Over the past ten years, traditional media outlets from the pre-internet era have been forced to compete with online media outlets of various shapes and colors. Recently, upstart entities like Buzzfeed, Upworthy, and Business Insider have attracted the attention of media watchers for their tendency to appeal to a wide audience, as seen by their mastery of all-things viral. Those websites are remarkable, in part, for the deliberate facelessness of the authorship – you’re not supposed to know the name of a Buzzfeed writer, because all Buzzfeed pieces are designed to look and feel the same. While the virality monster media outlets occupy one end of the forward-thinking media spectrum, websites that are extremely personality-driven occupy the other end. The Intercept isn’t just The Intercept, it’s Glenn Greenwald’s gig. Vox isn’t just Vox, it’s Ezra Klein’s latest project. FiveThirtyEight may as well be called “Nate Silver.” The internet has enabled audiences to value writers irrespective of the publications they work for, and The Wall Street Journal competes with an independent blogger and a cat video for that precious resource: attention. Taipei-based writer Ben Thompson exemplifies how the internet has leveled the playing field in the media space, allowing independent writers to build up a following of loyal readers. Thompson began his blog Stratechery about a year ago as an outlet to jot down his ramblings on consumer tech when he wasn’t busy with his day job at Automattic (the company behind WordPress). Penning two posts a week, Thompson provided detailed analyses of whatever was making the news rounds at the time, with insights that were heavy on business strategy and light on fanboy hype. Somewhat unexpectedly, the blog exploded in popularity, and Thompson found himself placed among the likes of Benedict Evans, John Gruber, Horace Dediu and other brainy analyst-type bloggers. Now, Thompson is turning his pet project into a full-time job with the launch of Stratechery 2.0. In addition to his twice-weekly posts, Thompson will offer up three subscription tiers in exchange for various perks, such as access to comments sections, daily e-mails, private message boards, and even a bound book of Thompson’s trademark sketches made on FiftyThree’s Paper.
Source: TECHINASIA
