages were often camouflaged as innocuous communications from clients, colleagues, friends or family. They were aimed at giving the hackers access to targets’ inboxes and, ultimately, private or attorney-client privileged information.

At least 75 U.S. and European companies, three dozen advocacy and media groups and numerous Western business executives were the subjects of these hacking attempts, Reuters found.

Love this for us! My crisis brain thinks What scenarios will I need to prepare clients for here? My creative activation brain thinks How could you use hackers for a really hilarious ad stunt? My corpo exec brain thinks Good lord, IT and Security teams really have their work cut out for them this century.

How mercenary hackers sway litigation battles [Reuters]

Twitter For Sickos Only

The headline pretty much says it all.

You know that gross feeling you get when people call the White House Press Correspondents Dinner “Nerd Prom?” Feel free to hold on to that same ill ease when reading Twitter.

Twitter is the go-to social media site for U.S. journalists, but not for the public [Pew]

The Swirl

Smith remembered: “We had what I would call a ‘go-with-the-flow’ vibe at Ample Hills. It seems strange and counterintuitive, but that ‘go-with-the-flow’ vibe, when stretched as far as we stretched it, can result in lots of miscommunication, lack of accountability, and unclear roles.”

Huh! Doesn’t seem that counterintuitive to me. (He’s joking, surely.)

How a Multimillion-Dollar Ice Cream Startup Melted Down (and Bounced Back)[HBS]

Another funny twist:

BuzzFeed News staff got some bittersweet news today: The newsroom’s interim-editor-in-chief, Samantha Henig, has decided to move on herself — and out of journalism. According to a lengthy email obtained by Gawker, Henig has decided to pursue her dream job as an ice-cream executive at a scoop-shop brand that filed for bankruptcy two years ago. Or as Henig put it in her parting message:

I’m going to take a job as the COO of Ample Hills, a Brooklyn-based ice cream company that I have long been obsessed with. In fact, when I had parting coffee with AG Sulzberger in 2019 just before leaving The New York Times and he asked me what was next for me, I posited that perhaps I would try to get a job at Ample Hills because it brings me so much joy. (He seemed confused.)

BUZZFEED’S INTERIM EIC LEAVING TO RUN FAILING ICE CREAM BRAND [Gawker (No Relation)]

Animal-Human Hybrid Office

So You've Decided to Bungle Your Company's Flexible Work Plan

A.H.P. catalogs various ways companies are fucking up the WFH/hybrid/You-Don’t-Like-Sweetgreen? spectrum of kinda-back-to-office.

This seems fixable, though. Hybrid isn’t new for many offices.

What is new is hybrid for meeting-heavy cultures. It only takes a little Zoom to Zoom the whole lump. Ever been the lone video caller to a meeting where everyone else was in a room? It sucks for everyone. Maybe one of the fixes is creating a culture where there are two types of meetings: Zoom and Zoom-free. They happen naturally anyway. Why not normalize it?

Also, there have to be consulting firms specializing in this now, gathering up a company’s digital toolsets and workflows, and teaching companies how to communicate, build canonical archives, figure out how to manage calendars respectfully. In fact I know there are companies that do this, but what I meant was: Maybe there might be a good one now.

Cool Newswire Content Job

The Gaming Comms Editorial Senior Manager [XBOX] will set the team’s editorial direction and voice, manage a team of writers and content contributors, and develop and deliver storytelling in support of the company’s products, impact, community and brand.

We’ll look to the Gaming Comms Editorial Senior Manager to manage and socialize the editorial content calendar, working closely with partners inside and outside of Comms, including games publishing, video production, social, and more, establishing themselves as a trusted advisor across the business.

Sr. Communications Manager - Editorial [Microsoft]

Now That’s What I Call “Worth Tweeting About”

Alex Thompson @AlexThomp

I called the White House at 2:53pm to ask for comment and told them we were running it. They asked for more time to check with folks. I gave it to them. WSJ pubbed at 3:11pm with a statement from Klain.

The White House couldn’t put together a coherent response to the repeal of Roe v Wade with a five-week head start. You think they’re scheming about what publication to give an exclusive statement to? The press aides probably weren’t even talking to each other.

My Sheryl, No More

Ryan Mac 🙃 @RMac18

Looks like Facebook/Meta is making a concerted effort to center its technical and product announcements around Mark Zuckerberg.