The FANG Playbook

The FANG companies — Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google — are far more similar than you might think. Their rise in value is no accident, and it is connected to Aggregation Theory.

Grantland and the (Surprising) Future of Publishing

ESPN’s decision to close Grantland seems to be more evidence that there is no future outside of massive scale or one-man operations. Bill Simmons’ recent successes, though, suggest that the answer could be the exact opposite.

Facebook and the Feed

In a week where much of the Internet was all atwitter about Mobilegeddon, Google’s pre-announced algorithm change that will favor mobile-friendly sites in mobile search results, a potentially far more impactful announcement was much more of a surprise: Facebook is tweaking the News Feed algorithm. This is a big deal for publishers in particular: according […]

Daily Update: Samsung’s Retreat, The Uncrossable Curve?, Gawker Writers Seek to Unionize

Good morning, Moore’s Law really is fifty years old: the original paper was in 1965, not 1975. Ugh! On to the update: Samsung’s Retreat While I have used the smiling curve to explain the dilemma facing publishers, as I noted at the time the very concept came from the world of Asian OEM’s — AcerSubscribe […]

Daily Update: Where is YouTube on the Publishing Curve?, Sites About Everything, Larry Sanders and The Player’s Tribune

Good morning, I wanted to give you a quick update on Stratechery. I am in the process of implementing a new membership system that should hopefully solve many of the problems some of you have encountered, including logging in issues, abrupt cancellations, etc. In broad strokes I am moving from packaged software to a software-as-a-serviceSubscribe […]

Daily Update: Amazon and the Opportunity Cost of Losing Focus, Sling TV and The Interview Follow-up, Samsung’s Bad yet Good Earnings

Good morning, I hope you all enjoyed yesterday’s article about Xiaomi, because there is a lot more about the company on the way. James Allworth and I just recorded a podcast that dove deeper into both the company as well as the markets they are competing for, the validity of patents, China’s tortured history andSubscribe […]

Daily Update: It’s Great to be Small, Niche Business Models, YouTube Seeking to Retain Stars

Good morning, I received multiple reports that Friday’s Daily Update was marked as containing phishing links. I can absolutely confirm this is not the case, so if you missed it, please take a look in your spam folder. For the third Monday in a row I’m writing about media – Media Mondays if you will.Subscribe […]