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12 Apr, 4 tweets, 1 min read
OK here is a take I don't think I've seen yet. Imagine Substack takes all the big-name opinion writers, gutting traditional publishers' op-ed pages and leaving them with nothing but news reporters. They're forced to refocus on news, which turns out to be... not such a bad thing??
This is not a pro-Substack tweet or an anti-Substack tweet, I'm just musing out loud, please adjust your replies and dunks accordingly.
I'm pretty sure they do, as currently constructed. But I think the resulting dynamic has not been entirely healthy, since many readers don't grasp or even notice the distinction, and end up associating news brands with their most polarizing opinion voices.
A lot of smart people are pointing out that the big outlets are unlikely to run out of people willing to get paid to spout opinions to large audiences anytime soon. True! But I could still see Substack eroding the "star columnist" model built on big names driving reader loyalty.

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More from @WillOremus

Will Oremus Profile picture
2 Apr
This is a really good thread that deserves to be read in full by anyone who's interested in this stuff. I agree with some of Keller’s main points, and even some of Clegg’s, but I’d like to propose a slightly different way of looking at it.
It’s true that optimizing solely for short-term engagement is not in FB’s long-term best interest, and FB knows that. But here’s the thing: *knowing it isn’t enough.*
The news feed algorithm was originally built for engagement and addictiveness, and it turns out to be extremely hard to walk that back via incremental tweaks into something that optimizes for “what you find most meaningful,” as Clegg puts it. There’s just no easy metric for that.
Read 9 tweets
Will Oremus Profile picture
25 Mar
I’ve accepted a buyout from Medium. My last day will be April 7.
It’s been a great ride at @ozm. Could not have asked for a sharper or funner group of journalists to work w/ than @yeahyeahyasmin @SarahNEmerson @SarahFKessler @rachelkalson @PeterSlattery3 @mvzelenks @meganmorrone @emilylmullin @drewcostley @dlberes @davegershgorn & @bcmerchant.
In @ozm, we built in 2 years a publication we could all be proud of. Did a lot of work we believed in, some that made a real difference, some that was just fun. OneZero went from a dumb name that confused everyone to a dumb name that stood for thoughtful, original tech journalism
Read 5 tweets
Will Oremus Profile picture
12 Mar
Testifying to the House antitrust subcommittee about Big Tech's impact on the free press, Glenn Greenwald warns that laws protecting the media will empower outlets like the New York Times to "impose censorship." He compares the Times' market power to "the Amazon of journalism."
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) says he's a fan of Greenwald's work, reads him on Substack. Asks whether the media is actually a dangerous power center in itself. Greenwald agrees, says we shouldn't glorify today's media as a bulwark of democracy.
(I'm paraphrasing here, to be clear. If anyone has a verbatim transcript, please let me know.)
Read 12 tweets
Will Oremus Profile picture
12 Mar
Truly glad to see some optimism creeping into the TL about an emergence from the worst of the pandemic.

Most working parents with young kids probably won’t be joining in that optimism until there’s a realistic timeline for schools *fully* reopening.
Hybrid reopening is great for gradually bringing back some socialization opportunities and engaging kids in the classroom.

It just doesn’t help a ton for parents who have to juggle homeschool/Zoom days with in-person days & occasional closures/quarantines due to positive tests.
I will say that having the grandparents vaccinated is huge for my little fam, though. Not only can they start living life a bit more, with us worrying about them less, but they might finally get to see our soon-to-be-6yo in person for the first time since he was 4.
Read 6 tweets
Will Oremus Profile picture
11 Feb
Twitter's head of product @kayvz just spent the past hour on Twitter Spaces, talking about the product, the competition, and the future of the medium, with a bunch of tech reporters—setting a pretty different tone from the anti-media sentiment of a lot of the execs on Clubhouse.
The most interesting part to me was @kayvz (who cofounded Periscope) offering his 20/20 hindsight on the obstacles to live video, and why he thinks live audio addresses some of those, and is ultimately a better fit with the rest of Twitter's product.
"For most people it's literally terrifying to be on live video," @kayvz said. "It's one of the early insights we had at Periscope I think we were not fast enough to act on, to lower the barrier" to going live. (I agree, & wrote this about FB Live in 2016: slate.com/business/2016/…)
Read 11 tweets
Will Oremus Profile picture
9 Feb
just joined my first Twitter Spaces and it .... kinda sux?
not, like, the people, the people were fine but the UI was just... not good
here is my highly informed and carefully honed list of Twitter Spaces gripes after joining one (1) Twitter Space
☑️ cannot tell who's talking
☑️ cannot find out if there are people i know in the room
☑️ cannot see people's full names bc the UI cuts them off
Read 4 tweets

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