In this issue: Work update / Giant Transformers / Influencers from outsiders to insiders / Google paying news outlets / You don’t want to be X’s CEO / + more!
Welcome to Context Collapse, the world’s best comms newsletter. I’m Neal Ungerleider. I run Ungerleider Works and used to work as a reporter for Fast Company, write op-eds for the LA Times, and work as a senior copywriter for R/GA. This newsletter helps readers navigate the weird new world of media and gleefully ignores all the conventional wisdom about journalism, public relations, marketing, and advertising.
They say the first rule of Substack is to post constantly, but I’ve never been one for rules.
Work has been busy. The traditional Q4 process of large agencies and marketing departments reaching out to smaller agencies like us to spend 2023 budget that would otherwise disappear1 is in full force. We’re ghostwriting a few op-eds, recruiting participants for a few focus groups and live events, drafting brochures and UI/UX copy for live installations at trade shows, and I’m hosting the AccelPro IP Law podcast. Hail, busy December. Hail.
Last week my wife and I defeated the fact that we have no family members here in Chicago, and convinced my wife’s sister, my sister, and her husband to come to the midwest and spend Thanksgiving with us in Wisconsin Dells, AKA the Jersey Shore of the Midwest.
And then, as these things always happen, the five-year-old got sick on vacation and our indoor water park dreams were dashed. Of course.
But at least Wisconsin Dells has giant Transformers in the off-season.
Other stuff I’ve been up to:
Both are awesome. But, yes. Lots of stuff going on. And a lot of links to share also after the jump:
“The early internet connected millions people across the world, but its most significant benefit to early millennials was the privacy it afforded them to truly be themselves. It was for nerds who wanted to go deep on Harry Potter theories without getting thrown into their lockers, or a secret outlet for others to explore the marginalized parts of themselves. While expressing these parts of their identities in real life would almost certainly lead to social ostracization, online it sometimes earned them unexpected popularity, making them beloved by other weirdos who similarly felt out of place in real life. Those were some of the first people to build followings online—the first of what we would later call influencers.”
”Google and the federal government have reached an agreement in their dispute over the Online News Act that would see Google continue to share Canadian news online in return for the company making annual payments to news companies in the range of $100 million.”2
”After 151 years, Popular Science will no longer be available to purchase as a magazine. In a statement to The Verge, Cathy Hebert, the communications director for PopSci owner Recurrent Ventures, says the outlet needs to “evolve” beyond its magazine product, which published its first all-digital issue in 2021.”
If you want to hire us for December work, reply to this email or hit up our website. We still have some creative and strategy bandwidth left!
Big Canadian precedent for Google sharing profits with news orgs - I expect some other countries to do something similar.