Steve Smith's Eye on Innovation on "The Atlantic's
November 25, 2013 Media Industry Newsletter Vol. 66 No. 45 New York, N.Y. www.minonline.com Steve Smith's Eye on Innovation on "The Atlantic's" TheWire: WHEN DID THE NEWS GET SO "SOCIAL," ANYWAY? The relaunched and rebranded Atlantic Wire (now just TheWire) has embraced the trend of "social news," but this certainly was not always the case. When it launched in 2009, the aggregation arm of The Atlantic hardly could be more buttoned-down despite its interactive airs. The original iteration collected opinion pieces mainly around trending topics and was best known for its Atlantic 50 collection of columnists that it ranked and ex- cerpted. Talk about old school: news as massive op-eds from influencers like Michael Kinsley, David Brooks and Paul Krugman, with Arianna Huffington and Rachel Maddow breaking the boys' club. Four years later, TheWire.com has been repositioned after two years under former Gawker editor Gabriel Snyder. He and his 15-person staff are social-savvy and monitor the stories that are trending in order to both summarize and contextualize them for an audience that doesn't want to miss a thing. (continued on page 4) TWITTER AND PINTEREST OFFER PUBLISHERS NEW TOOLS. If you hadn't noticed, content–especially branded content with marquee value–is regain- ing some of its luster now that Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Vine are now openly competing with one another to prove their value to marketers and media partners. (continued on page 8) JOIN US ON DECEMBER 3 TO CELEBRATE min's MOST INTRIGUING These 25 executives–including Galvanized Brands CEO David Zinczenko and Men's Health editor-in-chief Bill Phillips (see page 6)–made a difference in 2013.
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