Peter Bale - Twitter implosion; CNN ruckus; Semafor stuff and much more
Well, if you haven't done this already then you're a moron -- like me. Well, I tried to do it a few days ago but the command hasn't yet executed. So, I doubt it will. Years of Twitter membership and affection and some horrible spats but a wonderful read-in that changed my view of the power of news organisations. I did do it with Revue and it seemed to work so I will pester you if I move to Substack. Like I say, I would prefer Elon succeeded.
At the risk of being perverse, two things can be true here: Elon has probably fired some terrific and dedicated and brilliant people. Actually, I know he has because I have a particular friend who was bumped off and is brilliant. It is also possible that some people there were too comfortable and needed a shake up. He has gone beyond that but it is not completely mad to ask for a high level of commitment in this business when everyone else is firing people and Twitter faces a mountain of debt and more.
Forbes is little better than Newsweek these days but there is something slightly ghastly about this. On the other hand, Prince Alwaleed has historically been a big investor in News Corporation and is or was a big believer in big US brands. However, with the rise of MBS it seems likely that Kingdom Holdings has very limited independence.
It’s kind of a right of passage for any new social media network.
An oldie but an increasingly goodie. It really is hard to do this stuff and yes, it is really hard to send rockets to space as well, and build cool electric cars at scale. Like I say, I would prefer Elon to succeed at this.
A small indication that things might have been going off the rails a bit. On the other hand - having witnessed the early days of MySpace from almost the inside when it became clear what content moderation might involve -- I am prepared to forgive platform the odd very amusing error.
I thought this was quite a nice piece on Rupert, pegged around an idea that News Corp might do something in New Zealand -- a market of 5 m. I had no idea Rupert had made a trip around New Zealand in a Morris Minor as a young man. I had thought that nothing could make me admire him more. This piece by Toby Manhire, is much better than the usual cut of clips about Rupert that one has to do when he surfaces.
Puck is odd but a better way, perhaps, to work out what's going on at CNN is to listen to the excellent Kara Swisher and her On podcast which has a good if a slightly evasive interview with Chris Licht.
Maybe this is the pathway for what to me is often a recurring bullshit argument about young people and news. They will find it when they are ready and it's delivered in a way that reaches them, and that doesn't necessarily mean someone dancing and reading the news. Oh, wait...
Not to push my own stuff but Semafor is interesting and not many people have written about it post-launch. It is good but maybe underwhelming.
Worthy really but I care about this subject from a journalistic point of view and I do believe it is the story of our age and people in media need help to deal with it. On the other hand the word "continue" kills it. (An old saw of mine).
Oh, sorry, one more. There is another coming and this one is almost out of date.
My weekly summary of critical world news - with a little commentary -- for The Spinoff in NZ.
And if you haven't had enough of my stuff this week, here is more of my stuff. I do think there is something to be said about a regular summary of events but I would say that wouldn't I?