September 2019

With online advertising only getting tougher, perhaps the future of media is represented by Food52 – a hybrid publisher and e-commerce retailer. Read on for my takes on this and other culture-tech stories… What You Need To Know 👀 TCG Buys Majority Stake in Food52 for $83 Million 🍲 The Wall St Journal reports: “Founded…

Welcome to the Weekly Wrap-up, a review of the week’s culture-tech coverage here on Cybercultural.  A Peek Behind The Paywall 🔓 First up, a list of news stories I wrote about this past week for paying subscribers. I’ve included some choice quotes from my takes. Facebook unveils new Portal video chat, TV streaming devices 📹 “I’m also…

On The Bill Simmons Podcast this month, author Malcolm Gladwell said something that startled me: the audiobook version of his latest book, Talking to Strangers, was outselling the hard cover after the first week on sale. He mentioned this was also happening with the books of Jordan Peterson, a middle-aged self help author who’s become…

In today’s subscriber update, there are three noteworthy news stories involving big tech companies and their cultural content platforms: Spotify, Facebook and Google. Also I highlight an interesting debate in the book world that is begging for a tech solution. What You Need To Know 👀 Spotify revamps app for artists; adds real-time listener stats…

Facebook Portal wants read/write video access to your living room. It’s obvious why Facebook would like that, but it’s far less obvious why anyone else would. This story and more in today’s subscriber newsletter… What You Need To Know 👀 Facebook unveils new Portal video chat, TV streaming devices 📹 Reuters reports on Facebook’s new…

Welcome to the Weekly Wrap-up, a review of the week’s culture-tech coverage here on Cybercultural.  A Peek Behind The Paywall 🔓 First up, a list of news stories I wrote about this past week for paying subscribers. I’ve included some choice quotes from my takes. How digital technology helped form the Peak TV era 📺 “Given the…

Today’s subscriber update is on the theme of online advertising. Since my recent analysis posts have been focused on the subscriptions market, I thought I better take a look at the latest news on the (not dead yet) online advertising market. What You Need To Know 👀 Washington Post builds ad network for publishers to…

In my previous two weekly analysis posts, I’ve made the case for why blogs and email newsletters represent the future of independent media – and could also provide an antidote to the ills of social media. But of course there’s one glaring problem with my hypothesis: monetization. Can the subscriptions model of email newsletters work…

Today’s subscriber update covers digital developments in TV, music, VR and book publishing. Hope you enjoy. Please feel free to forward this email to people who you think might like to subscribe to Cybercultural too. What You Need To Know 👀 How digital technology helped form the Peak TV era 📺 According to Adam Wilson…

This week I’m introducing a new Friday edition of the newsletter, which will be sent to everyone. It’s called the Weekly Wrap-up, and will be a summary of the week’s culture-tech coverage here on Cybercultural. It’s partly to show free signups what you’ve been missing, but also I’ll add a few bits of brand new…