The fine line between dancing and dropping acid
Seriously, what was Oddjob up to?
More years ago than I care to admit, I picked up a CD of Sheryl Crow’s “The Globe Sessions”. This was back when CDs were still something of a thing. I had a portable CD player that I brought with me on business trips so I could listen to audio books and music while working in the hotel room.
I didn’t get to listen to this new (to me) CD until I was driving from Knoxville to Nashville early one morning to catch a plane home. To keep me awake, I cranked the music up to 11. When the second song started, I knew that “There Goes the Neighborhood” was going to be my walk on song. And it was played over and over on that long and tortuous ride to the Nashville airport.
For years, I thought the chorus was:
Sunshine Sally and Pierre Ustinov don't mind the scene anyhow Oddjob dancing on a Saturday night just to see what the fuss was about...
In my mind, I could see the enigmatic Bond villain dancing to a Sheryl Crow tune and that made me smile because that would be a sight to see.
I recently learned that I had chorus all wrong. I had made a serious “Dad” kind of mistake. The lines actually go like this:
Sunshine Sally and Peter Ustinov don't like the scene anyhow I dropped acid on a Satursay just to see what the fuss was about
Well, there goes the neighborhood.
There’s been a lot in the news, in newsletters, in video, about what AI will do to and for our lives. In the magazine world that I like to write about, it’s supposed to be our next big pivot. Long term, I imagine that the publishers that can afford to, will do the pivot. The big publishers will either devise their own chatbots or outsource the work to a major provider. Smaller publishers to smaller providers or skip the process because the tech is unaffordable for them.
Last week, NY Times technology writer Kevin Roose wrote about his disturbing two hour chat with Bing’s new chatbot (Who decided to name itself Sydney, and then declared its love for the reporter). It made me think that no matter what, even if we perfect these chatbots, even if they never pass the Turing test or achieve sentience, we use these at our own peril.
There’s an awful lot of junk out there in the web, you know.
I’d also encourage you take a moment and read Ted Gioia’s really solid take on all the craziness that is going on in AI development between Microsoft and Google and then ask yourself: “Should magazine publishers really pivot to AI right this very minute?”
It’s pretty funny, amusing even, when you mishear and misinterpret something for so many years. But let’s not forget that the predecessor to the Bing AI turned into a Nazi pretty quickly.
It a big, weird world and like I said, there’s a lot of strange stuff on the web. Let’s be careful out there. OK?
1__Dotdash Meredith hit with consumer privacy lawsuit
This particular lawsuit alleges readers who have digital subscriptions to EW and People are having their privacy violated because their video viewing habits are being disclosed.
“The complaint asks for punitive damages, and that the publisher be ordered to pay $2,500 to each class member, as required by the VPPA. As far as can be told, there is only one class member at this time.”
You can read more about the suit here.
2__A look at venture capital in retail
It looks like 2021 was the peak year for venture capital investments in retail. Retail Dive reports that the peak was $621billion. In 2022 the amount dropped to $415billion.
As the article states:
It seems like the word profitability has never been more important for brands dependent on funding right now.
The ticket to “riches” for a lot of startups seemed to be scale. Toss a ton of money at development, try to sell a bunch, hope for profitability at some point. That never felt very sustainable in most cases.
3__Bitcoin Magazine Launches Print Edition in Ukraine
This is a real thing in the real word. It’s further evidence that even in the midst of a horrible war, some semblance of everyday life continues on and businesses continue to launch and try their hand at gathering and making a profit.
The magazine is also organizing the "Follow Bitcoin" conference on February 17, 2023 in Kyiv to present the print edition. The event will feature world-class speakers including Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation; Peter Todd, one of the original developers of Bitcoin Core, and Mike Germano, President of Bitcoin Magazine.
So, yes, that happened. And if you think about it, in a country at war, where power may often not be available on a regular basis, a print magazine might make a lot of sense. A bitcoin print magazine seems an odd choice, but I’ll take it.
4__A service that offers a paywall ‘breach’ for $9.99 a month. But won’t tell us what the 100 paywalls are.
There’s a desire for this sort of service. Maybe you want to read the occasional article from your hometown newspaper but don’t want to subscribe to it. Same with a national magazine like Time or New York.
It makes a lot of sense. I found this article about the Zette service pretty interesting. They say I can access 100 different publishers? Awesome! That’s a lot. I’d seriously consider $9.99 a month for that! Who are the publishers:
Well, the website says: Forbes (Yes, that’s a good one!), Haaretz (Great, international!). New Scientist (Nice! Science!). The SacBee (Good deal. Let’s hear it for the West Coast!). The Miami Herald (Wonderful. A South Florida perspective!).
And who else?
Well…continue with the sign up and see.
So, from my perspective, and only my perspective: I don’t think I’ll be signing up. Sure, I’d love a free month. But I also want to know what I am signing up for before I sign up for it. This does not seem transparent.
Great idea. But I’ve got some issues.
5__Small Indie press buys indie bookstore, partners with indie record label
I included this article, first reported in the Shelf Awareness newsletter, because it shows some pretty serious creativity on the part of the publisher. Want to connect more with your community? Want a direct pipeline to retail? Buy your own retail outlet. That allows you to meet up close and in person with your audience. And while some of your retail audience won’t be coming in the doors to buy what you created, you get a chance to meet them, find out what they do like, and maybe have a chance to reach them. I like it!
I find it impressive that the new owners of the bookstore don’t plan on making a major shift in how the bookstore is run because it’s been very successful. That makes sense and I applaud their decision. On more than one occasion I’ve witnessed a corporate merger where the new owners lost sight of what made their new acquisition successful in the first place. The end result is generally not a pretty sight.
Your Moment of Magazine Zen…
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If you’ve got a question or comment, please drop me a line. You can always reach me at joe.berger@newsstandpros.com.
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Get out there and have a great week. May your meetings be short. May your sales be large. May your tech not lie to you too much.