I’ve been tinkering with this newsletter, brainstorming with Keith Teare and our producer/director Tina Chase Gillmor, for some time now. It’s based somewhat on an IOS app we’ve developed that uses notifications to archive and distribute stories and commentary through a hybrid public/private back channel. Over the interval between shows, we develop a group sense of what issues and ideas drive our conversations.
We’ve expanded the Gang roundtable to dive down in one-to-one conversations in a podcast version of the streaming show. At the beginning, we started in audio, one of the earliest podcasts. Now mobile has become a global social platform that moves relentlessly to disrupt tech, politics, and media. Who knows what difference we can make.
This newsletter is the public part. Some posts are full of facts and data but no attitude. Others talk endlessly about subjects some of us are completely uninterested in. Android fans will not appreciate how successful Apple is at moving from hardware to software services. There’s even an inside look on why the Republicans are so far out in front on digital. Are you kidding me?
But look between the lines, in the cracks where coincidences congeal into big deals, great societies, even sympathy for the devil. This is the stuff we make sausage out of.
Paid to Stay Home: Europe’s Safety Net Could Ease Toll of Coronavirus
NYT > Business But more than rate cuts or bursts of spending, economists say the best short-term measures to prevent an economic downturn may be “automatic stabilizers” — existing programs or regulations that protect workers, provide low-cost health care or help companies get through a lean period. Assurances that many workers won’t have to choose between caring for their health and paying their rent is a crucial psychological factor as Italy and France shut hundreds of schools, Britain unlocks an “action plan” to prevent the virus’s spread and businesses across the Continent cancel trips and meetings to limit their employees’ exposure to the epidemic.
The Man Behind Trump’s Facebook Juggernaut
The New Yorker At first, according to an associate of his, “it was just Brad, alone on his laptop, buying Facebook ads”; over time, Parscale, drawing on his close relationships with several Trump family members, especially Kushner, persuaded them to devote more of the campaign budget to online marketing. Four months later, when Trump announced his candidacy, Parscale, this time charging ten thousand dollars, updated and expanded it to turn it into a full-fledged campaign site.
Google pitches free trials of its enterprise G Suite conferencing tools as part of a coronavirus response
TechCrunch Google said in a blog post that it would roll out free access to advanced Hangouts Meet video-conferencing capabilities to all G Suite and G Suite for Education customers globally as the company pitches its remote work tools as an option for companies looking to let employees work from home. We want to help businesses and schools impacted by COVID-19 stay connected: starting this week, we'll roll out free access to our advanced Hangouts Meet video-conferencing capabilities through July 1, 2020 to all G Suite customers globally.
The loss of tracking cookies is fueling the importance of email newsletters
Digiday “That’s what’s fueling rapid rise newsletter products, it’s to create that value exchange between the consumer and the company, and that value is the email address,” said a publishing executive at Digiday’s Publishing Summit Europe, this week. For the Financial Times, which has eight subscriber-only newsletters and dozens of others, as well as accruing first-party registration data it monetizes them through native ad slots which link to sponsored content on the FT.com.
The End of Pay-TV — Matthew Ball
Matthew Ball In 2020 alone, audiences will see even more substitutes launching (Peacock, HBO Max, Quibi) with the existing players (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Disney+, Apple TV+) further expanding their slates of original/exclusive programming and libraries. In addition, “FX on Hulu” will receive all of FX’s catalogue rights (which were previously available only via the Pay-TV add-on through FX+) and all of FX’s original shows the day after their initial airing on linear FX.
Apple now allows push notification advertising, updates dating app review guidelines and more - 9to5Mac
9to5Mac Apple today updated its App Store review guidelines regarding some of the features introduced with iOS 13, besides the compatibility of apps with the latest iPhone and iPad models, and more. Apple also requires developers to prepare their apps to be fully compatible with all currently supported devices, including the iPhone 11 Pro Max and the new 7th generation iPad.
The US Has a ‘Plan’ to Fight Coronavirus: You
Feed: All Latest “The clear issue is, we have to manage the costs of this,” says Scott Burris, director of the Center for Public Health Law Research at Temple Law School and, like Parmet, a signatory on the open letter. “The term I’ve been using is ‘metering,’” says Wendy Parmet, director of the Center for Health Policy and Law at Northeastern University.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's comments about San Francisco are a warning sign for the city's tech scene
"Our concentration in San Francisco is not serving us any longer, and we will strive to be a far more distributed workforce, which we will use to improve our execution," Dorsey said on Twitter's fourth-quarter earnings call on Thursday, adding that he expects to spend time traveling this year.
Steve Gillmor — The hook is remote work, but the underlying disruption is shifting the work/life dichotomy to one that flexes based on immediate need. If the work is seamlessly ported between multiple locations and tasks, this new group of warriors develops economic clout that can be leveraged for multiple constituencies: time zones, senior management, gap year planning, life style evangelism, collaboration teams, notification triage.
Spotify Q4 reports 271M total MAUs on revenues of $2B, podcast listening grows 200%
Podcasts remains a big news story for the company with its strong growth. There are now 700,000 podcast titles on Spotify, with new discovery features getting added to help users manage that catalogue. Spotify last year spent what’s estimated at between $400 million and $500 million on buying up podcast-related businesses, and it’s kicked off this year with another podcast acquisition, snapping up Bill Simmons’ The Ringer network.
Someone Used Neural Networks To Upscale An 1895 Film To 4K 60 FPS, And The Result Is Really Quite Astounding - Digg
Digg - What the Internet is talking about right now
The Lumière Brothers' 1895 short "Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat" is one of the most famous film clips in history — you've almost certainly seen the 50-second movie at some point in your life.
Shopping via smart speakers is not taking off, report suggests
Amazon could also develop a set of features, similar to Honey (now owned by PayPal), that allow users track prices drops and sales, then alert Echo owners using Alexa’s notifications platform or even an “Amazon companion” skill, that could be added to users’ daily Flash Briefings. (E.g. The item you were watching is now $50 off. The new price is…$X…would you like to buy it?”) The companion could also track out-of-stock items, alert you to new arrivals from a favorite brand, or even send product photos to the Alexa companion app, as suggested deals.
Tech in 2020: Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants - AVC
Our friend Benedict Evans posted his annual “macro trends” deck this weekend. You can also download the PDF here. In the deck, Benedict poses the question “what is the next S-Curve?”
Why People Should Take Neil Young’s Subscription Success More Seriously
Access to Young’s Archive sets you back a mere $1.99 a month and, according to Wired, had already attracted 25,000 subscribers by the end of October last year, with a goal of 40,000. Here’s some startling math: Those 25,000 Neil Young super-fans are paying him a total of $600,000 per year for the privilege of a premium, direct-from-the-artist experience.
Steve Gillmor — Young's unreleased output is the Heart of Gold here. He's using his catalog revenue to fund new recording, but this model will go wide when it funds new studio production without the 360 scraping of all recording and touring revenue.
Apple's fastest-growing business segment, which includes AirPods and Watch, is now bigger than Mac
Wearables, Home and Accessories" revenue is larger than Mac revenue for the first time, Apple revealed in a blowout earnings report on Tuesday.
1,000 True Fans? Try 100
As the Passion Economy grows, more people are monetizing what they love. The global adoption of social platforms like Facebook and YouTube, the mainstreaming of the influencer model, and the rise of new creator tools has shifted the threshold for success. I believe that creators need to amass only 100 True Fans—not 1,000—paying them $1,000 a year, not $100.