In this issue: Yellowstone finally goes to broadcast/Vox Media retires their own CMS, goes Wordpress/Academics on Substack/Classic rock loves streaming/Low streaming payouts/Internet as outrage amplifier/AI actor royalty rates/Lots & lots & lots of memes.
Hi. 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.
Hello you lovely people. Lots happening in the media/advertising/marketing worlds so LETS GO!
“Yellowstone is set to make its broadcast debut as part of CBS’ fall schedule, which now includes a slew of reality series as well as a number of Paramount+ series such as SEAL Team and the original UK incarnation of Ghosts. The launch of Taylor Sheridan’s Kevin Costner-fronted drama, which is coming to an end with its fifth season, as revealed by Deadline, on Paramount Network, is the headline of CBS’ reworked schedule, which has been impacted by both the writers strike and, now, actors strike.”
“Vox Media, the parent company to websites such as New York Magazine, Eater and SB Nation, will no longer use Chorus — its proprietary content management system — to power its own websites […] Vox Media will move its own websites off of Chorus and into WordPress VIP, the enterprise arm of the 20-year-old CMS company.”
“Hoel said in his six months of working on his Substack full-time, it has replaced 80 percent of his Tufts salary. He acknowledged the move would sound “a bit extreme” to the average person. While not every professor leaves their job for a newsletter, a growing number of academics are turning toward the service, according to Substack. From July 1, 2022, to July 1, 2023, the site saw a 107 percent jump in academic publishing, representing “thousands” of new publications, the company said. There also was a 42 percent increase in academic paid subscriptions.”
“Despite all the blather about Frank Sinatra today, he was the enemy until the late eighties and then the nineties. Sure, he had a couple of hits in the sixties, which we knew as a result of the all-dominant AM radio, but boomers gave him no respect and didn’t listen to him. […] The funny little thing is that the classic rockers bitching about streaming payouts are the same ones who are benefiting from streaming, it’s keeping their music alive! This didn’t happen in the past, records went out of production, they were not stocked by retailers, they faded away. But not today! Today’s customers can sample/listen to anything, all they need is a hankering.”
“I played Nakamura, the aikido master in the Amazon Prime original series The Man In The High Castle in 2015 which they boasted as the "Most-Streamed Series." You wanna know how much I earned from that HUGE success? $39.51. THIRTY-NINE. FUCKING. DOLLARS. in 2017. #SAGAFTRAstrong”
“Outrage does well on the internet. It does really well, I’d even say. As the “real world” and “online world” continue to mesh together, the “real world” feels more… outrage-prone. The extremely performative nature of online visual mediums has created the need for people to film themselves expressing their anger and outrage in public. They film themselves screaming at service workers and destroying retail displays. These are the people who’ve been winning and thriving in the attention economy. It sucks.”
Justine Bateman: “As a coder and someone with a computer science degree I want to tell you where I believe AI is going. 1. AI-written scrips & digitally-scanned actors (image and/or voice). Both already exist. Some talent agencies are actively recruiting their clients to be scanned. You choose the projects and get 75 cents on the dollar. Your digital image can be triple and quadruple booked, so that bodes well for a 10 percenter.”
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Louis Theroux interviews Nick Cave.
GwarXTiny Desk.
Media parties, media reps.
Honest thoughts from marketing employees.
