Technology • Innovation • Publishing — Issue #183
My heart goes out to the 200 employees let go at Meredith when they announced they’re stopping the print versions of 6 Meredith magazines: Entertainment Weekly, InStyle, EatingWell, Health, Parents, and People en Español. If anyone is affected by these layoffs, please feel free to reach out.
Innovation
Apple acquired a startup called AI Music that uses artificial intelligence to generate tailor-made music
Apple Inc. acquired a startup called AI Music that uses artificial intelligence to generate tailor-made music, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, adding technology that could be used across its slate of audio offerings. #AI #music
YouTube Plans to Make Gaming Videos Immersive in Metaverse Push
YouTube says it will start creating metaverse experiences on its video platform, beginning with gaming, following competitors’ investments in the buzzy category #metaverse #YouTube #gaming
The Great Resignation gives birth to digital employees powered by AI, ML, and RPA
Obviously fraught w problems, but this is a trend to be aware of .
Technology
Meta metaverse app could pose danger for kids
Facebook’s first attempt at the “metaverse” — the social VR app Horizon Worlds — is supposedly limited to ages 18+. Instead, it’s teeming with little kids, who are running around chatting with adult strangers with zero safeguards or supervision.
Metaverse real estate sales top $500 million, and are projected to double this year
www.cnbc.com
A rush of investors is pouring into the new virtual land craze, hoping to get in on the ground floor of the next digital Manhattan or Monaco.
The Sick, Refreshing Honesty of Web3
An interesting take on NFTs — you “own” them, just like you “own” a share of stock. The internet has always financialized our lives. Web3 just makes that explicit.
Fancy an NFT with your Happy Meal? 🍟McDonald’s is planning to open restaurants in the metaverse
metro.co.uk
McDonald’s is making its way into the metaverse by registering for 10 trademarks in the virtual space.
Pew Research report about improving the internet by the year 2035
HT @neilperkin
Amazon, Other Potential Suitors Explore Peloton Deal
Peloton Interactive is drawing interest from potential suitors including Amazon.com, as the stationary-bike maker’s stock slumps and an activist urges it to explore a sale. #Amazon
Microsoft: Key Office apps will block macros by default
Key Microsoft Office apps including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint will soon block macros by default.
Publishing & Media
A Bug in Early Creative Commons Licenses Has Enabled a New Breed of Superpredator
Fascinating #copyright stuff from @doctorow.
A Merger in Self-Publishing: Draft2Digital’s Acquisition of Smashwords
publishingperspectives.com
Together, the merging Draft2Digital-Smashwords self-publishing platform claims at least 250,000 writers and more than 800,000 ebooks.
What are the key things to think about when creating a cookbook pitch? — www.penguin.co.uk
Inspired by the ‘Great Cookbook Challenge with Jamie Oliver’? Here, @PenguinUKBooks cookbook editors share their insights on what makes an amazing cookbook pitch. #CookbookChallenge #teamPRH
Decoding Dickens’s Secret Notes to Himself, One Symbol at a Time — www.nytimes.com
A letter Charles Dickens wrote in his mystifying style of shorthand had gone unread for over a century. Computer programmers helped scholars decode it.
How Yiddish Scholars Are Rescuing Women’s Novels From Obscurity
ICYMI Works written decades ago, often by female Jewish immigrants, were dismissed as insignificant or unmarketable. But in the past several years, translators devoted to the literature are making it available to a wider readership.
Well-Read Black Girl to help launch new literary series
RT @LiverightPub We are proud to announce WRBG x Liveright, a new @wellreadblkgirl series made with the incredible @guidetoglo, “dedicated to debut fiction by women and non-binary authors, ‘with a focus on people of color and traditionally underrepresented voices.’”
Hachette Livre Acquires Remaining share capital of Bragelonne and Bragelonne Games
Libraries Are More Popular Than Ever and Library Workers Don’t Earn Livable Wages: The State of U.S. Public Libraries
RT @SketchesbyBoze Can we put away the myth that “no one visits the library anymore”? In the US alone, nearly two *billion* physical books were borrowed and three billion digital books in 2019. Libraries are beloved and essential.
‘Adults are banning books, but they’re not asking our opinions’: meet the teens of the Banned Book Club
HT @publishingtrend ICYMI Conservatives are pushing to ban books from school libraries. At a time of crisis, a group of Pennsylvania teenagers are fighting back #BannedBooks
PRH Expands Partnership With PEN America, Pledges $100K to Honor Centenary — global.penguinrandomhouse.com
PRH Expands Partnership With PEN America, Pledges $100K to Honor Centenary #TeamPRH
Barry Diller’s media group IAC’s Dotdash is set to shut down print publication of 6 Meredith magazines: Entertainment Weekly, InStyle, EatingWell, Health, Parents, and People en Español w 200 job cuts.
Will live on as digital-only brands.
Cosmopolitan Switches Print to Eight-Issues-a-Year Collection — wwd.com
It will begin printing eight-themed issues, each dedicated to a different subject rather than tied to a specific month. #magazines
Forbes gets $200M from crypto exchange Binance, a company currently banned in the UK that sued Forbes in 2020
nypost.com
The funds will help Forbes execute on its plan to merge with Magnum Opus Acquisition, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, in the first quarter of the year.
An incomplete history of Forbes.com as a platform for scams, grift, and bad journalism
Via @NiemanLab
BuzzFeed Studios Plans Big Year After Rocky Public Offering — www.hollywoodreporter.com
BuzzFeed Studio is leaning on its digital audience as it amps up film and TV production, with its first film, ‘Book of Love,’ out Feb. 4. #BrandExtensions
Business Newsletter Industry Dive Is on Pace to Break $100 Million in Revenue
Industry Dive, which publishes 53 business newsletters, says it is on pace to generate $105M to $110M in 2022 revenue, up from $29M in 2019 and $85M in 2021
Three comedians and the estates of Robin Williams and George Carlin sue SiriusXM’s Pandora for allegedly offering their recordings for years sans full licensing
Washington Post creates 70 newsroom jobs as it plans to enhance health, tech and climate coverage
UK regional newspaper publisher Newsquest is in exclusive talks to merge with rival publisher Archant
Gannett-owned Newsquest is in bilateral discussions about a merger with Archant that would reinforce its status among the UK’s biggest publishers of local news.
Resources & Opportunities
MT @diversebooks Like many others, we have been alarmed by the censorship of diverse titles across the country and the treatment of educators who are already facing extraordinarily difficult circumstances with the pandemic. Here’s how we plan to address these problems.
Creative Nonfiction Grant
MT @WhitingFdn Applications for the Creative Nonfiction Grant are open today! Are you currently completing an under-contract book-length work of deeply researched and creatively composed nonfiction for a general readership?
Black History, Black Freedom & Black Love — learn.masterclass.com
The American History You Weren’t Taught in School. Streaming free during Black History Month
Generate ad/content video ideas
HT @neilperkin Idea generation tools for creative professionals By Juggi Ramakrishnan and Todd McCracken.
NYers can pick up free covid at-home test kits at libraries and cultural institutions around the five boroughs
HT @MarkLevineNYC Here is the info for Manhattan — see thread for other boroughs.
Free, WMG Members-Only New Member Social 2/16 noon
Come hear stories from the top women leaders who are breaking barriers in book publishing today:
- Dominique Raccah (Moderator), CEO of Sourcebooks
- Jennifer Goldstein, Head of Books at A Kids Book About
- Lavaille Lavette, President & Publisher at Ebony Magazine Publishing
- Cindy Spiegel, Partner and CEO at Spiegel & Grau
3/1 at 6pm ET. Free for @WMG_NYC members, $15 for non-members.
