Digest 6/28/2021

The editorial-to-Netflix pipeline, BuzzFeed's going public (about losing money), and more.

DIGITAL MEDIA TALENT IS FLEEING TO NETFLIX

Every few years I try to run through my Digital Media Exit Plan in the same way you’re supposed to with escape routes in your house in case of fire: Grab my Google Docs and ability to meet deadlines, leaving behind the toxic instability. The further I get into my career in the industry, however, the more it feels like the path narrows. I start to wonder what skills I have, really, beyond creating coherent sentences and aggregating a piece of pop culture news in 30 minutes. I get envious of the people who have managed to use their experiences as a springboard, taken the leap and landed somewhere totally free. Somewhere like Netflix.

The digital-media-to-Netflix pipeline is a transition I didn’t pay serious attention to until this past week when Allure editor-in-chief Michelle Lee’s move to Netflix asVP of Editorial & Publishing had me wondering if something more purposeful was afoot. Lee’s position, which she’ll assume in late July, is in the marketing department. She’ll report to CMO Bozoma Saint John, and lead a handful of other former digital media employees to…something. 

Lee’s hire comes as Netflix seems to be actively staffing their editorial operations, which span social media channels, podcasts, and “other initiatives.” In the last year, the company hired Refinery29’s Gabrielle Korn and Danielle Cadet, IGN’s Terri Schwartz, and former TV and film critic Joi Childs. They’re also currently hiring Editorial & Publishing managers for their French division, their Latinx division “Con Todo,” their comedy division “Netflix Is A Joke,” and their weekly digital publication Queue, as well as a Head of Audio/Podcast Programming. When I reached out, Netflix didn’t have any specific comment on what may be ahead. 

“Media is broken and it’s okay to want more for yourself,” Korn wrote in a Twitter thread after her pivot to the editorial and publishing lead of “The Most,” Netflix’s division for LGBTQ storytelling on social media. “It’s okay to be tired of the overworked/underpaid dichotomy that this industry perpetuates and largely relies on. It’s okay to re-examine what you want and need.”

Korn went on to dispute the fear that plagues me every time I open up the application for any position that isn’t “Part-Time Pop Culture Writer, Ten Posts A Day, No Healthcare.”“You’re not just an editor,” she wrote. “Your work prob also includes audience growth, strategy, social media, creative direction, and so much more.”

Aside from beefing up their editorial operations, Netflix is also leaning into the shopping space. Their online store is a far cry from, say, NBC’s Rockefeller Center gift shop. Instead, it boasts collaborations with streetwear brand Hypland and capsule collections from Japanese brand BEAMS inspired by Netflix’s original anime Eden.

With Netflix on the glow-up, I’m sure other entertainment and culture companies are making similar moves: Hulu is currently hiring for 17 positions in their marketing and PR department, and HBO Max 12 positions in Creative, Content & Editorial. I’d ask the ever-merging, rapidly-scaling traditional media companies that are left to consider this: Perhaps it’s not just that people are leaving media, but that adjacent industries are seeing the value in extremely dynamic, creative, and adaptable employees who will leap at any chance to work somewhere they aren’t threatened to be discarded from at any moment.  

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IF I CREATE AN EVEN LONGER POWERPOINT WITH EVEN MORE MADE-UP WORDS CAN I ALSO HAVE $300 MILLION? 

BuzzFeed will be the first digital media company to go public via a merger with 890 Fifth Avenue Partners. The news dropped on Thursday along with an investor deck that revealed the company also plans to acquire Complex Networks for $300 million, a number that’s hard to hear knowing BuzzFeed laid of 70 employees following their acquisition of Huffington Post just a few months ago and laid off almost 70% of furloughed staff last summer. 

The claims and predictions laid out in the deck, including a $1.5 billion evaluation, are buried under a mess of incoherent corporate jargon like “synergies and monetization opportunities” and the four pillars of “CONTENT,” “AUDIENCE,” “DATA,” and “INVEST” arranged in an incomprehensible pie chart. When you finally parse through them, the claims are pretty agressive. Axios chief financial correspondent Felix Salmon noted that the deck reveals BuzzFeed lost $29m in 2019 and made $4 million in 2020. However, BuzzFeed predicts revenue to grow by over 20 percent every year for the next three years. 

I’m getting whiplash from digital media slashing its workforce due to pandemic losses and now suddenly having hundreds of millions of dollars to throw around. However, the pivot to going public is a long time coming as the longstanding financial struggles of the media industry were compounded by a 20% to 30% loss of their advertising revenue due to the pandemic, according to CNBC. Companies like Vice, Group Nine, Vox Media, and Bustle are also reportedly exploring the prospect, and now likely keeping a keen eye on BuzzFeed as the merger deal is finalized later this year. 

How do current and former BuzzFeeders feel about the news? Politics reporter Addy Baird pointed out that despite winning a Pulitzer and going public in the last month, BuzzFeed has yet to meaningfully respond to the economic proposals in the BuzzFeed union contract. Former editor and host Saeed Jones put it more succinctly: “Burn in hell, @peretti!”

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QUICK QS WITH: JUST MEDIA THINGS

“Why bully others when you can bully yourself by joining the media industry?” asks a particularly poignant meme that was all over the Instagram Stories of my digital media peers. This gleefully chaotic self-deprecation is the hallmark of Just Media Things, an Instagram account dedicated to creating and sharing memes for anyone working in the broader media landscape, from marketing to advertising to public relations. The two creators, who use the aliases Panda and Moose, began the account in 2019 after coming up with the idea while at a coworker’s farewell party. 

 

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A post shared by Just Media Things (@justmediathingss)

“It started as a coping mechanism and a platform for the both of us to share our humor with our coworkers,” the pair explained over email. Over 19,000 followers later, they’ve expanded their musings to a blog and curated hyper-specific playlists like “Lofi Beats to Listen to While Your Client Scolds You.” 

I asked the pair a few quick Qs about creating niche memes for their expanding audience, and what they hope their account can change about the industry. 

SH: What are the unique things about working in media that make for good memes?

JMT: There are daily inane struggles in media that sometimes just make for stupid situations and things to laugh about. There is not a single week that [goes] by without a hiccup, rejection, or request that [doesn’t] quite make sense to you. The media industry is also extremely versatile and dynamic so we’ll never really really run out of content.

SH: There’s a lot that can be improved about working media. Do you hope the account will help change things?

JMT: We did not expect this account to grow to where we are today, and as we progressed along and grew this community, we’ve had the opportunity to talk to many people from different types of roles and [who] faced different sorts of situations. We realized that we can go beyond so much more than just making memes and raise awareness on the type of culture that we should be creating. From time to time, we also encourage others to share their experiences through memes and articles that would shed light on negative office culture and ideas. Especially as our community climbs up the career ladder, we recognize that these people will eventually be the next generation of leaders within the media sphere. We hope to be able to make some wave of change, no matter how small it may be.

SH: Why do you think these memes resonate with so many people?

JMT: I would like to think that we are actually funny — LMAO. In all seriousness, we think that our memes resonate with many people because they are probably quite accurate with how it describes their life at work, but it also makes them feel less alone in a space that can be quite frustrating to navigate at times.

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COMINGS AND GOINGS

— After six years at Allure, editor-in-chief Michelle Lee is departing to join Netflix as the VP of Editorial & Publishing.

— Close to 40 employees are taking a buyout at the Chicago Tribune, including Dahleen Glanton, Genevieve Bookwalter, Dan Hinkel, Steve Schering, Lara Weber, Adam Lukach, Pat Disabato, Chuck Fieldman, and Mike Hutton. This exodus comes after hedge fund Alden Global Capital purchased Tribune Publishing’s assets for $663 million in May.

— Christopher Ingraham left The Washington Post’s policy/data/chart blog Wonkblog to “make data fun again” at Substack with his new newsletter, The Why Axis.

— New York Times travel reporter Tariro Mzezewa is relocating to the publication’s National Desk to cover the south. 

— Ryan Mac is leaving his role as a senior tech reporter at BuzzFeed to join the New York Times on the tech accountability beat. 

— Kyle Chayka — ever heard of him? — landed a New Yorker column on internet culture, appropriately titled Infinite Scroll.

— Supervising producer Kathy Tu is leaving Times Opinion Audio next month. 

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EVERYTHING ELSE

— Vulture launched a new site section called Streamliner (presented by State Farm™) dedicated to streaming services and devices, because apparently I’m the only one who finds it impossible to watch TV and movies on my phone. The section is currently being led by interim editor Brennan Carley, and also boasts its own newsletter: Buffering by Vulture’s Joe Adalian.

— Mother Jones reported on the over-the-top tactics employed by Amazon’s PR team in response to journalistic coverage. Reporters on the receiving end of these tactics allege Amazon would attempt to trick, intimidate, and harangue them into issuing corrections that were often subjective or untrue. (Queue me getting an email from Amazon PR in three, two, one…)

— Glenn Greenwald and Jesse Singal got mad at Inverse for having “no evidentiary standards that have to be met before publishing serious accusations” before realizing that they were actually tagging and yelling at the wrong person. Chef’s kiss. 

— A leaked New York Times memo obtained by Business Insider reveals employees are expected to return to the office for at least three days a week starting in September. From what I’m hearing, a lot of publications are planning some form of a return that month — if this is something you have thoughts about at your own company, please get in touch! 

— ProPublica’s deep dive into billionaire Peter Thiel’s use of Roth IRAs to amass an untaxed fortune not only proves a 2009 Gawker article entirely correct, but also adds yet another reason it seems the venture capitalist had a vendetta against the defunct-then-resurrected-then defunct-now-resurrected-again publication.