Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
The dream of the highbrow internet is dead. This week, the viral aggregator ViralNova was acquired for $100 million dollars. Meanwhile, the Pitchfork spin-off film criticism site The Dissolve ceased operations with an internet_meaningful blogpost entitled “The End.” The divergence between the missions and lifecycles of these two media projects that both launched in 2013…
Cigar maker. Elevator operator. Pinsetter. Iceman. Lamplighter. Switchboard operator. Local daily newspaper reporter? How soon will we have to add this once-stable occupation to the list of jobs that once were — occupations once numerous that slid into obsolescence? (Not to mention the even more colorful spittleman [hospital attendant], rotarius [wheelwright], and hamberghmaker [horse collar…
Today the controversy-beset website moved to new offices. But is its founder really in it for the long haul, as he insists? One night in mid-June, weeks before his privately-held company suffered a very public meltdown over the widely condemned outing of a heterosexually married Condé Nast executive, Gawker Media founder Nick Denton had dinner…
In his new book The Alliance, Reid Hoffman argues that the relationship between employers and employees is built on “a dishonest conversation.” Hoffman would know. As co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, he sits atop the largest, most data-rich hiring platform the world has ever seen. As a venture capitalist who made early investments in everything…
New York Mayor Bill De Blasio has lost round one against Uber. After locking horns with Uber, De Blasio has backed down from his plan to cap Uber’s growth in New York. Under a new agreement, the city will conduct a four month study on the environmental effects of on-demand car services rather than limiting the number of…
Dear Mongrel Media, You owe me an apology. Sorry to just come right out and say it, but I really don’t know how else to proceed. You know what you’ve done. Isn’t it time to come clean and make amends? Look, I get why you did it. Here you were, burdened with the impossible task…
The worst of Silicon Valley is the same, just flipped over and dipped into darkness. Listen, can you hear it? It is the sound of some other company as it hockey-sticks across graphs. It is a rags-to-riches story of a group of hardworking dreamers. It is one elite list after another, ranking everything from creativity…
Amazon.com Inc., typically known for sacrificing short-term profit so it could spend its money on long-term investments, created an investor frenzy Thursday with results that put it narrowly in the black. Shares of the Seattle online retailer surged by more than 17% to over $566 in after-hours trading, pushing its market value well past that…
After a week of chaos, Gawker Media will attempt to wipe the slate clean (so to speak) on Monday by relaunching Gawker.com. Not only that, but the name “Gawker” might be on its way out too. “We have an awesome portfolio,” Denton told Digiday. “We produce a lot of drama. And sometimes, we become the story….
google_ad_section_start (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc’s (AMZN.O) shares surged 18 percent in premarket trading on Friday, adding more than $44 billion to the company’s market value, after strong growth in the company’s cloud business drove a surprise quarterly profit. The jump in shares – setting up the stock for its best trading day in five years…