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Like just about everyone, I’m both horrified by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and in awe of the resistance of the Ukrainian people. Ukraine is an inspiration to the rest of the world. In places like the United States, we fail to appreciate the staggering advantages we have just by dint of where and when we were born. In September, I visited Ukraine to speak at a conference to build sustainable, independent journalism in the region. This is a hard task in a country with complicated politics where publications are often controlled by oligarchs and political parties, and the economy is far smaller. The Ukrainian people I met were all first rate and incredibly generous. They’re also brave. Consider helping by giving to one of these vetted programs, as well as a fundraising for the Kyiv Independent, an independent English-language publication, and this one for other independent media in Ukraine.
A couple years ago, then-Bleacher Report CEO Howard Mittman coined a neat phrase for the end of an era of lightweight content produced for algorithms: Need vs Feed. In the next era of digital publishing, you want to be on the Need side.
“When I think about publishing, I think about purpose-driven versus mission,” he said on this week’s episode of The Rebooting Show. “Purpose-driven publishing is about ad dollars and collecting affiliate revenue. It's about filling a gap that consumers have based off of a Google search or social media. Mission-driven is where I’m interested in now. You see that in areas like the environment and in news.”
Howard spent a dozen years at Conde Nast, occupying top business roles for titles like GQ and Wired. I’ve always known him to be thoughtful about where the media business is going, so we had a discussion about the dangers of going overboard on subscriptions, why now just might be the time for new entrants to address local news and why the betting gold rush for sports publishers might soon taper off.
Hope for local news
If there’s a sector of publishing that could use a comeback, it’s local news. The industry has been decimated over the past two decades, with big-city newspapers shrunken and news desserts dotting the map. But new entrants are emerging.
“We live in a world where all politics are still local, but all news coverage is national. I hope there's a compromise. I suspect we're getting closer to finding it. I don't know that local journalism is always going to be defined in its most traditional form. It may not simply be about local news and information. And maybe local journalism is decreasing the proximity between the content creator and the reader. If you look at the podcast system, how many have evolved into live events? That reduces the friction between the creator and the user. Those direct connections people will pay for in pretty intense ways – if you have the right talent, if you have the right topic matter, the right sort of credibility.”
The case for ads
The pendulum in the publishing business has swung far away from ads and firmly in t
