issue 236
Hello! I’m back. Welcome to Season 2. That was my first real hiatus after nearly five years of doing this thing, each and every week. I apologize for giving zero notice and falling off the face of the earth -- landing back in New Zealand exactly two months ago.
If you feel snubbed, don’t shoot, I got the illness and tackled an intimidating stack of many-thousand emails to grab the headlines you might’ve missed, here’s the archive. You can play catch up in about ~20mins. It took me much longer to do. Such is a life of duty.
I’ll be honest, the time away was needed. I had bottled a serious resentment towards this thing. It became a chore with little reward -- that, and a good friend earnestly called me a tech blogger not too long ago. A piece of me died inside that day.
After some soul searching, I found that what I desired most was reciprocity.
And I was standing in the way of myself, nixing ways to open lines of dialogue. I thought each email was an invitation, but never framed them as such.
I was doing myself a disservice all along. So I’m now fixing it.
We’re channels, efficiently resourced & outsourced.. or not.
I’ll rant about this next week, but what I’m thinking about looks a lot like the proto-social networks of the 80s: community forums in BBS, along with RSS. The current “social” mediascape is anything but. It’s a quasi-social hellscape. Platform capitalism prevails.
I promise these will still largely have the same personal tone & feel, and will never devolve into a careerist page for industry analysis junkies. Boring, will steer clear.
That said, I plan to get a bit more organized to share: 1) short snippets of convos with creatives from all walks; 2) opps that arise from my day-to-day (producing, syndicating [5 deals here], writing, et al); 3) an invite-only Discord for people in this space [email me back if interested]; and much much more (maybe even titles!). The initiatives will all be subtle, a sidebar of sorts.
It’s time to turn words into action. The game is meant to be played.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. Our return to form. See ya next week.
Tech
CreatorDAO, focused on influencers and TikTokers and future earnings, raised $20m Fortune
MarqVision, AI to spot counterfeit clothes, raised $20m (brb, off to Canal St) TC
Locket, posts photos to your friends home screens, raised $12.5m TC
Intro wants you to book time with celebs (kinda like Cameo, but with a calendar) Fastco
Triller not paying some of its creators (Kavanaugh, noo) Washpo
Limit Break, web3 games studio, raised Buckley, Paradigm, FTX GLtwtr
Kumospace, virtual conferencing, raised $21m TC
Player’s Lounge, sports wagering, raised $10.5m VB
Axios sells to Cox for $525m Axios
Betaworks next camp is tools for thinking and writing Render
Story DAO tokenomics Med
Amzn buys Roomba maker (to scan your home) Forbes
Bounty, helps TikTokers make cash from reviews, raised $4.7m TC
Snap launches first AR game Verge
Zuck on NFTs with Dapper and Coinbase Verge
Niche, web3 social platform, raised $1.8m Dot
Alliance DAO cohort TC
Zenno, move spacecraft with electro magnets, raised $6m TC
Tiffany’s selling NFTs at $50k (also clawing into CryptoPunks IP) Decrypt
Media
Lionsgate still selling Starz, perhaps a stake in its film/tv studio Bberg But starts a podcast division! Var
Apptopia says about only 1% of Nflx subs would be interested in their games TC
WBD’s $56b of debt Puck plans free streaming service (it’s a bloodbath) NYT
Eldridge takes over DCP from MRC, media asset split THR
Greek broadcaster Antenna kicking Vice’s tires NYT
Buzzfeed stock tanking, locked up employees to sue Axios
FTC potentially blocking Within and Meta deal PDF
Disney and retail chains getting into it w credit card feeds NYT
AMC Networks 10.8m streaming subs THR
Stephen King testifies against publisher merger NYT
AMC calls shares Ape, plans dividend (thx, I hate it) THR
Litmus new $500m music royalty fund Var
Podcast guests paying $50k to be on shows (their label / studio will recoup it) Bberg
Entertainment
TIFF midnight, discovery and wavelength lineups IW
Neon, indie film distrib, looking to sell Friedkin’s stake (long time coming) IW
Keanu to lead Devin in the White City for Hulu from Marty and Leo THR
Liman, Gyllenhaal set Road House remake at Amzn THR
CAA appoints metaverse lead (go Joanna) Dead
Daniels ink five year deal with Universal (they’re hiring) IW
Reynold’s Maximum Effort starts unscripted network / first look w Fubo TV Dead
McQuarrie and Cruise tease musical, other projects Dead
Idris and Leitch team on Bang, spy thriller Nflx THR
Hulu orders The Veil with Moss and Steven Knight THR
Jason Katims overall deal w Imagine TV Var
Amzn begins ordering Nigerian originals Var
For All Mankind showrunners extend Sony TV overall Var
Mendes and Audible team for Charles Dickens adaptations Dead
Nflx acq The Strange out of Cannes Dead
Mendes and Iannucci set HBO pilot called Franchise Dead
Serkis to direct Madame Tussaud founder biopic THR
Eagle Pics acq 302 Original Content from EMG Dead
Bart Walker joins Gersh THR
Collaborative
Werewolf erotica is the latest gig work trend (smut sells for digital readers) ROW
Book on how Star Trek changed trek PRH
Rise of the AI image generators Verge
Devotion trailer (jets are in, hmu) YT
Hermes and Metabirks lawsuit could set NFT IP precedent Input
BeReal and the potential liabilities for young hires (no one cares that much) Info
Your brain at the moment of death Neolife
Jerry Neumann on unpredictability RW
Fred Wilson on bridge loans AVC
Internet cables being sabotaged Wired
Justin Kan on p2e games (most aren’t games, yet) TC
MoonDAO hopes to colonize the moon / space travel (lol) MDAO
Mark Cuban wants to launch dino park in Texas MYSA
Small creative ad agency winners Adage
Learning from Ryan Reynolds investments Adage
Russell Westbrook starting creative agency Bberg
GPS jamming data GPS