Laura Hazard Owen of Nieman Journalism Lab writes Tuesday about tech news site The Information’s new email newsletter to subscribers called Briefing, which is full of opinions about the news of the day.
Owen writes, “The Information’s Briefing doesn’t really aim to be a Techmeme-like, factual snapshot of the biggest news of the day. Rather, ‘we think there’s a real opportunity to provide some perspective,’ Lessin said. Each item in Briefing links to one article, with one of The Information’s reporters commenting on ‘what the article got right, what’s new about it, what other factors to consider — like if the sourcing is skewed toward one side or another. It’s a way we seek to inform our subscribers about the news we don’t write.’ (A model in another space might be Politico Playbook, or Mike Allen’s Axios AM.) One item, for example:
Square Sort of Acquihires Yik Yak
This deal, which seems like a routine acquihire, isn’t so routine. Remember: Yik Yak was once the next Snap, and investors went crazy to get in on it and appeal to “young people.” Its failure is as much a failure of thesis and demographic-driven investing as anything. Also, acquiring an engineering team, which happened in this case, isn’t really an acquisition. I suspect that angle came from investor spin. —Jessica
“Briefing is updated all day long (by reporters in Hong Kong, San Francisco, and New York), and the email version for subscribers will serve as a static snapshot. The company will experiment with the timing of the email, but for now it’s being sent out late afternoon Pacific time.
“Ultimately, The Information might also include subscribers in the creation of Briefing. ‘In Slack, subscribers suggest articles to us all the time,’ Lessin said. ‘I’d love to harness that in this product, too. That might be phase two.'”
Read more here.
