😥Layoff LOLs
Getting laid off right when the job starts: Context Collapse #171
In This Issue: Layoff fails / Joe Rogan’s secret sauce / Getting PR for boring clients / RIP to Facebook Portal & Protocol / Teaching AIs to write / +More
Once upon a time, I was laid off from my job 5 weeks after I started.
I was settling into a senior position when some behind-the-scenes budget issues that had been brewing since before I joined ended up getting urgent.
Since it was last-in-first-out, I received my severance package and went out and away.
I was shocked. I joked with my friends that I didn't even have time to do a bad job at my job!
More seriously, I had given up my job of seven years for a new job that laid me off within 90 days.
There were parts that sucked (Cough COBRA cough), but it was a blessing in disguise that shook me out of work complacency and inspired me to go out on my own.
This current crappy job market and the layoffs across tech and advertising?
This too shall pass.
The market goes up and the market goes down. Make sure you're putting money in your savings instead of doing impulse shopping, keep track of what's happening in your industry and keep an eye out for where the opportunities are.
I know things look crummy right now.
But… I'm willing to bet you (you!) have more talent, more hustle and more control over your circumstances than you think you do. Go get 'em.
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Things on my radar:
Reverse engineering how Joe Rogan build his podcast empire. (Natasha Tynes, Medium)
Tips on getting PR for boring clients. (Robert Kuykendall, Dustin Siggins, O’Dwyers)
The Six Spaces of Social Media 15 years later. (Matt Locke, Medium)
Learning about how copywriting written by AI is everywhere and why it’s good enough to pass for human-written. (Christopher Mims, WSJ)
YouTube corporate is doing a huge series of QVC-like online shopping shows this week featuring MrBeast, Alan Chikin Chow, Alisha Marie and others. (Sam Gutelle, Tubefilter)
Tumblr’s reaction to Twitter’s botched Blue Verification Check revamp: premium “important blue checkmarks” that “may turn into a bunch of crabs at any time.” (James Hale, Tubefilter)
Axios explains the many, many things that went wrong at FTX in plain English. (Dan Primack, Axios)
RIP Facebook Portal you Alexa-like thing, you were too beautiful for this world. (Reuters)
What happens when a journalist says yes to every PR pitch they receive in the email1. (Dan Kois, Slate)
Chicago-centric marketing news: What Jewel-Osco will look like post Albertsons & Kroger merger. (Talia Soglin, Chicago Tribune)
TV news upstart NewsNation had a very, very good Midterm Election Night2. (Robert Channick, Chicago Tribune)
RIP Protocol, the popular tech news site. (Oliver Darcy, CNN)
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, taking a break from destroying everything good about HBO Max, warns that the ad market is worse now than it ever was during the pandemic. (Alex Sherman, CNBC)
Popular workflow and project management software Notion (See our affiliate link above!) is integrating AI writing, brainstorming and repurposing tools into their core product. (Product Hunt)
Last but not least, the most common pitch deck fails. (Haje Jan Kamps, TechCrunch)
Important context for outsiders: There is a numbers imbalance between PR people and journalists. There are many, many more PR people than journalists. When I worked at Fast Company it was not unusual to receive 100 pitches on a single day. That number could easily climb to 500 daily during a major event like CES or SXSW.
I have a lot of love for NewsNation (which is based in Chicago) to succeed as a national US news network. I worry that their aggressively centrist and non-partisan political model will screw them over in an era when viewers want news TV that presses emotional triggers more than anything else. I want them to glom on to *something* (True crime? sports? health stuff?) that will help them differentiate themselves in a very, very crowded TV news space.