MTV IS A GHOST

This is unreal:

“MTV is a ghost. Its average prime-time audience of 256,000 people in 2023 was down from 807,000 in 2014, the Nielsen company said. One recent evening MTV aired reruns of “Ridiculousness” from 5 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.”

This from ‘They are TV’s ghosts – networks that somehow survive with little reason to watch them anymore,’ via Simon Owens.

Such a unique opportunity in front of us, if only we could all look up from our phones for fucking three minutes, shake out of our trance, and believe that we can make something great.

THIS WEEK IN BURGER WORLD

I see a lot of bad marketing emails from Square, but the marketing emails I get from Bad Luck Burger Club are fucking great.

It’s bold. It’s bright. The logo screams in your face. Love that.

The copy-writing matches their brand so well, too:

✅ The Intergalactic Rolling Church of the Burg (aka our food truck)

✅ Also, when you park at the market, don’t park in the dang bike lane!

✅ Party on, Burger out.

Most marketing emails are just square blocks of things for sale, but Bad Luck gets away with it because the top half was written by people – you can’t get an intern or AI to write that well.

Like, there’s a difference between greeting your customer with a hearty “hello, how ya doing today?!” and “so how many burgers ya want?”

I’ve eaten several of their burgers, all in one week at Furnce Fest in 2023, and they’re fucking amazing.

“I have one piece of advice: if you read a book you love, tell other people about it. Tell them face-to-face. In your groupchat. On social media. Even on Goodreads. Every book is a lottery ticket, but the bezzlers are buying their tickets by the case: every time you tell someone about a book you loved (and even better, why you loved it), you buy a writer another ticket.”

Cory Doctorow

OAVETTE LP

Glad I emailed an old bud the other day, because they sent me a link to this amazing album and I’ve been listening to it every day since.

I’ve been listening to a lot of electronic music the last few years, and I’ve always been a sucker for bands that do the repetitive loop stuff, and wow, Oavette hits a nerve for me.

It’s like I could watch this band play at an art gallery, you know?

ENGADGET GUTTED

Engadget is looking to “increase their velocity.”

Ten people at (Engadget) are losing their jobs, and the editorial staff will be split into two sections. A memo says strategy will focus more on traffic and collaboration with sales and SEO

Founded 20 fucking years ago by Peter Rojas, it was then bought up by AOL in 2011, which eventually became Yahoo, which has a stellar track record of destroying everything they touch.

From Engadget GM Sarah Priestley (via Daring Fireball):

“[The changes] will allow us to streamline our work, increase our velocity, and ultimately deliver the best content to our readers.”

I love how the new leadership of these once-beloved brands are hell-bent on winning the race to the bottom.

GOODBYE, VICE.COM

From the Wall Street Journal (below copied from 512 Pixels, as the WSJ has a paywall):

“It is no longer cost-effective for us to distribute our digital content the way we have done previously,” Dixon told employees in the memo. He said the company could partner with established media companies to distribute its content. “As part of this shift, we will no longer publish content on vice.com.”

And before this:

A domain name and hosting aren’t overly expensive. Put out something that folks will pay for and maybe earn a living doing it.

The glory days are over. Time to get back to making good shit with some friends and hoping for the best. 404 Media is profitable after just six months. Jason Kottke is making it work.

“The market didn’t reject Pitchfork: Condé had a captive audience, and never bothered to make a pitch.”

Pete Tosiello 

Newspapers were subsidized by ads decades ago. Classifieds meant local alt-weeklies could exist. Banner ads paid the bills for websites, until they didn’t.

Then came the corporate interests, the “smart” VPs with their business jackets and jeans outfits.

They came in, had their $400 lunches, made their money, and walked away just fine.

Like I said, “Maybe centralized kingdoms of power and influence aren’t the answer.”