An interview with The Air Current’s Jon Ostrower about Southwest’s meltdown, being an independent publisher, why there isn’t supersonic passenger flights, and building a hardware product.
Spotify Earnings, Spotify Exclusives, Spotify vs. Apple
Spotify’s earnings were solid, although I am more skeptical of its podcast exclusive strategy than ever. Plus, Apple continues to act anti-competitively, this time in e-books.
Musk Re-Commits to Twitter; Meta, AITemplate, and Nvidia; Facebook Shutters Bulletin
Notes on Musk’s latest Twitter about-face, then Meta open-sources an AI library that is a big threat to Nvidia. Plus, another example of a failed paid product from an ad-supported company.
Spotify Audiobooks, Audiobook Business Models, Limitations and Skepticism
Spotify is now selling audio books, but with an analog business model that is further hampered by Apple. The limitations aren’t Spotify’s fault, but do limit upside.
Sharp Tech and Stratechery Plus
Stratechery is launching a new podcast: Sharp Tech with Ben Thompson. In addition, the Stratechery Update subscription has now been expanded to the Stratechery Plus subscription, including the Stratechery Update, Stratechery Interviews, Sharp Tech, and Dithering.
An Interview With The Verge Editor-in-Chief Nilay Patel About Building a Destination Site
An interview with The Verge EIC Nilay Patel about building a destination site, his background and how that connects to his career in tech journalism, The Verge’s business model and approach to journalism ethics, and a bit of a debate about moderation and net neutrality.
An Interview With The New York Times Company CEO Meredith Kopit Levien
An Interview with The New York Times Company CEO Meredith Kopit Levien about her path to The New York Times Company, what it is like managing an entity where the most important product is out of your control, and a substantial dive into her thinking about bundles, recent acquisitions, and how The New York Times Company can transform from a skyscraper into a neighborhood.
Musk Declines Twitter Board Seat, Twitter’s Poison Pill, The New York Times’ Twitter Reset
The Musk-Twitter saga continues, while the New York Times rethinks its Twitter policies.
The Current Thing
If businesses are subject to Aggregation Theory, then so are ideas: this is the root of the “The Current Thing” meme, and it should drive a re-evaluation of how we think about moderating content on the Internet.
iPhone Production Site Locked Down, An Interview With Bill Bishop about China (and Substack)
An Interview With Bill Bishop about China’s COVID outbreak, the Ukraine war, and Substack