There is no destination for breaking news
Where the hell are you supposed to find out what's happening?
Good morning.
With the attempted assassination of Donald Trump and Joe Biden dropping out of the 2024 United States presidential election, a major question lately has been: where are you supposed to go for breaking news?
That place used to be Twitter. But now, as other people have covered, Twitter is a place to go only for memes and jokes and not really news.
The last few weeks have somewhat changed that. Joe Biden announced he was dropping out of the election on Twitter. And as Dylan Byers wrote in his piece “The Biden Bump” on Puck last week, “the last four weeks of this suddenly volatile presidential campaign cycle have injected a much-needed infusion of traffic, engagement, and momentum into a beleaguered legacy news industry. Politics is part of the zeitgeist again—mostly on TikTok and X and in your inbox, sure, but also on television and on old-fashioned websites.”
On her Substack last week, Taylor Lorenz wrote about the breakdown of, uh, breaking news delivery. This quote is illustrative of the current state of the internet. “When I polled a group of friends, one person heard the news [of Biden dropping out of the election] in the comment section of a bird's Instagram account, another learned of it in a Discord gaming lobby. Lots more saw it on meme pages and random X accounts.” We are in a weird time.
Even though Ezra Klein has been dipping his toes back into the Twitter waters for big events. He’s not staying. That’s because it still doesn’t feel like Twitter is that place for following breaking news anymore. I mean, not when Elon Musk is doing stuff like this.
As Byers writes in his piece, even though interest is once again increasing in political coverage no one should be fooled into thinking any of that will last.
“According to the Comscore numbers, users are spending far less time engaging with the content...with the notable exception of the Times, where games and cooking are driving more time spent. And therein lies the challenge for every major news organization between now and November: to leverage the momentum of this news cycle and turn this momentary boon into sustained growth the way the Times did in the previous decade—and then, in some cases, turn that engagement into a self-sustaining and enduring business model…In a week or so, nearly every one of the aforementioned news networks is likely to issue a press release touting record ratings or traffic for the month of July, a proof of life statement for news organizations that are otherwise managing their way through inexorable decline. But those eyeballs are meaningless unless those audiences are actively being converted into loyal and engaged customers. Alas, 100 days is not a long time, and for some of these companies it may already be too late.”
This may be old news (and because I lack imagination) but I find myself more and more gravitating towards the New York Times 2024 Election live coverage hub.
For instance, this is how I watched Biden’s national address last Wednesday evening.
Oh, wait, sorry. That’s a cool picture of Harrison Ford from 1982 that I saw someone share. This is how I watched Biden’s national address last Wednesday evening.
The Times has done what many other outlets haven’t: taken the actual behavioral functions of social media and incorporated them into their website in useful ways.
When I was a true sports junkie from about 2008 through 2019, one of my greatest wishes was that someone could figure out a way to broadcast games with Twitter feeds alongside them. I cared more about what my favorite writers and podcasters were saying about the games than the actual broadcasters of the games and would often miss action when I checked my phone.
The Times has somewhat accomplished this. When there is a live news broadcast, you can tune in and watch the commentary roll in. It’s only provided by Times staff but it's better than wading through the various options you have right now to follow live events.
As I’ve said before, websites stink. Publishers need to start thinking about how people actually use their devices and the apps on those devices and create products that people will actually use.
Two Spotify Quotes
“Spotify told investors Tuesday that it anticipates achieving a 30% gross margin on its business next quarter, well ahead of the 2025 deadline it gave investors last year.”
“While Spotify isn't immune from the industry-wide slowdown in ads, investments in its ad products and growth across its ad network, called the Spotify Audience Network, still boosted its ad business 13% year-over-year.”
These come from a pair of Sara Fischer stories covering Spotify’s earnings call last week. Last year, Spotify (like Netflix two years ago) seemed to be in serious trouble. But they have turned it around (mainly through major cost cutting and getting out of up front talent deals) and despite a few gaffes appear to be more successful than ever.
More Links To Actually Use
The biggest news last week was Google giving up on its long effort to eliminate third party cookies. This was a nice simple explainer on the situation from earlier this year.
Brian Morrissey also covered what Google’s decision means at The Rebooting.
Reddit has made licensing deals with major sports leagues to distribute content. This was already happening on Reddit and a great way to watch highlights but now it’s official.
Nieman Lab talked with the Washington Post’s chief technology officer about their Climate Answers AI chatbot. This is a cool product idea—and noble—but no one will really use this.
Substack pitched publishers on why they should work with Substack. There is something here, but I’m still not sure if any of these ideas are it.
More from Brian Morrissey: On The Rebooting Show he talked with a panel about how product priorities need to shift to user behaviors.
The Press Gazette took a look at The Guardian’s new cooking app, Feast.
Love your newsletter, Matt — Thank you!