# The Shuffle Edition - Shopify for News

*Hello friends! You likely signed up for this after reading one of my
essays on
[Medium](https://medium.com/@seanblanda?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-shuffle-edition-shopify-for-news)
or seeing something on
[Twitter](https://twitter.com/SeanBlanda?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-shuffle-edition-shopify-for-news). I
send this thing every few months, mostly a wrap-up of stuff I'm working
on, thinking about, and the best reading from around the web — all
ending with a sweet flag. See past
issues *[*here*](http://tinyletter.com/blanda/archive?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-shuffle-edition-shopify-for-news)*.
Now, to the newsletter:\
\
![](../images/243f0c45709c.jpg)Avenue A in the East Village after a
short sunshower. Which, apparently, is a phenomenon that has [different
names depending on where you're
from](http://www.metafilter.com/9621/What-do-you-say-when-its-raining-and-sunny-at-the-same-time?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-shuffle-edition-shopify-for-news).*\
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***Welcome to the shuffle edition***\
\
Back in the Napster days my hard drive only had space for 100 songs.
Each song took hours to download so every file was carefully curated and
considered with longevity and flexibility in mind. Was it possible
to listen to “[I Just Wanna Love
U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG8o_9RliwU&utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-shuffle-edition-shopify-for-news)”
while playing Starcraft 1? While cleaning my room? Is “[No
Brakes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKDDu_0NsEk&utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-shuffle-edition-shopify-for-news)”
as enjoyable on the weekend as it is after school? And, most
importantly, can I just click “shuffle” and let all 100 songs ride
without ever wanting to skip?\
 \
Consider this the Napster shuffle edition. Bits of thoughts and ideas
that are “stuck” in my brain like Fabolous was stuck in my 100 song
playlist.\
 \
***Shopify for publishers***\
 \
*([Expanding from my Tweet
thread…](https://twitter.com/SeanBlanda/status/869537635987058688?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-shuffle-edition-shopify-for-news))*\
 \
Do you remember what it was like to start an online store in 2008? You
had to know payments systems, fulfillment, web design, web hosting,
marketing, shopping carts… That’s not even mentioning the actual goods
you were selling or creating. Starting an online store took a lot of
specialized knowledge and, as a result, it was hard for the one-man shop
to exist.\
 \
Now? We have Etsy and Shopify and Squarespace and tons of other
platforms that enable you to spin up a store in seconds. As a result, we
have an explosion in micro-brands selling specific items to a passionate
fan base and a rise in people making a living on their art. Or woodwork.
Or...\
 \
I think the same thing is going to happen to publishers. Given current
tools it is hard for one person to build a publishing empire. Plus,
advertising and the race to \$0 CPMs makes it harder each year. Now
publishers are (re?)awaking to direct reader payments like
subscriptions, events, and courses.\
\
There’s just one problem: Most people use digital duct tape to combine a
bunch of services to make their “publishing stack.” You need one service
to host a course, another for your mailing list, and another for your
content. But what if it were easier? What if tiny publishers got their
Etsy moment, where they could spin up a publication that handled all of
the externalities of running a tiny media business?\
\
And, for the big guys, we're seeing that it's the ones that own the
entire stack that will flourish. Think of the
*[Athletic](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-24/the-athletic-a-subscription-site-for-local-sports-news-raises-5-8-million?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-shuffle-edition-shopify-for-news)*,
Vox's
[Chorus](https://pfauth.com/publishing-platforms/vox-medias-chorus/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-shuffle-edition-shopify-for-news),
*Buzzfeed's* CMS, and *WaPo's*
[Arc](https://www.arcpublishing.com/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-shuffle-edition-shopify-for-news).\
 \
After Tweeting about this a few people reached out to me saying they are
working on such a thing. The folks at
[Substack](https://on.substack.com/about?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-shuffle-edition-shopify-for-news)
were kind enough to give me a demo. If you’re thinking of spinning up
your own micro publication, check them out.\
\
Somebody is going to figure this out, and it's going to lead to an
entirely new kind of media brand.\
\
***Why are we talking about this?***\
\
\[UNDERSTATEMENT ALERT\] It was frustrating to watch our
president equivocate when discussing the Nazi that murdered Heather
Heyer. Perhaps just as frustrating was watching the discourse quickly
moving on to the merits of Confederate statues.\
\
Last week reminded us all of a flaw with how media is produced: Each
publication with resources has been conditioned to think that more is
better, and writers are encouraged to stake out new territory with takes
on every angle on every event. It ensures that we'll quickly move to the
second order effects of an event before truly processing the event
itself. So while we should have been coming to grips with
Charlottesville, we were all distracted by the Culture War standby of
removing Confederate monuments.\
 \
***“We’re moving forward in a circle”***\
 \
A must read for people who publish things on the internet: [*032c*'s
profile of *Hypebeast* and
*Highsnobiety*](https://032c.com/hypebeast-vs-highsnobiety?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-shuffle-edition-shopify-for-news) — two
street culture blogs based in Hong Kong and Berlin, respectively. \
\
It’s long but a passage stuck with me: “From its beginning in 2005, Ma
recognized that the power of *Hypebeast* rested in its ability to
translate the ornate, obsessive, and troll-laden world of sneaker forums
into material that could be consumed by the general public.” In the
category of “there’s nothing new under the sun” you can draw a straight
line from the sneakerhead forums to *Hypebeast*. I wonder what other Web
1.0 communities and forums are still waiting for their version of
*Hypebeast*?\
 \
[I wrote earlier this
year](https://medium.com/@SeanBlanda/medium-and-the-reason-you-cant-stand-the-news-anymore-c98068fec3f8?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-shuffle-edition-shopify-for-news)
how media brand essentially trade their readers trust for profits.
*Highsnobiety* is pretty candid about this:\
\
![](../images/bafa014e3014.png)\
*- Related question: Do culture sites have to "flood the zone" like this
to be successful? Consider the success of Highsnobiety and Hyperbeast
with something like Monocle. If you're going to build a BRAND, is volume
required?*\
 \
**(•\_•)**\
**\<) )╯Always**\
**/  \\**\
 \
**\\•\_•)**\
**( (\> Own**\
**/  \\**\
 \
**(•\_•)**\
**\<) )\> Your platform**\
***/  \\***\
 \
I believe, very strongly, that media brands should not lean on
“platforms” they don’t own. Is it easier to scale leveraging platforms?
Yep! But many publications are going overboard, leaving themselves
extremely vulnerable for the whims of the platform. Example?\
 \
Remember when Facebook wanted everyone to shoot live videos? Jk jk jk
now they want brands to shoot “TV-quality” shows. And [some brands have
had it with the
schizophrenia](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-19/media-companies-are-getting-sick-of-facebook?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-shuffle-edition-shopify-for-news).
Though others will inevitably capitulate to whatever Facebook wants,
forever staking their livelihoods on the whims of a notoriously fickle
and secretive company. And I’ll bet that FB pivots away from
“TV-quality” videos to whatever other shiny thing before the year is
out. \
 \
¯\\(ツ)\_/¯ \
 \
***Brand brand brand.***\
 \
When it comes to owning your platform, it looks like WaPo’s newish
women’s publication *The Lily* [isn’t
listening](https://digiday.com/media/washington-posts-millennial-women-focused-spinoff-lily-going-distributed-route/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-shuffle-edition-shopify-for-news).
I fear the worst, but there’s one thing I do appreciate: The Lily knows
that if you’re not going to own your platform, you better have a strong,
recognizable brand. ***THAT*** I can get behind.\
 \
*- I’ve been spending most of the time at my day job worrying and
crafting a new version of the brands I work on. Hopefully more to report
here for next newsletter.*\
\
***Twitter is not real life.***\
\
Latest example:  *Heat Street’*s (RIP) Stephen Miller bought a ticket to
the “all-female” Wonder Woman screening that caused such an internet
dust up. And you’ll never guess what happened… Just kidding. [Nothing
happened](https://web.archive.org/web/20170704143029/https://heatst.com/culture-wars/my-adventures-at-the-segregated-wonder-woman-screening/).
And that’s the point.\
\
Or maybe one can look at the "Free Speech Rally" rally in Boston where
counter protesters [far outnumbered the rally
participants](https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2017/08/19/these-aerial-views-show-the-size-of-the-counter-protest-crowds-in-boston?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-shuffle-edition-shopify-for-news)?\
\
It's always important to remember that whatever your social media circle
is discussing or worried about... you're probably in the minority. And I
have a hunch we're going to continually shocked by elections and other
things until we come to grips with this fact.\
\
***Love for Freddie***\
\
A quick shoutout and
[get-well-soon](https://fredrikdeboer.com/2017/08/20/personal-news/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-shuffle-edition-shopify-for-news)
to Fredrik deBoer, one of the most thoughtful and brave writers out
there. His writing has influenced my thinking tremendously and I hope
he's back at the keyboard some day.\
\
***Rapid-fire round: ***

- **New favorite Twitter feed**: [Naval
  Ravikant](https://twitter.com/naval?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-shuffle-edition-shopify-for-news)
- **Favorite post where all I can say is "just read the damn
  thing": **[This Is How Your Fear and Outrage Are Being Sold for
  Profit](https://medium.com/the-mission/the-enemy-in-our-feeds-e86511488de?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-shuffle-edition-shopify-for-news)
- **[](https://medium.com/the-mission/the-enemy-in-our-feeds-e86511488de?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-shuffle-edition-shopify-for-news)Favorite
  ice cream
  flavor**:*[ ](https://medium.com/the-mission/the-enemy-in-our-feeds-e86511488de?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-shuffle-edition-shopify-for-news)[Peanut
  Buttah Cookie
  Core ](http://www.benjerry.com/flavors/peanut-buttah-cookie-core?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-shuffle-edition-shopify-for-news)*

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***Official newsletter flag (for now)***\
 \
![Flag of Mexico](../images/6bdd2f8db26c.png)\
 \
Mexico. Fun fact: I eat Mexican food for 75% of my meals. Funner fact:
The Mexican flag’s tricolor was in place before the similar Italian
version. Mexico actually predates “older” nations like Italy, Greece,
Germany, and Spain.\
 \
The one difference between the Italian and Mexican flags, of course, is
the coat of arms which depicts an Eagle eating a snake on a cactus in a
lake. If that seems like oddly specific imagery it’s because Mexico City
(neé Tenochtitlan) was founded after settlers saw such an image which
was prophesied by an Aztec legend.\
\
Side note: In researching Aztec traditions and legends are I found The
Tovar Codex, a book written in the 16^(th) century by Mexican Jesuit
Juan de Tovar which contains [amazing
illustrations](https://www.wdl.org/en/item/6749/view/1/1/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-shuffle-edition-shopify-for-news)
worthy of hanging on your wall.\
 \
Dear reader, I’d hang a picture of you on my wall. Thanks for making
space for this in your crowded inbox.\
 \
--Sean