📰 Why I Left Journalism, RIP Crackle, Understanding Amazon Fresh
📰 Why I Left Journalism, RIP Crackle, Understanding Amazon Fresh
Working in media is great, but...: Context Collapse #314
A friend recently asked if I missed journalism (I worked for years at Fast Company and was a former Los Angeles Times op-ed writer). The answer is... it's complicated.
I don’t miss it in the ways you might expect.
I don’t miss the grind of being in my mid-thirties, excelling at my career but always feeling stuck. It felt like I was either making lateral moves or chasing whatever publication offered a paycheck. That wasn’t sustainable, and it definitely wasn’t fulfilling.
I don’t miss watching talented friends get laid off almost weekly. And I definitely don’t miss seeing veteran reporters—people I respected and looked up to—systematically lose their jobs. Their experience and insight were invaluable, but it often didn’t matter in an industry obsessed with cutting costs and bad decisions (emphasizing SEO, or the "pivot to video" for content that absolutely did not need to be video).
Writing book proposals that didn’t align with what I actually wanted to say in a 300-page book? I don’t miss that either. I don’t miss the restrictive rules around public speaking, media appearances, or royalties from articles being optioned for television or film.
It was hard to watch people like me, from lower-middle-class or working-class backgrounds, get filtered out. Journalism, and media in general, is still an industry that talks a big game about diversity but quietly discourages economic diversity in favor of a otherwise diverse coalition of the children of the well-off.
That said, there are things I do miss. I miss writing stories that mattered. I miss helping people understand when a company was in trouble or on the rise, spotting patterns in data that revealed deeper narratives. That sense of purpose, of making an impact through storytelling, is hard to replicate in other fields.
Also, journalism in 2024 is just... weird. I have friends who are senior editors at major publications who barely make $100,000 a year. I see entry-level jobs offering $40,000—and those who land them are considered lucky. It’s not a sustainable system.
But where I am now is a good place. I enjoy consulting and working in marketing.
My career has shifted, and I’m no longer a journalist, but that’s okay. I’m focused on new challenges and using my skills in different ways. Journalism was part of my journey, but it doesn’t define me anymore—and I’m perfectly fine with that.
Journalism in 2024 is just... weird. I have friends who are senior editors at major publications who barely make $100,000 a year. I see entry-level jobs offering $40,000—and those who land them are considered lucky.
RIP Redbox & Crackle
Redbox and Crackle, the popular streaming services and DVD rental kiosks, are quietly shutting down. Their parent company, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, has filed for bankruptcy and is unable to find buyers for its brands. Now, with over a billion dollars in debt, they are now shutting down.
The story of how Chicken Soup for the Soul, originally a self-help brand, transformed into an entertainment conglomerate is fascinating. But it also reflects a larger issue the media world faces in 2024: It’s no longer enough to run a sustainable business with a large audience. Market demands push companies to grow endlessly, no matter the cost.
Crackle was part of a broader ecosystem of Free, Ad-Supported TV services (FAST), like the Roku Channel, Pluto TV, and Tubi, which make up a significant portion of the streaming landscape. Their appeal lay in their vast archival catalogs and, most importantly, that they were free to watch.
We tend to have short memories in the media world. I remember when the big draw of Netflix and its early competitors was that they offered a video store on the internet where you could access a wide range of content. When House of Cards debuted and kicked off the era of original streaming content, it felt groundbreaking.
But the endless growth model meant services like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and Prime Video had to pour massive amounts of money into original content. Meanwhile, the older shows and movies that originally attracted viewers to Netflix migrated to these free FAST platforms.
Now, with Crackle and Redbox shutting down, it raises the question: who’s next?
Figuring Out Amazon Fresh
Supermarket chain Amazon Fresh just opened a new location in walking distance of me, and… I’m fascinated.
It’s kind of like Aldi but with a lot of hot foods to go. It’s kind of like a laboratory for Amazon to experiment with new retail tech but also a place for Amazon to sell overstock at very cheap prices. It’s a mega-sized neighborhood market that also aggressively offers experiential stuff for kids and promotions to get customers in the door.
First things first: Amazon opened the supermarket in an absolutely supermarket-saturated shopping area. There’s a Trader Joe’s a block up the way, a Jewel-Osco (Albertson’s) two blocks away, an Aldi five blocks away, and a Target and a local supermarket chain within five minutes’ drive.
A lot of effort seems to be made in getting people to come in for grab-and-go food. There are $2 slices of pizza, there’s fresh sushi, there’s a hot bar, there are salads, there’s a rack of warm pre-made sandwiches to go. The quality is decent and local takeout places can’t compete on price.
Meanwhile, the pricing is more expensive than other chains but with random closeouts of overstocked food at ridiculously cheap prices for 2024. 6 pounds of ground beef for $8, a pound of chicken drumsticks for $2 and boxes of brownies for $2. Random international foods like Israeli-style chicken schnitzels and Indian spices for huge markdowns.
Go on weekends and there are lots of samples and free fruit for kids. They have shopping carts that let you scan your groceries as you shop, or normal shopping carts to use if that isn’t your thing.
Anyway, I’m fascinated with the strategy there. More later…
Do awesome stuff. Have a great week.