Looks like companies are using bogus copyright complaints to get unflattering stories removed from the Google search index. pressgazette.co.uk/news/parasit...

ME: if seven and eleven are odd numbers then they should be called sodd and elodd CASHIER: um ok here’s your slurpee thanks for shopping at Sodd-Elodd

Referring to my nephew as a relative newcomer

I wholeheartedly endorse this piece. It annoys the hell out of me that there's an entire cottage industry of business "journalism" that consists of taking some outlandish claim made by a tech CEO -- often in a tweet or offhand comment -- and then crafting an entire skepticism-free article around it

Yes, this annoys the hell out of me.

Netflix continues to steer clear of huge sports broadcasting deals, instead trying to "eventize" one-off games in leagues like the NFL and MLB. The problem is that advertisers are pretty lukewarm on paying premium rates rates for these games. As one ad executive told Puck, "for Netflix, this is an e

Bluesky as a tech product continues to suck ass. Probably a bad thing that a huge portion of the political Left has sequestered itself on an app that actively hinders their ability to communicate.

We're going to see more and more interesting partnerships like this between independent creators and traditional media companies. Creators will always be attracted to the imprimatur and reach of a media outlet, and the legacy media will need to carve out many more of these hybrid roles if they want

An AI-generated spoof of the reality TV show Love Island has generated over 10 million views on TikTok. Some are claiming this as proof that AI can replace traditional television, but I found the videos to be incredibly boring and barely coherent. My guess is they don't appeal to anyone other than

Rich couples are increasingly hiring publicists to help get their weddings featured on Vogue's website. In a world where everyone can become an Instagram micro celebrity, they view Vogue as one of the last gatekeepers of taste. Meanwhile, wedding content has become one of the most popular verticals

Trump’s attempts to goose the market with Truth Social posts are becoming less and less effective. This morning he announced that a peace deal with Iran is imminent and oil prices didn’t even budge. The Dow bumped slightly, but still well below where it was a week ago the last time he tried to annou

It's now becoming a pretty regular occurrence for random internet commenters to accuse writers of using AI -- even in cases when they definitely aren't. A whole bunch of people are confident they know AI when they see it, but what they're really doing is labeling any sort of formal writing as ob

This type of deal would actually make some strategic sense. I've been pointing out for well over a year that the line between cable news and video podcasts is actually quite thin, and I think these outlets should be doing more to identify and elevate young talent that's already growing an audience

Who's taking bets on whether Trump makes some announcement between now and when the markets close to try to boost the Dow?

A single journalist is generating upwards of 20% of Fortune's traffic by using AI to speed up his publishing process. He basically feeds press releases, his off-the-cuff analysis, and other notes into the AI, which then spits out a rough draft he can polish.

One of the biggest post-mortem conclusions Democrats reached after the 2024 election was that Kamala Harris didn't devote enough time sitting down with friendly creators, so we can definitely expect every 2028 candidate to be all over the podcast and TikTok circuit. A lo thehill.com/homenews/cam...

The Daily Mail is hiring creators on a contract basis to produce content exclusively for its owned channels. This strikes me as a smarter approach than trying to monetize creators’ personal platforms, since it creates a clearer, more straightforward symbiotic relationship: creators receive a guarant

Tech companies keep buying up media companies in an effort to lower their user acquisition costs. For instance, Hubspot recently acquired Starter Story, the outlet that's published thousands of case studies detailing how entrepreneurs built their businesses.

Many record deals are still centered around album releases, but artists also have to publish a lot of non-album content on a consistent basis to maintain their momentum. In many cases, this means releasing songs that don't count toward their album contracts, which require exclusivity.

I think this is something we're going to see more and more of in the coming years -- TV networks and Hollywood studios will stop using YouTube to merely distribute clips and instead start leveraging it as a distribution channel for new shows. Right now, Jeopardy is streamed on Hulu and Peacock, and

I packaged 97 of my media entrepreneur case studies into an ebook spanning 558 pages and over 200,000 words. I'm pretty confident there isn't another book on the market that's packed with this many insights for how to build a successful content business. You can download the ebook over here:

The free speech guy tried to sue companies for not advertising on his nazi website and lost

We should!

I'm on a live Zoom call RIGHT NOW. Come join me: simonowens.substack.com/p/join-me-fo...

The largest college athletic departments aren’t just hiring social media editors — they’re erecting entire media outlets that are capable of everything from podcasts to longform, streaming-quality documentaries. The goal isn’t just to drive interest toward a school’s games, but also to monetize thos

I find the witch hunt for AI-generated content a bit misguided at this point. Just because a tool flags something as AI-generated doesn’t mean it was written entirely by AI—more often, people are using these tools to polish and refine their drafts.

I don't see how it's not noted in every single article about Elon's robotaxi claims that he's not even close to launching a car that can drive fully autonomously. In my mind, the business press is complicit in helping inflate Tesla's share price.

I don't think anyone would argue with the notion that the NFL is the world's most popular entertainment franchise. What I do wonder though if it's creating a massive bubble that will inevitably pop. Not only is it spreading its games out across a wide range of streaming apps -- forcing its fans into

There are several large creators who hardly bother to create their own shortform vertical video because they know there's an entire army of "clippers" who will do a better job of chopping up their longform videos and distributing them. Yes, those clippers get to monetize content that they didn't who

When you know the economy is about to tank and need to cash out as fast as possible.

A newsletter that summarizes the day's political news has over 200,000 free subscribers and generates $227,000 a year on a pay-what-you-can model.

Here's the biggest problem with Bari Weiss's attempts to shift CBS News' coverage to the right: the main reason Fox News is so successful is because it has a virtual monopoly on rightwing TV viewers. Sure, it has networks like OANN and Newsmax nipping at its heals, but they never achieved the sort o

It's becoming more and more common for even small creators to come across AI-generated avatars of themselves hawking products. In some cases, the companies behind the products are completely legitimate and aren't even aware that their ads contain AI fakes, since they hired outside marketing firms to

TikTok realized that the existing microdrama studios aren't going to publish natively to its platform without a way to generate meaningful revenue, so now it's trying to seed this sort of content itself. It's worth noting that the major tech platforms don't have a good track record when it comes to

Is there any better way to signal to the world that you're not a serious company than blowing up a $1 billion with the world's largest media conglomerate three months after you signed it? How eager will companies be to partner with OpenAI going forward? www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/dig...

PROJECT HAIL MARY is very corny but also very good. You feel like you’re watching something that was genetically engineered in a lab to make a bajillion dollars at the box office.

I'm hosting a live Zoom call on Thursday! I did one of these last week and some amazing median entrepreneurs showed up. simonowens.substack.com/p/join-me-fo...

Why would you start a fight with someone who takes steroids for a living? www.tmz.com/2026/03/23/r...

Well, if Prince Bone Saw is pushing for war, who am I to argue?

I'm attending the Semafor World Economy Summit in April. Let me know if you're around and want to meet up.

One of the most notable things about the success of this AI-generated novel is it came from an author who didn’t have much of a personal brand — which means it had to be at least halfway decent to generate sales and a traditional book contract. For years, it was commonly-accepted knowledge that AI c

I have no idea if this is a good business move but it sounds like it would be a lot of fun — both for the attendees and also the Atlantic staff. www.adweek.com/media/atlant...

I agree with those who think it’s weird CNN forced its longtime hosts to revamp their studios to look like podcast sets. If the network really wants to embrace a podcast aesthetic, then it should just license already-existing podcasts. Or it should launch brand new podcasts that publish online. What

Out of all the digital media darlings to receive huge VC investments in the 2010s, Vox Media was certainly the most well-managed. It made a smart decision to acquire New York magazine, pioneered a new kind of explainer video, and leaned hard into podcasts right before that medium really took off.

ICE was already the most hated agency in the US. Now millions of Americans are going to be watching its agents standing around doing nothing as they wait in long lines at airports. Brilliant!

This is just further evidence that the TV news broadcast and video podcast worlds are merging into one. Not only are TV veterans constant flocking to the video podcast world, but we're also seeing deal flow in the other direction -- Pat McAfee's show licensed to ESPN, Crooked Media's clips appearing

"LinkedIn just launched Top Voices 360°: A premium tier of creators who get brand sponsorships, co-branded posts, event appearances, and presumably a better table in the cafeteria ... ... I do have one small question for the platform that built its brand on professional community': why does a compa

It’s hard to even articulate how depressing it is that a senile pedophile is doing everything in his power to wreck the economy. Even if a Democrat takes the White House in 2028, they’re going to spend their entire first term trying to dig us out of this hole.

Goalhanger is easily one of the most successful independent media companies to launch in the last decade. What's particularly notable is how effectively it's copied its playbook across multiple new podcasts and niches. It recently reached 250,000 paid subscribers -- a milestone hardly any digital-on

Until recently, talent agencies and influencer agencies largely operated in separate lanes. But as creators increasingly break into traditional Hollywood, those boundaries are starting to blur—setting the stage for awkward competition over clients. digiday.com/media/joint-...