When we post a picture, upload a story on a blog, or tweet about the latest news on Elon Musk, we contribute to the social media business. And, regardless of how we do it, it doesn’t cost us anything, or at least that’s how we perceive it. But, in reality, there are several ways social […]
M&A and SPACs—how the media sector finally secures funds
The last 12 months have brought significant changes to the financial markets, with the rise of retail investors, the SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) boom, and the merger and acquisitions flow. Those trends have also reached the media industry. As an introduction, a special purpose acquisition company, also known as a blank-check company, is a […]
Spotify rides the wave of audio news
Spotify’s diversification strategy is finally showing results. The firm has been investing for years in podcasts to move away from its core business, music. So far, the tactic is working. Demand for audio news is still rising, and ads within those podcasts are bringing in revenue. Spotify has become the podcast king in little over […]
Spotify’s podcast aspirations
After two years of making massive purchases in the podcasting industry, Spotify may be planning to launch a subscription service for podcasts, a step that only a few firms have taken so far. Traditionally, podcasts have been open to consumers, funded mostly by advertisements but not subscriptions. The previous attempts to turn the sector upside […]
Where did Quibi go wrong?
Three months ago, the streaming service Quibi was launched with some fanfare and we devoted one of our posts to it (read Quibi, the new streaming platform for mobile devices). Its success so far has been quite limited. Its founders have blamed the pandemic for the app’s flop, but its problems may not stop here. […]
Noa, where curation is content
The birth of online news has made information overload a problem for consumers. With news updates popping up every second, it is hard to keep up with the current events while understanding the context for those events. For that reason, the audio company News over Audio (Noa) was launched three years ago to curate the […]
Local outlets struggle during COVID-19
As we settle in our quarantines, we have more time in our hands to read the news—and sometimes obsessively. Thus, it’s not surprising that since the COVID-19 pandemic reached the Western hemisphere, news readership has surged dramatically. But what has also drastically changed is newspaper revenue. With businesses closing, the number of ads has plunged, […]
How Covid-19 is feeding into the fake news problem
Since early February, fake news content surrounding Covid-19 has flooded the Internet. Citizens all over the world, trying to figure out how to face the crisis and protect their families, are turning to WhatsApp, Facebook, and videos/audios shared by friends with information on healthcare. While social media giants and news outlets try to tackle the […]
