The media news site Mediaite is starting a media newsletter that aggregates media news from other media newsletters.
Try saying that three times fast.
One Sheet, an email newsletter that debuted on Wednesday, is an attempt to compile in one place the juiciest scoops, gossip and analysis from the dozens of newsletters, Substacks, and websites that have emerged in recent years to cover the news about the news.
“There is definitely a level of meta here,” Mediaite’s founder, Dan Abrams, said in an interview. “We are well aware of the circular nature of this endeavor.”
Indeed, even by the navel-gazing standards of media reporting — a subgenre of journalism that, unsurprisingly, is keenly followed by other journalists — this is snake-eating-its-own-tail stuff. Call it a media ouroboros.
A recent sample letter included tidbits culled from subscription-only newsletters like Puck and Status; popular Substack writers like Emily Sundberg; conservative sites including NewsBusters; and old-line generators of media news like Page Six and the Columbia Journalism Review.
The target audience is media insiders from East Hampton to Beverly Hills who find it difficult to keep up with the newsletters that increasingly clutter their inboxes.
“We are overwhelmed,” said Mr. Abrams, who besides overseeing Mediaite also has various gigs as a TV and radio host, and owns websites dedicated to true crime and alcoholic beverages.
Several media reporters, like Lachlan Cartwright of Breaker Media and Oliver Darcy of Status, have recently started independent sites that rely on reader payments to survive. Many of the Substack writers cited by One Sheet also charge for access to their work. Will One Sheet starve these journalists of revenue?
“We’re not trying to take away newsletter business, we’re trying to highlight the ones that are most interesting,” Mr. Abrams said, noting that he hoped readers would be exposed to sources they may otherwise not know about.
Still, he added, “It would be pretty rich if people whose newsletters are aggregations of other people’s content started complaining about their content being aggregated.”
One Sheet, written by the Mediaite reporter Colby Hall, is expected to be published on weekdays at 11 a.m. A subscription costs $8 a month or $80 a year.
Michael M. Grynbaum writes about the intersection of media, politics and culture. He has been a media correspondent at The Times since 2016.
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