What you missed in July

What you missed in July

Digiday+ members have access to an exclusive set of benefits. This past month, that included content from Digiday magazine, several original research reports, Slack town halls with Ian Schafer and Jason Stein, weekly editions our newsletter written exclusively for members and more. Here's a sample of what you missed.

Digiday Research: Is VR more hype than reality?
We surveyed hundreds of executives from media and marketing companies to uncover their approaches to VR – and the development of the market. Here’s one of the key findings from our report:

From editor-in-chief Brian Morrissey in “The Rundown", a weekly newsletter

I like to ask publishing executives I meet for their appraisal of their dealings with platforms such as Snapchat. This harsh assessment came from a midsize publisher. Platforms all go through growing pains, often made more painful by being the cool, rich kid. Snapchat is smack in that phase. Many publishers privately grouse that the company’s secretive, too-cool-for-school corporate culture bleeds into its approaches to partners. The message, intended or not, is often: We’re Snapchat, you’re not, so do it our way.

Slack town halls with industry execs

We’re in an influencer bubble’: A Digiday+ town hall with Ian Schafer

"There are more influencers than people who have influence. Too many followers of these accounts are useless (or worse, fake). And, it’s an excuse for advertisers to say they got way more than what they paid for, and too often, influencers become a liability."

‘If you want impact, you go to a media company’: A Digiday+ town hall with Cycle CEO Jason Stein

“Reach is a commodity. Anyone can buy reach. And if you want to buy reach, you go directly to Google and Facebook. You don’t need a publisher for reach. If you want impact and cultural relevance, you go to a publisher or media company. The best way to measure that is shares/retweets/engagements. We focus mainly on shares per post, and I am pretty sure at Cycle, we have the highest shares per post rate of any publisher across Facebook and Twitter.”

Digiday Magazine
Digiday+ members received a copy of Digiday magazine. Our latest issue featured our 50 Changemakers, those driving change in their industries on a daily basis. Here are some of the highlights:

Something old, something new: Inside NBCUniversal and BuzzFeed’s union, by Sahil Patel
Times have changed and NBCU is not only investing in big digital companies, but integrating them into its core business. Senior reporter Sahil Patel takes a look at the marriage between BuzzFeed and NBCUniversal.

Eyes wide shut: Marketers need to fix digital media, by Shareen Pathak
Now, more than ever, it’s become clear that for real change to happen in digital media, marketers will need to take responsibility for their role in creating problems. Co-executive editor Shareen Pathak takes a look at what needs to happen for that to become a reality.