The mess of building something new
Hi there, I’m glad you signed up for this newsletter, and I hope you’ll follow me as it takes a sharp left turn.
The world and my work has changed drastically since you probably signed up for this thing. From today, I want to share here what it’s like, personally, to build a new news company in 2017. This is exactly what myself, Casey, our new friends at CNN, and the remarkable team behind Beme, are trying to do. It’s terrifying in all the right ways.
I haven’t been sleeping well this past week, and it’s not just the whiplash of the new administration. My head is buzzing with the many urgencies of our new company, how desperately I want it to exist right now to tackle the news in front of us.
There is not some grand plan under wraps. We don’t even have a name yet, though some horrible contenders like “Lepton” and “News AF” have been rejected. Startups often resort to boastful claims of innovation to elbow their way into the market. We’re doing the opposite. We’re going to enter the crowded field of news through the side door.
News needs to leap forward into the age of messy, distributed, bottom-up video our politics is already happening in. The past week has been about visuals, about decentralized, fractured, uncertain facts told in mobile tidbits, and I’m as lost in at all as you are.
The Times, CNN, Washington Post, etc. are doubling down on Journalism, but I can’t help but feel this noble pursuit also has a necessarily limited, homogenous audience. BuzzFeed and their ilk have mastered the ability to get a video about a random thing in front of a massive audience, but when it comes to news, they’re a lot more sizzle than steak. In the space between there is a media and technology product that illuminates and contextualizes a range of perspectives, without wonkiness. It lets us actually hear each other. It involves the subjects of the news as much as reports on them. That’s the space I hope we will slowly begin to fill.
Our team is working on a couple of prototype mobile products (current names: Goji and Vomment, if that gives you a sense of the level of polish), one or none of which may make it into your hands. Casey is starting to use his credentials.
My focus is on the structure of every week: how do we ask the right questions, experiment in the right ways, and get the right people into the room to play around, to try, to tweak. Right now that means talking to people smarter than us about the news, inside and outside CNN, and likely adding a few of them to the team.
In just a couple of days, Beme shuts down, and I’ve also been thinking a lot about what about the product hat made it’s small community so willing to share their lives so honestly. We need that ethos in news so desperately. I’ll also miss holding my phone to my chest and hearing that little tone (composed by our teammate Colin, BTW.)
As we build this thing, I’m going to keep sending rough notes like this out. What do you want to know about starting a new company, building a new product? What perspectives do you wish you were seeing in the news?
Reply, I’d love to hear from you!
—M
Some self-promotion
Beme is Shutting Down, But Our Work Is Just Starting
ICYMI: the mission for this new venture.
Me talking with Simon Elisha about how we built Beme, and the technical side of starting up more generally.
What I'm reading
A Personal History - Katharine Graham
The former publisher of the Washington Post, through its scrappy early days to Watergate and beyond, Katherine Graham led a remarkable life, and I’m learning a hell of a lot about the newspaper business that is relevant even today. Also learning how alarmingly cozy publishers and politicians used to be.
The Plot Against America - Philip Roth
The phrase “America First” is not new, and hearing it come front and center again made me pick up this Roth novel, a dark alternate history in which isolationist (and America First Committee booster) Charles Lindbergh wins the 1940 election and America never enters WWII.
This is the fourth Roth novel I’ve tried and the only one I can’t put down.
Quote!
My instinct is everybody hates media right now…that has to be an opportunity
—Barack Obama, on his way out the door.
By Matt Hackett
I'm an entrepreneur and engineer, currently in exploration mode. Subscribe to follow along.
This newsletter is for people who, like me, believe making mass technology and serious critique are not mutually exclusive. Product design, philosophy, management, book and app recommends, queer art, etc.
If you don't want these updates anymore, please unsubscribe here.
If you were forwarded this newsletter and you like it, you can subscribe here.
Powered by Revue