What we are thinking about.
Notes from running 8 publications and building tools for them. Restaurant SEO, local marketing, the boring parts that move the needle.
Vox Media’s Yard Sale: Popsugar, She Media, and the Revolving Door of Execs
Vox Media’s portfolio fire sale is the last gasp of the failed digital media roll-up model. Execs are fleeing, and Penske smells blood.
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LiveRamp Just Lost Its 'Switzerland' Status—And Agencies Know It Means War
Publicis’ LiveRamp buyout just detonated the illusion of data neutrality. Agencies aren’t sticking around to see their secrets piped to a rival.
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Google’s Native Checkout: Nowhere Left to Hide from the Ad Machine
Google just turned every YouTube video and Search result into a storefront. If you’re not plugged into their native checkout, you’re already obsolete.
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Viant’s ‘Bias Targeting’ for CTV: The Ad Industry’s Latest Exercise in Faux Objectivity
Viant’s new ‘news bias’ targeting for CTV is just more adtech theater—outsourcing judgment to algorithms instead of demanding real due diligence.
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MS NOW Taps Sandi Cohen as Executive Producer—Will NBC Let Her Do Anything Interesting?
Sandi Cohen, fresh off a senior producer role at CNN, is taking the reins of NBC’s new MS NOW show. But will the network let her do anything that matters?
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James Murdoch Slices Up Vox Media, Guts Media Nostalgia—Welcome to the Billionaire Chop Shop
James Murdoch is carving up Vox Media, handing New York Magazine and Vox to CEO Jim Bankoff while the rest is left for scraps. This isn’t a rescue—it’s a billionaire’s part-time hobby.
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Squarespace's 2026 SEO Tools Are a Trap: Why Publishers Should Run, Not Walk, Away
Squarespace rolled out its 2026 SEO toolkit promising simplicity, but it still buries publishers under lazy defaults and misleading metrics.
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Why Every '10x SEO Agency' Selling AI Content in 2026 Deserves a Loud Call-Out
By early 2026, over 70% of agencies calling themselves ‘10x SEO’ are pushing AI-generated content with zero strategy or value. This grift needs to end.
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GPT-5 Turbo’s SEO Impact Exposed: Why AI Content Alone Tanks Rankings in 2026
GPT-5 Turbo was released in early 2026 with sweeping claims about changing SEO content. Reality check: Google still punishes lazy AI content without human rigor.
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DoorDash Taps Former Amazon Marketing Head Tim Castree—But Does He Really Move the Needle?
DoorDash’s new CMO, ex-Amazon’s Tim Castree, faces the brutal task of turning marketing hype into real, sustainable growth in an overcrowded delivery market.
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Amazon’s Affiliate Program Slashes Commissions and Dismantles Reporting: Publishers Left Holding the Bag
Amazon has cut affiliate commissions by up to 50% and gutted reporting tools, leaving publishers scrambling to salvage their commerce revenue streams. This move exposes the dangers of over-reliance on platform-dependent affiliate programs.
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DoorDash Hires Former Amazon Marketing Exec Tim Castree as New CMO — A Move Loaded with E-Commerce Ambitions
DoorDash taps ex-Amazon exec Tim Castree as CMO, signaling a hard pivot toward data-driven marketing and e-commerce dominance in the cutthroat delivery space.
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Visa’s Jason Sudeikis Play: Why Celebrity Endorsements Won’t Save You at the 2026 World Cup
Visa’s World Cup campaign starring Jason Sudeikis leans on celebrity and perks but showcases the tired, ineffective playbook of big-brand sports marketing.
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Oscar Mayer’s Wienie 500 Leaps Off the Grill with Fox Broadcast After Half-Million Sales Spike
Oscar Mayer’s Wienie 500 race just got a major upgrade with real coaches and a live Fox broadcast, driving an impressive 500,000 sales bump.
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Omnicom’s Top Creative Javier Campopiano Bails Months After IPG’s Aggressive Takeover
Javier Campopiano, Omnicom’s global chief creative officer, has stepped down mere months after IPG’s aggressive takeover, spotlighting the creative fallout of agency consolidation.
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Office Essentials Every NYC Restaurant Owner Buys
For NYC restaurant owners, maintaining an efficient and organized office environment is just as important as the culinary operation itself. An effective workspace can streamline operations, enhance communication, and ensure smooth day-to-da
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Why The Growth-Obsessed Marketing World Is Killing Strategic Thinking
The marketing world's fixation on immediate growth is hollowing out strategic thinking, leaving marketers trapped in a cycle of short-term wins and long-term losses.
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IndexNow Hype at Microsoft Bing Is a Giant Nothingburger, Here’s the Data
Since its launch in October 2021, IndexNow has failed to deliver measurable improvements in crawl efficiency or indexing speed across major search engines.
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