Welcome to the sixth “This Business of Art / Media / Web Fix,” in which I share with you things I read that I loved relating to the work I do here — online media, business, entrepreneurship, women in tech, start-ups, journalism, publishing, management, queer visibility, and so forth. You can expect this sucker to drop every-other Wednesday.
This Business of Online Media
via journalism.org
+ A significant percentage of millennials get their political news from social media and a significant percentage of baby boomers get their political news from Local TV. Also this article classifies me as a Millennial instead of Gen-X because I was born in ’81, not ’80, and I think this is not true. Gen-X’ers are somewhere in the middle, which feels accurate, especially when I want to watch the local news on the TV and my Millennial girlfriend does not.
+ So, Facebook Instant hasn’t really started yet but it will really soon and also really aggressively. Apparently Apple is also getting into a similar game with Apple News. I crashed my car into the bridge, I watched, I let it burn, I threw your shit into a bag and pushed it down the stairs, I crashed my car into the bridge, I don’t care. I’ll tell you what I do care about though: everybody commenting about posts and about camp on facebook instead of on the website! I’D LIKE APPLE TO FIX THAT. Anyhow, here is how Apple News and Facebook Instant compares.
+ Between ad tech and creativity, an all-out war.
+ In Why the Funniest Site on the Internet Keeps a Serious Schedule, Fast Company talks to Clickhole editor Jermaine Affonso about why deadlines and other people organizing his to-do lists for him keep the site on track. ALSO! Slate has a WHOLE entire article about clickhole. Rachel really likes Clickhole.
+ Gawker Media’s team has voted to unionize! Here’s How a Union Could Change Gawker’s Company Culture: “…the message from the final vote is clear: Even in a place where people enjoy coming to work (as many at Gawker say they do), things can be better, especially in today’s uncertain media economy.”
+ In The Psychology Behind Web Browsing, The Next Web explains why it’s important that your website visitors feel in control of their experience.
+ I wish this Tow Guide to Law For Media Startups existed in 2009, but I sure am glad it exists now.
+ What the hell is going on with Yahoo’s design?
+ How WCW Ingrid Nilsen became an inspiration to 3.3. million followers: On this wonderful thing that happened yesterday.
+ The Toast’s publisher Nick Pavich is no longer with the company, which apparently happened in April but has just now been reported by Jezebel. Jezebel states, “Pavich’s tenure at the blog apparently ended over some vague but certainly bad blood between him and its co-founders, Mallory Ortberg and Nicole Cliffe.” Mallory Ortberg told Jezebel, “I can confirm that Nick Pavich is no longer with The Toast. We’re working with a third-party publishing company (Hashtag Labs) while we look for another full-time publisher. Not much has or will change for our readers, except for that Nicole Callahan is now handling payments, which Nick used to do.”
This Business of Journalism
+ The Story Behind Caitlyn Jenner’s Masterful Press Strategy – Seriously, keeping the Vanity Fair cover a secret was brilliant. I remain disturbed by how the fatal car crash has been brushed off. (By the way, Mey’s writing a piece about all of the pieces about Caitlyn Jenner, which I and maybe also you are looking forward to.)
+ Crowdfunding, Revenue Diversity and Legalese: Some takeaways from the LION Publishers conference: There was a conference for Independent News humans. I wasn’t there, but these guys were!
+ Lauren Klinger would like journalists to keep in mind that during Pride Month, covering a parade is not covering a community.
+ How a culture of racist media made McKinney happen: “It is documented that the media over-samples crime committed by people of color and over-represents whites, and in particular white women, as victims of those crimes. That’s significant because that combination isn’t the most common combination, it’s also not the least common combination. It’s not as if the most unusual are selected, because that would mean picking cases where a white person was killing a black person or a woman was killing a man. It’s somewhere in between and it feeds into this stereotype.”
+ In “What the missing Women’s World Cup brackets says about sports media,” Anna Clark talks about how mainstream sports media is missing the boat on an incredibly popular sporting event just ’cause it involves women. Apparently only 2 to 5 percent of televised sports news and highlights are about women’s sports!
+ So here is an apartment occupied by two white men who write for Vice.
This Business of Money
+ A List of Female Angel and Early-Stage Investors in Tech: Bless Mackenzie Burnett for compiling this resource.
+ In Hourly Wages and Overtime Pay Are The Wrong Discussion In The Participation Age, Chuck Blakeman argues that we should be looking at what people are producing, not how many hours they’re spending “at work,” when it comes to how we pay people. He makes a lot of good points, but doesn’t address what to do when paying per-project leads to an unlivable hourly take-home.
+ 5 things the one percent doesn’t understand about America reminds me why I am going to vote for Bernie Sanders.
+ Intel Launches Investment Fund for Startups Led By Women and Minorities: “The fund, which will be run by Intel Capital, the company’s investment arm, will vet applicants based on the demographics of their executive team, as well as their overall diversity efforts and their product’s strategic fit with Intel.”
+ If you’re curious about how great it is to work at the offices of Postmates HQ (as opposed to how unprofitable and demoralizing it is to be a Postmate), TechCrunch has the scoop on that.
+ From Tidal to 22 Days Nutrition, Jay-Z and Beyoncé Are Facing a Fierce Branding Backlash: Yesterday, in the latest instance of branding backlash, Good Morning America teased that Beyoncé had an “amazing” announcement to share. When that news turned out not to be an album but a pre-recorded monologue about a plant-based diet that the starlet occasionally favors — a barely-veiled shill for her forthcoming meal-delivery company — the Beyhive started swarming in furor.
Businesswoman’s Special
Okay so I used to share a lot of links in this section, but I’ve started noticing that most of the business advice articles I read are very short rehashes of articles I’ve already read. How do we sift through the noise for the meet, friends?
+ One Thing The Best Leaders Never Do – This actually includes more than one thing, so that’s a little spoiler for you. The basic jist is that talking shit about your employees is never a good idea.
+ How to Not Break Your Body While Sitting At Your Desk All Day – I find changing into sweatpants and stretching a lot feels pretty okay.
+ Manage Your Freelancers Into 2016 and Beyond – Looking forward to these prospective software platforms.
+ 6 Ways Workaholism Can Make You A Winner At Love – HOW DO I WIN AT BOTH AT THE SAME TIME
Just A Reminder Of Some Pitches We’d Still Love To Feast Upon:
Laneia is out of town for the next two weeks, so I’m not throwing out NEW story ideas, but I’d like to remind you of the following things we still want!
+ An investigative piece into The Welcoming Committee and its expansion, specifically into the Twin Cities, written by a Twin Cities resident.
+ A longform piece on lesbian YouTube stars, where you’d interview people like Hannah Hart and Rose Ellen Dix and Hartbeat and then come up with an angle and get some photos and just make a big ‘ol feature article out of all of that. (ETA: And Ingrid Nilsen!)
+ Stories about adoption and foster parenting
+ Stories about parenting from QTPOC
+ Columns!
THIS IS IMPORTANT
https://twitter.com/littleredtarot/status/607206550147579904
I know a qtpoc mom who wants to write about it! Who should she email?
normally i’d say laneia but she’s out of town so she can email me, rachel [at] autostraddle [dot] com, and cc laneia and yvonne!
I’m so glad Mey’s writing that! I’ve been hoping she would.
I would love to be interviewed for the queer trans women business owners feature; however, I’m partially in the closet about being trans(thought not about my preferred pronouns) and my pops is the main person doing the work atm. :-/
Hey @needlesandpin, judging by the response we’ve had, I think this will be a long-running column, so if/when you do feel ready to show off your biz to the world, just get in touch then :) Meanwhile/otherwise, hopefully the series inspire you with lots of other amazing queer+trans entrepreneurship! xx
Personally, I’ve read enough about Caitlyn Jenner. Finito. Best of luck to her, but there are a lot more important stories to focus on in the trans community
Thank you for the link about how not to break your body while sat it your desk all day! I will attempt to adopt these rules and report back later on the estimated brokenness of my body.
Riese, just wanna say I love this column.
Oh and thanks for the shoutout!! I can’t wait for the new column to launch :D
ooo, I may want to holler at that longform piece on lesbian YouTube stars! I’ll be in LA in a few weeks I think and could maybe set that up… Let’s talk.
Hello mates, its enormous piece of writing on the topic of tutoringand completely explained,
keep it up all the time.