📰📺💵 Vox & The Social Media Pundit Class - The Neal Ungerleider Newsletter
Learning how your neighbors would fare in zombie apocalypse + Bad review death metal + More!
I. Vox & The Social Media Pundit Class:
So… interesting things are going on over at Vox. The popular news site is losing two of its three cofounders and masthead journalists, Matt Yglesias and Ezra Klein, who are starting a Substack newsletter and joining the New York Times respectively. Lauren Williams, Vox.com’s editor-in-chief and senior vice president, is also leaving to found a new non-profit journalism startup called Capital B. (Disclosure: Williams and I worked together at MenuPages years ago. I’m very excited to see what she’s up to at Capital B).
While I don’t have any insights about what’s going on inside Vox apart from the fact that losing three marquee names in a month isn’t good… the Klein and Yglesias departures are interesting. They show, crystal clearly, just how much the pundit game has changed in the 2020s.
Both Yglesias and Klein are perfect examples of the social media pundit class. Pundit, for our purposes, being a reporter, columnist or television personality with a recognizable personal brand. By this, I mean a very specific variety of media personality:
Nerdy and giving hot takes. Being white, male, upper-middle class, private school educated not strictly necessary. Nerdy and ready to give hot takes strictly necessary.
Built reputation on and published primarily FOR ONLINE PUBLICATIONS rather than for television or in academia. This is important.
Primarily cultivated audience with posts on social media, especially Twitter, rather than via television appearances, publishing books or writing columns. This is even more important.
(Photo of iPhone home screen via Visualhunt).
The social media pundit class is distinct from previous pundit cohorts in one key way: Social media makes the creation of an independent personal brand—separate from anything your employer might promote about you—extremely easy. Instead of relying on an agent, your employer’s marketing team and word-of-mouth among your audience superfans to promote you, all you have to do is click a button and reach an audience of tens of thousands.
But at the same time, this leads to a power differential… While a journalist may have a substantial personal brand, they’re still dependent on media outlets to publish, disseminate and give credence to their work whether they’re full-timers or freelancers. Social media democratized self-promotion, but it didn’t democratize content distribution.
And—important context—this is taking place against the background of digital media rapidly consolidating. Buzzfeed purchased the Huffington Post last week and I have no doubt we’re going to see other high profie mergers/acquisitions by the end of 2021. The naughty little open secret of digital media is that profit margins SUCK because PEOPLE LOVE JOURNALISM BUT HATE PAYING FOR IT.
Ezra Klein is leaving for the New York Times not just because they’re the traditional newspaper of record for the United States and the traditional pinnacle of many journalism careers. The New York Times Company is also very good at digital economies and attracting marquee columnists who bring with them preexisting audiences. I’m thinking specifically, right here and now, of Roxane Gay, Kara Swisher and Ben Smith though I’m sure I’m missing others. Klein fits in that profile perfectly.
Meanwhile, Yglesias is going for the other revenue-generating move for a pundit with an established following: Starting a newsletter. He’s following in a path which includes Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, Andrew Sullivan and lots of other pundits who meet three criteria:
Having controversial opinions that generate lots of organic social media discussion pro or con and earned media coverage for OMG THE OCCASIONAL CONTROVERSY but not actually controversial enough to be shunned and de-platformed.
Having a readership that’s both affluent enough and willing to pay money to read their work exclusively.
Independent-minded or entrepreneurial-minded enough to take on the million fiddly little business things being indie entails (versus working for a brand like Vox or the New York Times, where those fiddly little business things are taken care of for you).
In the 2020s, the social media pundit class is the ascendant one. The old order of the Sunday New York Times op-ed section and the Sunday political talk shows being the arbiter of pundit power? Gone gone gone. And even on the right wing front, talk radio will be supplanted by podcasts in just a few years. New pundit world with a binary for boldfaced names: Work at a brand where you’re a featured name to attract subscribers and add revenue OR strike on your own through an entrepreneurial approach that includes (but isn’t limited to) subscription-based email newsletters.
And there we are.
II. New Futures:
RETAIL’S NEW OLD FUTURE: Protocol has put together a genuinely interesting and fascinating guide to retail in the 2020s. TLDR = A lot more curbside pickup, boom times for the trucking industry (by human drivers, not self-driving trucks!) and shopping habits altered even post-pandemic.
SCREAMING INTO THE COVID-19 VOID: Lyz Lenz speaks with COVID data analyst Sara Anne Willette:
This is why I do what I do. I track this data because it’s important. There’s some layers as to why I’m doing this for ISEA. First off, teachers are going to end up dead. They’ve already ended up dead, and we need to try to mitigate that as much as we can. But the other part of it is, likely, there’s going to be, at some point, lawsuits from parents because their kid ends up dead or disabled or something. And I see it as my personal responsibility to have the data necessary for teachers, families, individual Iowans, whoever. If they need this data later in order to make it so that they can get justice for something that happened, it’s there, and I have it available. It’s horrifying.
HOW WE ACTED DURING THE PANDEMIC: Will Leitch on how we will never forget how we all acted during the pandemic:
It’s more about discovering how your friends and neighbors react to a genuine global catastrophe. If you’ve ever wondered how your loved ones and acquaintances would handle a zombie apocalypse, this is probably as close as we are going to get.
III. Advertising/Marketing/PR:
TURNING BAD PRODUCT REVIEWS INTO MUSIC: Hipster metal music-themed canned water brand Liquid Death is releasing an LP of death metal music based on their worst product reviews.
NEW TWITCH AD FORMAT: Streaming platform Twitch is testing “multiplayer ads”—ads triggered by streamers that everyone viewing has to watch.
MILK-MAKIN’ BOOBS: Pregnancy brand Frida’s newest ad campaign centers around “what milk-makin’ boobs actually look like.” (Warning: nudity!)
SHERWIN-WILLIAMS’ TIKTOK SELF-OWN: Sherwin-Williams fired Tony Piloseno, a 21-year-old employee whose TikTok videos of paint mixing have over 1.2 million subscribers. The move means Sherwin-Williams essentially forfeited a huge accidental positive TikTok prescence; Piloseno will almost certainly establish a influencer career without his former employer involved.
BBC ‘INTERRUPTED DAD’ IS BACK: Robert Kelly, the South Korea-based academic who became globally famous after his young children interrupted a BBC interview in 2017, is now appearing in a new ad for Twitter’s conversational control tools.
RADIO SHACK’S RETURN: Miami-based Retail Ecommerce Ventures has acquired the rights to the Radio Shack brand. The company is known for purchasing the IP of distressed retailers and turning them into online businesses.
WAFFLE HOUSE BEER COLLABORATION: Waffle House is teaming up with Oconee Brewing Company on Waffle House Bacon & Kegs, a 6.5% ABV bacon-scented red ale.
IV. Media:
SNAPCHAT PAYING CREATORS: Snapchat is launching Snapchat Spotlight, a new short video platform prominently featured on the brand’s app which will distribute $1 million daily to creators of top-rated content. The move indicates that Snapchat’s competitor is increasingly less Instagram and more YouTube and TikTok.
YOUTUBE MUSIC’S SECRET WEAPONS: Protocol’s David Pierce looks at Google’s plans for YouTube Music, how Google previously messed up their music streaming services, and how turning YouTube Music into a viable Apple Music/Spotify competitor is pretty much all about the taxonomy and breadth of content.
BANDCAMP LAUNCHING LIVESTREAM SERVICE: The new Bandcamp Live lets bands easily host ticketed livestream concerts as the live music industry continues to implode.
US MILITARY BUYING LOCATION INFO FROM APPS: Although it’s been known in the industry for quite some time that global militaries (not just the US!) and intelligence services buy granular user cellphone location info from data brokers, Vice’s Joseph Cox has the goods on how the American military buys location data for hundreds of thousands of users at a time from data brokers.
HBO MAX COMING TO AMAZON FIRE DEVICES: After months of negotiation, AT&T and Amazon finally came to a deal for HBO Max on Amazon Fire devices. Roku is reportedly next; arguments over data, pricing and contracts have delayed both deals. Just in time for…
WONDER WOMAN 1984 DEBUTING ON HBO MAX: Because noone can make money from movie theatres in the United States nowadays and you can’t hold up blockbuster movies forever, Wonder Woman 1984 will debut on HBO Max. But that’s not all…
CONAN O’BRIEN MOVING TO HBO MAX: Netflix has David Letterman, Apple TV+ has Jon Stewart and now HBO Max has Conan O’Brien hosting a weekly talk show. O’Brien is ending his TBS show after 11 years.
INSTAGRAM GUIDES EXPANDS: Instagram is expanding their Guides product in order to make ecommerce easier and drive more sweet, sweet platform fee money to Facebook Inc.
BLUE CHECKMARKS ON SOUNCLOUD: SoundCloud is now verifying creators with the familiar blue checkmark.
TWITTER FLEETS: Twitter is unveiling Twitter Fleets, which self-destruct after 24 hours.
SINCLAIR BROADCASTING ALL IN ON GAMBLING: Sinclair Broadcasting Group is rebranding their regional sports networks as Bally’s; the gambling brand is paying $88 million over 10 years for the naming rights.
V. Tech:
AMAZON PHARMACY LAUNCHES: Amazon is launching Amazon Pharmacy, which will sell prescription medicine, insulin, asthma inhalers and more via the company’s familiar business model. Mail order only for now, but we’ll see.
GOOGLE PAY REVAMP: Google has completely revamped Google Pay, offering instant payment capabilities and deep insights into spending habits and collecting oodles of data for the Googleplex.
VI. Fun:
WOOHOO!: Blur’s “Song 2” as performed by Mario.
PAPERCLIP SHAPED SQUIDS: Scientists have found evidence of an ancient, paperclip-shaped squid-like creature which may have had a lifespan of hundreds of years.
DISNEY CHALLENGE COINS: Disney’s security team has been secretly minting their own challenge coins. Punisher skull Mickey Mouse anyone? And for the record: I’ve visited both military bases and Disney corporate headquarters for work. The security at Disney HQ was stricter.
Things I’ve Enjoyed Lately:
Watching Anthony Fauci’s Oxford Union talk.
The story of how Dolly Parton decided to fund the COVID vaccine.
Creating super-expensive box sets for music superfans.
This playlist of Afrika Bambaataa’s favorite blues and soul records.
That’s it for this issue. Email me here and please don’t hesitate to contact if I can be of assistance. Thank you for taking the time to read this damned thing. And donate to Oak Park Mutual Aid.
Love and coffee,
Neal
About This Newsletter: My name is Neal Ungerleider, and I’m a strategic communications consultant working with brands and agencies on marketing/advertising/PR projects. I worked as a journalist in a previous life and now write this weekly newsletter about the comms industry and adjacent things. Thanks for taking the time to read it. For more, here's my bio, my portfolio, and current projects.
Connect on Twitter or LinkedIn and learn more about my services at nealungerleider.com. Contact me by replying to this newsletter or emailing neal@nealungerleider.com.