Join us at the Digiday Publishing Summit from March 24-26 in Vail
Everyone Just Wants to Be “Liked”: The New Yorker is testing out the Facebook Page game; in order to increase engagement, the esteemed publication is offering normally paywall-protected content on its FB page—the catch is you have to “like” their page in order to access the content, which is available for a limited time after. This week they used a Jonathan Franzen piece (quintessential New Yorker stuff) to lure FB users. Not sure how I feel about this. I mean if I didn’t have a subscription to the New Yorker, I guess I wouldn’t care that I was being coerced into “liking” their FB page. Anything to get around a paywall right? But still, coming from the New Yorker, this “like-gating” marketing doesn’t feels a little wrong. Poynter
Cuteness of the Day: Take a chance on Cute Roulette. The only nudity you risk seeing here is the occasional puppy belly.
Distraction of the Day: Better Book Titles
Metatech: We told you about the invention that makes texting easier well now there’s something to make tweeting easier! It’s a website called That can be my next tweet, and it “generates your future tweets based on the DNA of your existing messages.” Tweets have DNA? Putting together 140 characters or less needs to be made easier?
Memo From MTV: MTV was not very happy with my “snarky and dismissive” coverage of the MTV O Music Awards yesterday. MTV wanted us to take down the post until we became more “well rounded.” You know what, maybe I judged the mysterious O Music Awards too quickly. I probably should have criticized what everyone else criticizes MTV for: not playing good music (or any music) anymore, and filling America’s cultural dumpster with even more reality TV junk with shows like 16 and Pregnant, Jersey Shore, and Real World. Yes, the Real World is still on air in its 19th season. A long time ago it was interesting and provocative, today it’s set in Vegas again. It’s full of the typical alcohol-fueled drama that the reality genre has peddled for what seems like my entire life. No thanks.
More in Media
The Trump tariffs are forcing creators to overhaul their side businesses
The Donald Trump administration’s tariffs, which impose an additional 10 percent duty on Chinese imports, have led to an increase in creators’ business costs.
Brands’ interest in “Grand Theft Auto” is mounting — but questions about brand safety remain
Although it remains unclear whether Rockstar’s stance toward brands will soften for “GTA 6,” the game developer is certainly aware of “GTA’s” power as a distribution network, both for its own products and for outside advertisers.
Media Briefing: Podcasters test different types of paywalls for subscriptions
Podcasters discuss testing out different podcast subscriptions, and how to grow them as a complement (or alternative) to advertising revenue at this year’s On Air Fest event.