Digest 12/14/2020

When tech companies act like media companies, the Wall Street Journal's trolling, and more.

ICYMI: Read our feature exploring the advice column boom and the rise of the messy advice columnist, which began with Cheryl Strayed’s Dear Sugar and lives on in Heather Havrilesky’s Ask Polly, John Paul Brammer’s ¡Hola Papi!, and Brandy Jensen’s Ask A Fuck-Up. “Strayed provided a blueprint for a different kind of advice column: she confirmed that there are people writing to columnists because they want to feel held and affirmed, not simply told what is right and wrong.”

WHAT MAKES A MEDIA COMPANY?

Substack is not a media company, its creators insist. Although the platform publishes newsletters written by journalists, scouts (and pays) talent, and provides editorial services, CEO Chris Best reiterated the distinction in an interview with The Verge last week. When asked about the company’s business model, he said: “I think our asset is the platform that we’re creating…we’re not a media company. Our goal is not to be a publisher that has a bunch of stuff.” Substack, he went on to explain, is simply a tool to help writers “go independent.” They want to make that process as simple for writers as possible, so not only are they providing the platform and software, but also programs like Substack Defender, which provides legal protections (not for everyone: you have to apply). They also give writers advances to come onboard and provide healthcare subsidies.

I wrote about how Substack is striving to walk the line between media company and neutral platform back in July, when controversial New York Magazine defector (and race science proponent) Andrew Sullivan launched a newsletter there. I asked Best and his co-founder Hamish McKenzie about that line, and at what point they feel a responsibility to moderate content published on Substack. They insisted that the company does not take an editorial role: they have guidelines prohibiting hateful content, but beyond that, they’re not taking a stance. 

They also distanced themselves from the benefits they offer writers who use Substack: “We don’t hire writers, we don’t create or pay for editorial, and we have no involvement in their editorial process,” they wrote in an email in July. “The services that we do get involved with — such as Substack Defender — are handled by third parties, with us playing the role of facilitator. We will choose which cases to cover on their legal merits, not their editorial merits, and without regard for their political leanings.”

It’s hard not to feel the distinction they’re making is little more than semantic. They may not “hire writers” in the technical sense — the writers retain ownership of their work and their subscriber lists, which they are free to take elsewhere if they leave the platform — but they are offering writers money and benefits, at least for a time. 

Anne Helen Petersen took a grant upfront for the first year of her newsletter, plus a healthcare subsidy and an editor on retainer. Casey Newton chose to forego a grant from Substack, betting he could make more money on subscriptions the first year, but he also has a healthcare subsidy and has access to the legal defender program. I don’t want to be flippant about the difference between giving someone a salary and giving them a one-time grant or guaranteed fee — there is a difference — but if these writers coming to Substack do not resemble employees, then they at least resemble independent contractors, an employment class media companies frequently use to produce editorial content that is ultimately the company’s responsibility.

As tech companies expand their outsize influence over what gets published and read, the question of what precisely makes a media company a media company grows more urgent. Facebook, which is currently battling two antitrust lawsuits due to its social media dominance, has repeatedly argued that it is not a media company; it is the originator of the “platform, not publisher” argument. Protocol’s Issie Lapowsky, then a senior writer at WIRED, has previously argued that this tactic gives the company more latitude when it comes to what is permitted on the site. She also noted that Facebook has been difficult to categorize “because we haven’t had a platform like this that is both so dominant in news but that also is not committing journalism itself.” 

The same could be said for Substack, which is shaping the future of journalism while maintaining that it does not create journalism itself. Best and McKenzie have said as much, arguing that the future of the industry involves journalists going independent, and Substack is simply there to facilitate the shift. Substack probably does not want to be seen as the new Facebook, however. Just how independent is a journalist taking money and benefits from the tech company that facilitates their work? That may be the media question of 2021.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL IS TROLLING US

As I’m sure you’ve heard, the Wall Street Journal’s opinion section published a very condescending and sexist piece arguing Jill Biden should drop her “Dr.” title because she is not a medical doctor. The author of the piece calls the soon-to-be First Lady “kiddo.” It is a piece clearly designed to provoke outrage — and it worked! The piece was trending on Twitter on Saturday, the day after its publication, and has provoked a wave of backlash. The backlash cycle is self-perpetuating — the Journal doubled down on the piece in response to the outrage, then Jill Biden responded to the doubling down, and…we live in hell.

I’m not going to defend the piece, but it was pretty obviously an effort to garner clicks and responses through trolling, in which it has succeeded. The Journal seems to have taken a page out of its competitor’s playbook: the Times opinion section is a masterclass in professional trolling! Professional trolling is practically Bret Stephens’ entire career! Remember when he used his column to basically argue a harmless joke at his expense was akin to Nazism? And frankly, though the column was, again, condescending and sexist, it is — compared to the section’s routine content — a relatively harmless jab at an extraordinarily powerful woman. The Journal regularly uses its opinion section to drum up fear and hatred of trans people, which actually makes the world materially less safe for a marginalized group. I’d say that’s slightly more worthy of a days-long outrage cycle than the disrespecting of PhD-havers.

EVERYTHING ELSE

— The Correspondent is shutting down barely a year after its highly-publicized launch due to a severe lack of funding. The English-language offshoot of Danish news site De Correspondent had gotten off to a rocky start: It ran a $2.6 million crowdfunding campaign on the promise they were launching a New York-based site, drawing the help of US “ambassadors” like Nate Silver and Jay Rosen to tout the cause, only for it to later emerge that the newsroom would be based in The Netherlands, leading many (including employees) to say they felt misled. 

— The Brick House, a media cooperative spearheaded by editors of former Civil newsrooms, has officially launched. The cooperative is fully funded by donations and readers in a bid to create a sustainable media operation not beholden to corporate interests. 

— More about that Facebook lawsuit: the Federal Trade Commission is calling for the company to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp into independent companies. This is in addition to a separate lawsuit brought against Facebook by 48 state attorneys general claiming the company has harmed competition by buying up smaller operations.

— Kellyanne Conway has signed a multi-million dollar deal to write a memoir about her time in the White House, because of course she has. Conway is part of a larger trend within publishing that I predict we’ll see more of in the coming year, as Trump leaves office — John Bolton earlier this year secured a $2 million book deal with Simon & Schuster.

— Here’s a look at the state of Vox Media from Vanity Fair: CEO Jim Bankoff is comparing the company, which acquired New York Magazine last year, to Disney, framing it as an entertainment franchise. “We have our own franchises, which are Eater and The Strategist and The Cut and The Verge and SB Nation and so on,” Bankoff told Vanity Fair. 

— The latest Ben Smith dispatch: when Apple chief executive Tim Cook learned his company was making a show about Gawker, which had outed him as gay in 2008, he expressed his displeasure and Apple killed the project. “From beyond the grave, Gawker is revealing another reality in this era of media consolidation: that the chief executive of one of the biggest companies in the world, who testifies before Congress and negotiates with China, also decides what television shows get made.”

— In a disgusting new low, the New York Post outed a New York City paramedic as a sex worker maintaining an OnlyFans to support her and her family (paramedics get paid shit). Fuck the Post. You can donate to her GoFundMe here.