Great piece! Another interesting wrinkle is that woke signaling is a core class signifier for contemporary elite, it's how they outshine each other. Probably explains why so many of these pubs doubling and tripling down on it—Republicanism is increasingly working class. Makes you wonder what will happen to the WSJ, of which I am still an avid subscriber (print edition).
I work now in the entertainment news space and its lousy with new start-up media sites and newsletters, nearly all of them subscription based. I think there is a place for coverage that isn't behind a paywall. But one irony is that people tend to see subscriber-based businesses as more worthwhile. It's certainly much more difficult to pitch an ad-supported start-up to industry journalists. Even though I'm making more revenue with mine that many of these subscriber-based companies will see for years.
Great piece! Another interesting wrinkle is that woke signaling is a core class signifier for contemporary elite, it's how they outshine each other. Probably explains why so many of these pubs doubling and tripling down on it—Republicanism is increasingly working class. Makes you wonder what will happen to the WSJ, of which I am still an avid subscriber (print edition).
I work now in the entertainment news space and its lousy with new start-up media sites and newsletters, nearly all of them subscription based. I think there is a place for coverage that isn't behind a paywall. But one irony is that people tend to see subscriber-based businesses as more worthwhile. It's certainly much more difficult to pitch an ad-supported start-up to industry journalists. Even though I'm making more revenue with mine that many of these subscriber-based companies will see for years.