Even a Blind Squirrel.....

Thoughts on “The New Gambit”

Paul Carr, formerly of TechCrunch, has started his own publishing platform named Not Safe For Work Corporation. His inaugural effort called The New Gambit, which he describes as “the Economist as written by the Daily Show,” will be a weekly[?] paid subscription publication that will go straight to tablets of all kinds and skip over that dinosaur internet thing. It’s an interesting, and highly ambitious, concept. But I think something like the Not Safe For Work Corporation will be a success for the following reasons.

It moves in the direction technology is taking us
Tablet technology has changed the way our brains process information. Don’t believe me? Check out this video of a 1-year-old who things a magazine is an iPad that doesn’t work. It’s easy to believe how technology could change the wiring of a 1-year-old, but it’s happening to us adults as well. This technology will become ubiquitous in the future, and Carr’s idea is based on that premise.

People value what they pay for
There’s this pesky human trigger that makes us value what we pay for. When we pay for something we automatically ascribe higher quality and value of that thing. Furthermore, when we buy something, we are more likely to continue to buying it because we don’t want to make ourselves feel like we made a bad purchasing decision the first time. By making his publications paid subscriptions, Carr will be tapping into some pretty powerful human psychological triggers. If you want to learn all about this stuff, buy and study Robert Cialdini’s Influence; the psychology of persuasion.

Humor is sticky
Communication effectiveness is greatly based on stickiness of the message and the style. Humor sticks, snark doesn’t. People remember good humor, they forget snark almost immediately. Carr’s previous employer, TechCrunch, is a great resource. However, there was/is almost always some hint of snark or judgement in their reporting. This gets old. Humor, on the other hand, sticks and keeps people coming back. There’s a great misconception that you can’t be serious about your message while at the same time be funny. I think this is false. Rather, humor can only accentuate good content and make it more palatable and memorable. As long as Carr can maintain the balance between humor and content, I think The New Gambit will be a success.

Finally, it sounds like Carr wants the writers to be part of the attraction. At TechCrunch and even the NYTimes, it sometimes seems to be more about the writers, even though they’re journalism establishments. In fact, for the most part I can read the headline, see who wrote the post, and then derive what is going to be said simply because that’s the style of the site. With The New Gambit, it sounds like they don’t make any illusions that the writers aren’t trying to be part of the story. There’s an honesty to that approach that I think will go over well with readers.

I could be completely wrong in this whole analysis. But I think Carr’s new venture is an exciting twist on what has become a very “vanilla” and predictable journalism scene. I’m excited to see where this all goes.

To finish with a shameless plug: Paul, if you actually read this, I’ll be a free intern for your new venture. I’m a first year MBA, and mi gusto Las Vegas.

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