The week’s best stories: Digiday’s programmatic manifesto and Brexit’s impact
You made it to the long weekend. Good for you. Looking for something to do with all that extra free time? Here’s a rundown of what you may have missed at Digiday this week. Go pour yourself one of these cocktail favorites recommended by advertising executives and enjoy!
***
Nothing screams “anachronism” quite like a print magazine. And yet, here we are, publishing our second. Pulse is Digiday’s new print quarterly about the future of media and marketing. The current issue, out now, is all about the application of data and automation. Programmatic media is without a doubt a work in progress. Its many flaws — fraud, viewability, data hogging, commoditization — are well-known. That’s why Digiday editor-in-chief Brian Morrissey took a stab at a programmatic manifesto, a simple blueprint for correcting flaws in the system so programmatic media can live up to its promise.
Other stories that went up this week from the new issue include a lively profile of Roi Carthy, marketing chief of ad blocker Shine and someone we long joked must be the most hated man in publishing. Turns out, that’s not far from the mark. On a lighter note, we spent a day with David Shing — more commonly known as “Shingy” AOL’s “digital prophet” — to find out what the heck it is he does all day, anyway. We also explored Snapchat’s impact on fashion. The ephemeral photo-sharing app has become the next frontier for designers.
If you’re feeling Pulse so far, be sure to come back for more as we return with more from the current issue next week. Or you could also, you know, subscribe.
***
Digiday tweet of the week. If you don’t know, now you know:
@Digiday has this cool ‘TLDR’ button on their site that condenses the story that gets to the point w/out losing your attn. #SocialMediaDay
— DeArthur Banister (@Chicagos_D) June 30, 2016
<— Try it for yourself at the top of the left rail over here!
***
Looking beyond our own walls — and indeed even beyond our own shores — the news of the week was undoubtedly Brexit, Britain’s stunning vote to leave the European Union. Where there is a news story that grabs global headlines, there are inevitably ripples through the media and marketing worlds. There will be winners and there will be losers. One early beneficiary of the vote was the Financial Times. As with any bit of massive news, publishers experience a spike in traffic. Our U.K. bureau chief Jess Davies offered this inside look at how the FT managed to parlay its own surge into a 600 percent growth in subscriptions. Turns out people are willing to pay for quality content. (See above: Pulse.)
The extent to which the U.K. political sphere imploded this week has become somewhat farcical. If it is true that “comedy is pain plus time” things are only going to get funnier across the pond, because the media has already been having a field day with the Dumpster fire that is the Tory party in the wake of the vote. Jess also has this excellent roundup of media memes savaging the British political elite.
Though technically a story from late last week, this look at a comment on a Financial Times story spread like wildfire this week. The comment, from a reader named Nicholas, eloquently and succinctly summed up the beliefs of the millions of voters who would have preferred remaining in the EU. Who says you should never read the comments?
***
Given all this overseas Sturm und Drang it’s nice to be able to find a figure we can all rally around. Chief grammar correspondent Jordan Valinsky had a charming mini-profile of Mary Norris, a copy editor at The New Yorker magazine who has become the unlikeliest of video stars. In “Comma Queen,” Norris dishes out grammar gospel with examples plucked from the pages of her own magazine — and cultivated a loyal fan base and hundreds of thousands of video views in the process. “She’s a super duper copy editor, she’s very funny and extremely smart about language,” New Yorker editor David Remnick says of Norris. To which we say, “All hail the Comma Queen!”
More in Media
Publishers revamp their newsletter offerings to engage audiences amid threat of AI and declining referral traffic
Publishers like Axios, Eater, the Guardian, theSkimm and Snopes are either growing or revamping their newsletter offerings to engage audiences as a wave of generative AI advancements increases the need for original content and referral traffic declines push publishers to find alternative ways to reach readers.
The Guardian US is starting its pursuit of political ad dollars
The Guardian US is entering the race for political ad dollars.
How much is Possible’s future in Michael Kassan’s hands?
Some people in the know at Possible said they see the conference taking a bite out of Cannes’ attendance, most acutely by U.S.-based marketers who could save money by staying on this side of the Atlantic.