Oh, Anthony Joshua
I’m thoroughly despondent about the upcoming Anthony Joshua vs Jake Paul “fight”, to be broadcast on Netflix. AJ is pretty much my favourite boxer, but this event is symptomatic of the current media era. A YouTuber being paid by Netflix for a fight!
Except, it’s also hugely dangerous. AJ is an actual boxer. He’s an Olympic gold medallist and two-time heavyweight champion of the world. Jake Paul is… not. AJ weighs over 250lbs (although he will have to drop in weight for the bout); Jake Paul will do well to get to 220lbs. Joshua could genuinely kill Paul with one punch. Either that, or it is all a con because they are not fighting properly to make it a “show”.
I’ll have more on this in the future. For now, suffice it to say that it is mad, risky, and Netflix should be ashamed of itself for facilitating it.
A Black Friday for Basketball
Thanksgiving is all about watching the NFL, but there was also a lot of basketball on during the holiday weekend. I watched the game that Amazon Prime Video was showing on Friday night (Black Friday), and couldn’t tell whether I was watching a sports match or a shopping channel. There were clips of players saying what they would buy their teammates, and plugs for various deals. Obviously, this is why Amazon wanted to get into the live sports space. And, yes, we’ve always had lots of advertising and promotions during in-game coverage. But it was all rather crass and an unhappy indication of where things might be going.
Can Publishers Survive Substack?
An increasing number of traditional media outlets are using Substack as a way of reaching new audiences. These include Vox, the FT and The Economist. Julia Alexander has written a fascinating piece of analysis on it for Puck. She highlights many of the things that worry me about the Substackification of the media. In short everything looks the same on the platform, and publishers are, once again, getting trapped in by a platform that is promising to save them. I wrote about it for Digital Content Next.
There are lots of great reasons to publish on Substack, including ease of use and the recommendations algorithm. All sorts of organisations and outlets will get a good return on it. But cautions is required.
I stopped publishing this newsletter on Substack a while ago, although I do still use some of its social features. Because that is what it is – a social media platform. Publishers should remember that.
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