Legacy Media is Discreetly Biting the Dust
Morning peeps. This is Subculture Zero, where we cherry pick media and culture trends to review so that you don't have to dumpster dive on Twitter.
This week’s round up:
💾Woke media isn’t doing so well — are people over it?
📝Trudeau wants you to get his permission before doing journalism
🔷Culture Bytes from around the web: Big Tech vs. web3, Elon Musk vs. the NYT, and of course— Johnny Depp.
WOKE MEDIA ISN’T DOING SO WELL
CNN+ is a flop, Vice Media is for sale, and Meghan Markle’s Netflix show is cancelled. Is a change of tide afoot?
Legacy media branding would have you believe that outlets like The Washington Post, CNN, New York Times, and their high velocity brethren Vice and Vox Media represent public opinion. But it’s becoming obvious that they just—don’t.
The proof is in the pudding – or at least in the money.
LOSING?
CNN+, the new paid streaming arm of CNN, collapsed just one month into action.
Vice Media, once a disruptor of establishment narratives, eventually become an establishment content broker—albeit a spicy one. But lately, Vice has been struggling. It’s now for sale—and may even have to sell themselves in pieces.
🐵 Just for fun? Check out Ryan Long’s comedic parody of Vice bloggers.
Medium.com, brainchild of Twitter co-founder Ev Williams, continues its spate of reorganizations. In-house publications like OneZero and Forge have “paused” running new content. This wasn’t publicly announced, but their recent content history (lack thereof) is revealing. Editors whom I’ve worked with are pissed. Maybe Medium’s strategy of promoting only narrative-aligned content through their curation program isn’t paying off?
Woke content creators and influencers are feeling the heat as well…
Spotify is dropping the Obamas’ podcast. They weren’t making enough appearances, and their regular content just wasn’t making the cut.
Netflix cancelled Meghan Markle’s new animated show before it got off the ground.
While some Twitter employees are “horrified” by the Musk takeover, interest in jobs at Twitter has jumped by over 250%.
WINNING?
Substack: Meanwhile, Substack remains committed to content neutrality, refusing to de-platform journalists like Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi despite the Twitterati incessantly bemoaning their political independence.
Libs of TikTok: The Washington Post continues to manifest what it most fears. As in… the Libs of TikTok debacle wherein WaPo “exposed” the woman behind this parody account (which pokes fun at left-wing teachers by re-posting their videos) to no apparent end other than intimidation. But the expose didn’t go to plan. Libs of TikTok more than doubled its influence almost overnight, exploding from about 500K to 1.2M followers.
IN OTHER CULTURE HAPPENINGS…
Trudeau doesn’t want to be outshined by Biden, who has really been over-achieving in the federal overreach department. We create a Disinformation Governance Board because the government wants a say in what you read online?
(this is a parody Twitter account, in case anyone’s wondering)
Trudeau one-ups us and launches government-issued Journalism Licenses to award to media outlets of choice. Journalists can still practice without a license—it’s just, you know, not cute: Higher costs, no tax exemptions, less access, compromised distribution.
So if you value the long-standing tradition of independent journalism in liberal democracies of the West? Well….. it’s not gone—just dis-incentivized, so to speak.
CULTURE BYTES
New York Times is making Elon Musk/Twitter a race thing. Somehow, Jeff Bezos owning the Washington Post is exempt from such logic. Shouldn’t the NYT give proud Twitterite Shaun King credit for inspiring such a concept? His tweet about Musk buying Twitter as an act of white power came first.
Google/YouTube is now blocking some web3/ crypto channels (like Bankless). Not surprising seeing as how Google Ads’ research database has also blocked the term “Bitcoin” from returning search volume numbers (alongside terms like “Trump,” “violence,” and “Covid”).
The Johnny Depp/ Amber Heard saga continues to prove that “believe women” is not actually advancing women. Amber stepped into this courtroom the fresh face of domestic abuse, only to be recast in the public eye as the 2022 edition of a hoax-perpetrating actor thirsty for martyrdom. Amber’s robust lineup of now-debunked claims—like saying she used Milani makeup to conceal bruises (myth-busted by Milani itself as the product in question hadn’t yet launched) deals feminism a blow. How about we suspend belief when in doubt, and fall back on due process before blowing up careers?