by: adminPosted on:

Publishing • Technology • Innovation – Issue #34

Podcasting
HT @nwquah Spotify is in talks to buy Gimlet for $230 million. “Talks are still ongoing and it is still possible that a deal won’t happen.”
www.recode.net  •  Share

Media

BuzzFeed has started its layoffs, but it’s also talking about a merger

BuzzFeed has started its layoffs, but it’s also talking about a merger
BuzzFeed is cutting costs and getting leaner, but it still wants to get bigger — by exploring a deal with Group Nine.
www.recode.net  •  Share
What 2,000 job cuts tell us: the free market kills digital journalism by @emilybell
www.theguardian.com  •  Share
The BuzzFeed Lesson
The lesson of BuzzFeed is that dominant Aggregators like Facebook have no incentive to act against their self interest and support suppliers.
stratechery.com  •  Share
Netflix Flexes
Netflix is an Aggregator, with a value chain that lets it drive demand, raise prices, and dismiss competition.
stratechery.com  •  Share

WarnerMedia shuts investment arm that backed Mic, Mashable and other digital media startups

WarnerMedia shuts investment arm that backed Mic, Mashable and other digital media startups
Now owned by AT&T, WarnerMedia has shut down its media and technology investment arm, which was a prominent backer of new media startups in the past decade.
digiday.com  •  Share

Condé Nast International goes B2B with Vogue Business

Condé Nast International goes B2B with Vogue Business
Condé Nast has been developing Vogue Business since June 2018, and has since grown to 7,000 subscribers.
digiday.com  •  Share

'It's only getting better': Buyers are shifting budgets to LinkedIn - Digiday

‘It’s only getting better’: Buyers are shifting budgets to LinkedIn – Digiday
Media buyers typically don’t say they love LinkedIn. But over the last year, some buyers have shifted more of their clients’ budgets there.
digiday.com  •  Share

The Metric Every Publisher Should Use in 2019: “Revenue at Risk”

The Metric Every Publisher Should Use in 2019: “Revenue at Risk”
Revenue at Risk seems to be a common-sense metric – do publishers really not use it?
www.pubexec.com  •  Share
RT @charabbott Want a quick overview of 2019 book publishing conferences and book fairs around the U.S. and the world? Check this out. Thanks to @publishingtrend @LWShanley!
www.publishingtrends.com  •  Share

Innovation
Microsoft offers free educational VR content for all Windows Mixed Reality users
If only there could have been virtual frog dissection when I was in school!
mspoweruser.com  •  Share

Google releases dataset to help AI systems spot fake audio recordings

Google releases dataset to help AI systems spot fake audio recordings
HT @nycmedialab In an effort to train systems to determine if an audio recording is real, Google has released a dataset of phrases spoken by its deep learning TTS models.
venturebeat.com  •  Share
We’ve moved past the pilot and experimental stage of artificial intelligence, and for it to succeed in the enterprise, it needs to be capable of delivering results on a large scale.
www.forbes.com  •  Share
RT @garysguide Neo-AI By Amazon AWS: Open source project for ML training models to be run across multiple OS
www.geekwire.com  •  Share

Field testing a new delivery system with Amazon Scout

Field testing a new delivery system with Amazon Scout
RT @garysguide Scout By Amazon: Small autonomous 6-wheeled delivery robot
blog.aboutamazon.com  •  Share
This is not a new article, but extends beyond AI – read the case study of Meituan, worth $60B
www.wired.com  •  Share
Musk makes all Tesla patents public to ‘fight climate change’
timesofindia.indiatimes.com  •  Share

Technology

Startups
Seems like good advice for startups/entrepreneurs via @sama
blog.samaltman.com  •  Share

Business

Amazon’s Sales Growth Slows, Even as Cloud Business Stays Hot

Amazon’s Sales Growth Slows, Even as Cloud Business Stays Hot
“The theme has been Amazon shifting from a product seller to a fee collector.”
www.nytimes.com  •  Share

WeWork’s $47 Billion Dream: The Lavishly Funded Startup That Could Disrupt Commercial Real Estate

WeWork’s $47 Billion Dream: The Lavishly Funded Startup That Could Disrupt Commercial Real Estate
With $6.5B in equity funding, WeWork is expanding aggressively at home and abroad and pursuing diverse investments that have raised eyebrows. But its real-estate-as-aservice offering and trove of data on optimal office design could make the company’s value prop far more than a marketing ploy.
www.cbinsights.com  •  Share

Science

NASA will attempt to knock an asteroid out of orbit in 2022

NASA will attempt to knock an asteroid out of orbit in 2022
The aim of the project is to establish whether we can protect our planet from a future asteroid impact.
www.businessinsider.com  •  Share

Good News

‘Black Panther’ Returns To Movie Theaters For Free For Black History Month

‘Black Panther’ Returns To Movie Theaters For Free For Black History Month
Black Panther is returning to the big screen from Feb 1-7 for free. 250 AMCs will be showing the movie for free, twice a day during this week.
www.huffingtonpost.com  •  Share

ABA, Glory Edim Partner to Bring Well-Read Black Girl Book Clubs to Indie Bookstores

ABA, Glory Edim Partner to Bring Well-Read Black Girl Book Clubs to Indie Bookstores
Booksellers are invited to sign on as ambassadors to host Well-Read Black Girl book clubs in their stores.
www.bookweb.org  •  Share
RT @JacarandaBooks We have received donations totalling £25000 for our commitment to diverse & ground-breaking publishing. We have selected our 20 Black British writers for #Twentyin2020
www.theguardian.com  •  Share

"Mamma Mia" & "Pitch Perfect's" Studio Just Took The 4% Challenge — & Threw Down A Gauntlet To Hollywood

“Mamma Mia” & “Pitch Perfect’s” Studio Just Took The 4% Challenge — & Threw Down A Gauntlet To Hollywood
RT @Refinery29 The Oscars may have snubbed women directors, but a new challenge from the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative has Hollywood stars pledging to make a change.
www.refinery29.com  •  Share

First Book, Rise Up Partner on Donations to Schools

First Book, Rise Up Partner on Donations to Schools
The two literacy philanthropies will team up to supply $130,000 in new books to school districts in Houston and Northern California ravaged by natural disasters.
www.publishersweekly.com  •  Share

Opportunities
RT @CakeLiterary Attention authors! We are looking for Native/Indigenous, US-based writers for upcoming Middle Grade Fantasy projects. Please submit via our Submittable form!
cakeliterary.submittable.com  •  Share
Join us for the PowerUP! kick-off in February 2019. Win $20,000 to start your own business in Brooklyn! Enter our annual PowerUP! competition to gain valuable financial and marketing skills, learn from local business mentors, and compete for our biggest cash prize ever to help fund your dream.
www.bklynlibrary.org  •  Share
RT @NYWIFT #TheWritersLab 2019 is open for submissions now through March 14th, 2019! Open to women screenwriters over 40 with a feature-length screenplay. Learn more and apply @The_Writers_Lab
thewriterslab.nyc  •  Share
RT @astoriabookshop We are hiring a full-time events coordinator & a part-time bookseller!
www.astoriabookshop.com  •  Share
Kathy Sandler

The latest in publishing, technology, and innovation, curated by Kathy Sandler.
I work at Penguin Random House. Opinions expressed are my own.
Powered by Revue