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WORK • Media

I just skimmed NYMag’s “Can Media Survive?” package, which asked and answered the question through interviews with (and glamor shots of) 57 industry’s “most powerful people.” There were some fun bits, like (reportedly for-sale) Air Mail’s Graydon Carter on email:

I hate the name, and somebody’s going to have to come up with something sexier. The term newsletter sounds like something that comes out of a church basement.

Co-sign!

Directionally, here’s what we took away: 1) The industry is indeed fucked, 2) except for its many new and promising outlets, 3) most of which have a targeted focus and 4) are largely subscription-based. Sounds right to us.

But mostly, here at FOUND HQ — on another Monday of building a media business brick by brick — I tried not to let this exercise in industry navel-gazing pierce my skin (even though the portraits are in black and white!). Sure, media business models are evolving, some organizations are in trouble, platforms are never the only answer, and there will be a new generation of winners. But it’s as true today as it was last decade or the decade before. And tomorrow, at FOUND, we’ll still face these truths head-on in order to make this church-basement newsletter for you. –Josh Albertson