Innovation
The Next Frontier For iHeartMedia: The Metaverse
Aiming to build an on-ramp to the metaverse for its 250 million users, iHeartMedia says it will create events and experiences for listeners and music fans on the online gaming platform Roblox. They plan to create events for music fans on Roblox, aiming to build an on-ramp to the metaverse. #metaverse #gaming
Facebook’s vision for a metaverse includes ‘body pose tracking,’ and ‘pupil steering,’ according to recent patent filings. None mention privacy or safety.
www.businessinsider.com
The company’s metaverse will be full of realistic interaction, but is so far short on privacy and user safety, recent patents suggest.
How publishers experimented with NFTs in 2021
NFTs debuted to the masses in 2021, and publishers scrambled to grab hold of the burgeoning revenue opportunities. #NFTs
The Associated Press is starting its own NFT marketplace for photojournalism
The Associated Press is creating an NFT marketplace to sell its photographers’ work as blockchain-based tokens. The outlet seems to be targeting collectors, who will have the ability to resell the art to other buyers. Selling iconic images as NFTs to benefit journalists. They’re using Polygon, which uses proof of stake, so it’s environmentally friendlier than proof of work Blockchain. They accept credit cards or crypto. Doing “Pulitzer drops” for limited editions.
Time magazine celebrates bumper year as it plans to double down on NFTs
The 7 tech terms you need to know in 2022: NFTs, metaverse, and more
mashable.com
You’re going to hear a lot about the metaverse, blockchains, and NFTs this year. Better brush up on 2022’s tech buzz words now.
Most People Won’t Know Web3 Exists
Web3 Is a Backend Revolution. By @rex_woodbury #Web3
Technology
What Bored Apes Can Teach CMOs About Guiding Their Companies Into the Future — www.adweek.com
The buzzworthy NFT phenomenon represents all that is possible in today’s digital landscape.
Why Take-Two wants to pay nearly $13 billion for the maker of FarmVille
This would be the biggest deal in game history. Take-Two wants Zynga’s expertise with free-to-play mobile games.
A practical questionnaire and worksheet for new product development
HT @BoSacks Good questionnaire for new product development (see also Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas)
Ransomware: Hackers are using Log4j flaw as part of their attacks, warns Microsoft
www.zdnet.com
A new China-based “double extortion” ransomware group has started exploiting the Log4Shell bug in VMware server products.
Gen Z, Creators, and Our Mental Health Tipping Point
Young People Are Leading the Mental Health Revolution. By @rex_woodbury #mentalhealth #creators
Publishing & Media
Girl Power, Book Power — www.publishersweekly.com
Publishers discuss how their new and upcoming titles consider the needs of women and girls.
Harlequin Plus
Per @PublishersLunch: A new multimedia subscription-based service Harlequin Plus gives users access to movies, games, ebooks library w 10–15 new books/month, + print book bundles delivered to their homes for $14.99/mo.
Librarians Decry GOP Moves to Ban Books in Schools — www.pewtrusts.org
A Texas lawmaker called for schools to review 850 books for possible removal.
Pa. teen creates Teen Banned Book Club at Firefly Bookstore — www.readingeagle.com
A Kutztown 8th grader created a Teen Banned Book Club at Firefly Bookstore in Kutztown to discuss both classic novels and current hot topics.
Libraries are essential, but librarians shouldn’t be expected to be front-line workers
bookriot.com
The pandemic is showing the holes in social safety nets across the U.S., but public libraries aren’t the answer to those problems.
A Library the Internet Can’t Get Enough Of — www.nytimes.com
Why does this image keep resurfacing on social media?
London’s first Black bookshop saved from closure after £90k raised in 11 days — www.mylondon.news
The initial £35,000 target was smashed within 24 hours
Local Book Clubs Are Booming on Zoom — m.styleweekly.com
The pandemic has seen renewed interest in local book clubs on Zoom.
Writers to Watch Spring 2022 — www.publishersweekly.com
Genre-bending novels about the inequities of life and promising collections round out this season’s notable debuts, some of which are already making their way to a TV near you.
The Best Cookbooks of 2021 — www.nytimes.com
RT @nytimes It was another fantastic year for cookbooks. The New York Times cooked through dozens of them and landed on these 14 cookbooks as being the best 2021 had to offer.
Bookshop.org website makes £2m for indies
www.thebookseller.com
Indie-focused retailer Bookshop.org has generated £2m to date for its 500 affiliated bookshops, with titles by Douglas Stuart, Caleb Femi and chef duo Yotam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage among the biggest sellers.
United States Mint Begins Shipping First American Women Quarters™ Program Coins Honoring Maya Angelou
2022 Mentees of the Desi KidLit Mentorship Program
desikidlitcommunity.weebly.com
MT @ShebaKarim Congratulations to the 2022 Mentees of the Desi KidLit Mentorship Program, Sonya Kenkare, Rozana Rajkumari and Ayida Shonibar! @SonyaKenkare @rozanark #desikidlit
Podcasting Hasn’t Produced A New Hit in Years
The average podcast in the top 10 is more than seven years old, per Edison Research. #podcasting
Spotify shuts down its namesake podcast studio
Spotify is planning to shut down its Studio 4, or Spotify Studios, network.
Hearst UK is shuttering Real People magazine after 16 years, and just six months after it revealed plans to close UK Town & Country — pressgazette.co.uk
Machine made: News publishers adopt artificial intelligence technologies to tell data-driven stories
McClatchy has begun experimenting with publishing transitional real estate stories with artificial intelligence software. And, it’s hardly the first news organization to explore the benefits of automated journalism, which in theory can free up journalists from more mundane tasks — if it doesn’t cost them their jobs. #AI #journalism
Most Gannett newspapers are ceasing home delivery of Saturday print editions in coming months, offering an e-edition instead
NY Daily News plans to outsource printing, 200 jobs may be cut — nypost.com
HT @BoSacks
Why publishers should pay attention to Pinterest — www.journalism.co.uk
The visual search platform that has more active users than Twitter created new tools to help businesses build loyal social audiences and explore untapped revenue streams. #Pinterest
ViacomCBS Takes Wattpad Stories to Streaming
ICYMI Social writing platform Wattpad (owned by South Korean tech giant Naver) has teamed up with US media giant ViacomCBS to adapt its most popular stories into original TV series.
Reuters Institute predictions for 2022: nine trends you need to know about
Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends and Predictions 2022 round-up of the most important points publishers need to pay attention to this year
theMaven Inc., parent company to a bunch of digital media brands including @TheStreet and @SInow, has filed under new brand name “The Arena Group” to uplist its shares on NYSE
HT @sarafischer
Cable TV Is the New Landline
Old habits die hard. But technology can change entrenched ways of doing things slowly and then very quickly. #streaming
Resources & Opportunities
Best Practices in Marketing, Promotion, and Reader Engagement — The Authors Guild — www.authorsguild.org
MT @JaneFriedman Join me for a free expert panel discussion on best practices in book marketing and promotion — hosted by @AuthorsGuild(yes, it will be recorded!)
Disability in Publishing: Agents & Editors
MT @DisabilityinPub “Attention editors and agents! We’re working on our website, including creating a database of editors and agents who are interested in working with disabled and neurodiverse authors. If you would like to be included, please fill out the forms linked in this thread!”
Disability in Publishing: Freelancers
MT @DisabilityinPub “Attention freelancers! We’re building a database of disabled and neurodiverse individuals who would like to be considered for freelance/work-for-hire opportunities in publishing. If you would like to be included, please fill out this form”
DVcon 2021 Registration & Discord 1/19–1/23 — www.dvpit.com
RT @DV_con last weekend to register for the #DVcon2022 conference! registering gets you direct access to all our live-streamed panels and microvideos, plus an invitation to our exclusive Discord community! invites go out on Jan 17, so don’t wait! register now!
The Joel Gay Creative Fellowships — by Roxane Gay — audacity.substack.com
MT @rgay I’m excited to share that in partnership with @SubstackInc I’ve created the Joel Gay Creative Fellowships. There will be 3 fellows, paid $25,000 each to create/publish a newsletter for a year.
The New York Times debuts a fellowship for crossword constructors — www.niemanlab.org
NYT Games editorial director Everdeen Mason on building a more diverse set of puzzle constructors and an “ecosystem” for solvers. “I don’t want people to just come in and play a game and leave.”
Is one of your new year’s resolutions to finally start (or finish) your book? There’s tons of advice out there on how you “should” do it. But quite often, the advice doesn’t free up creativity; it constricts it. What if you could approach writing a book in a way that felt less like “work” and more fun and creative? What if you threw out the templates and did the whole thing backwards? Because you can. Join us for a fun evening that’s part discussion and part book launch w @TerriT, author of Unfollow Your Passion: How to Create a Life that Matters to You, and @RichelleFredson, founder of Purposeful Platforms. Come discover a fresh and nonlinear approach to crafting, sharing, and promoting your work. Virtual event FREE 1/19 7pm ET.
We’re excited to welcome Alexandra Alter, publishing reporter for The New York Times, and @mariskreizman, essayist, critic and host of The Maris Review on Lit Hub, for a far-ranging discussion on the seismic shifts in how we’re discovering, buying and consuming books and what the future holds for authors, publishers, retailers and readers. Virtual event 1/26 6pm ET $15 for non-members, FREE for members of @WMG_NYC.
There are an estimated 56% more job openings in branded content versus traditional journalism. That’s why we see an uptick in journalists and editors wondering how to break into this kind of content creation. And the truth is, branded content hiring managers would rather teach a journalist the basics of marketing than teach a marketer how to create compelling, editorial-like content. Another truth: creating content for brands can be fascinating and even fun — as either a gig or a career. In this session, we’ll cover: How to find a job or writing opportunity; what the work entails; and where the industry is headed. Virtual event 2/1 7pm ET $10 for non-members, FREE for members.
The Author + The Marketer: Working Together To Connect to Readers
Novelist/poet/blogger Dale M. Kushner, and the marketing veteran she has worked with for eight years, WMG member @BridgetMarmion, share the process, tasks, benefits and challenges of connecting a writer with readers today. Virtual event FREE for all 3/18 7pm ET.
Navigating Legal Issues in the Publishing World
If you’re involved in the media industry, you likely have routine encounters with legal issues — from the negotiation of all sorts of agreements (publishing, ghost writing, content licensing and distribution, app development, and many more), to issues relating to copyright and the First Amendment. During this 1-hour Zoom webinar, Attorney @StacyJGrossman will discuss key issues in publishing agreements and important negotiation points, and she will review significant court cases related to publishing, including cases about embedding, book scanning and fair use. There will be plenty of time reserved for questions, so don’t be shy. Virtual event 3/28 at noon ET. FREE for members only.
Are you thinking of writing a cookbook but not sure where to start? Do you want to pitch your cookbook idea? Literary agent Sally Ekus is offering a one-on-one coaching session to discuss the ins and outs of cookbook publishing. If submitted in advance, she will review your pitch. Bid today! Auction closes Jan. 19th. Proceeds benefit Women’s Media Group Educational Foundation.