Patrick Whyte

Journalist covering the business of travel and hospitality. Sunderland, Springsteen and Great White Sharks. ZFG.

[Patrick Whyte @PaddyWhyte]

@batcountry1980 @rhartman And it nailed the ending

[Patrick Whyte @PaddyWhyte]

The replies to this post are (mostly) moronic, like they've never heard of B2B media and don't understand audience

[Hiten Samtani 🗞️ @hitsamty]

The team at Colossus is breaking something in magazine journalism in a fascinating way. Let me try to articulate.

Even just a few years ago, if you wanted to read a beautifully written, exhaustively reported and actually interesting piece on someone shaping a corner of the world, you'd have to choose from the handful of journalistic outlets that had the ability to deliver them: on the production side, a stable of seasoned writers & editors who knew how to weave narrative, reportage and literary rigor into an engaging longform story, and on the distribution side a sizable audience that appreciated such work. Think: The New Yorker, Businessweek, NYT Mag, Atavist, Wired, The Atlantic, old Esquire, etc.

The problem: Such outlets will produce a warts-and-all piece, diving deep into parts of a protagonist's journey that she may not want spotlighted. Journalists are pushed to find the "balance" or "tension" in the story, and oftentimes they force it by going negative/hyping up the bad. The subject that gave the outlet access might come to regret that decision. The alternative might be going to a friendly outlet, however, those tend to 1. Not have the skills to produce a sufficiently high-quality piece 2. Are dismissed as unserious by the audiences you're trying to reach – people can smell a puff piece from a mile away (Sequoia's SBF profile is an all-timer of the genre)

So, in sum, your choices as a tech/business mogul used to be: trust a trad outlet with your story and pray they don't come in too hot, or have your message put out with a Pravda type rag and have it be ignored. Both bad options, so many subjects opted to stay on the sidelines and not talk at all.

Along came Colossus: It is NOT a journalistic outlet – their mission is not "truth to power" etc. etc. (Zero judgment btw, just facts – I'm an admirer of what they're building). Their mission IS to create the most compelling archive of business & investing content, for an audience of B&I folks, a cozy audience of heavy-hitters. However, the brilliance of their approach is that their stuff feels like the real thing. Their pieces are often exquisitely crafted, deeply reported, produced with a clear understanding of what makes magazines so special. The punches will be pulled, but the reading pleasure isn't sacrificed. And they've hired real talent for it - EIC Jeremy Stern, whose engrossing new Josh Kushner piece is breaking the Internet today, wrote what I thought was the profile of the year in '24 for Tablet, of Anduril's Palmer Luckey.

Thus Colossus becomes an incredibly compelling place for machers to trust with their stories. Why go to TNY/Atlantic etc. if you can get a similar level of quality w/o the downside reputational risk? This is content marketing, but done so beautifully that the intended audience won't care.

Not a critique of the story, which I read in a single sitting and enjoyed heaps. Just wanted to share some observations of the model and how it's going to box out the trad outlets. Access will be restricted to those whose pens are kind.

[Patrick Whyte @PaddyWhyte]

@ONS @readwise save

[Patrick Whyte @PaddyWhyte]

@AlistairHaimes Have you looked at the accounts?

[Patrick Whyte @PaddyWhyte]

@Mr_Considerate Interested to get you thoughts on this as I've always found the 'new journalism' approach problematic in so many ways (caveat, i've not rad the book in question)

[Patrick Whyte @PaddyWhyte]

@waitbutwhy I mean, I wouldn’t exactly say Trump and co went for option 1 post 2020

[Patrick Whyte @PaddyWhyte]

@JustRowena @jamesrbuk True but I think they’ll care more about stuff getting built/fixed, wages going up, job opportunities etc

[Dylan Difford @Dylan_Difford]

One of the biggest problems in British politics is that increasingly 'doing government is bad politics' because policy simply doesn't interest most political journalists.

[Patrick Whyte @PaddyWhyte]

@kmthurman @rafat @skift Couple of things: opportunities in secondary markets outside Rome, Venice etc and value of owning a hotel in a city where pipeline may be constrained in future by local authorities

[Patrick Whyte @PaddyWhyte]

@brianryoung Hi Brian , I’m not sure how you can equate 100 days of basically nothing (not great but 🤷‍♂️) with mangling the economy in just 55 days?

[Patrick Whyte @PaddyWhyte]

This just makes me want to watch Inside Llewyn Davis again

[Jackson McHenry @McHenryJD]

incredible surprise norbert leo butz moment in here https://t.co/ErVJ8uja1x

[Patrick Whyte @PaddyWhyte]

@TheSnowDreamer Any idea what will happen further north as a result?

[Patrick Whyte @PaddyWhyte]

@mrdavidwhitley It's also my working assumption for why they love Trump and authoritarianism in general so much (along with the usual low tax stuff)

[Patrick Whyte @PaddyWhyte]

@JamesBalliol Given what’s just happened, I really want to read this to see how wrong he was. Is it worth it?

[Patrick Whyte @PaddyWhyte]

@JamesBalliol Can't believe it's not 100% yes tbh

[Patrick Whyte @PaddyWhyte]

Struggling to think of anyone comparable to Jimmy Anderson in terms of elite sporting performance aged 40+. David Ortiz's last season at the Red Sox was pretty impressive, anyone else in recent years?

[Patrick Whyte @PaddyWhyte]

@JamesBalliol Can he wait that long though? Mightn't he fancy hanging around a certain North Yorkshire seat?

[Patrick Whyte @PaddyWhyte]

@_Nationalised @93vintagejones Lol

[Patrick Whyte @PaddyWhyte]

@JamesBalliol Exactly. Just look at how much time is spent with “What The Papers Say” stuff on TV and radio. Print circulation may be in freefall but the BBC, ITV and Sky mostly follow the lobby. Going to be so interesting to see what happens after July 4.

[Patrick Whyte @PaddyWhyte]

This sounds great. But also, The Roots are an amazingly underrated band. Of course Things Fall Apart, but Game Theory and Undun are both excellent