Purpose, Paywalls, and People: A Week of Backstory & Strategy

Happy Saturday!

The weekend is a perfect time to catch up on reading, reflect on new ideas, and share compelling pieces with friends and colleagues. It’s been a busy week here at Backstory & Strategy, with deep dives into the past and future of media, business culture, and strategic thinking.

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Most excitingly, this week I published the very first tool from the newsletter:

• A Practical Framework for Purpose-Driven Decisions: This is a hands-on guide designed to help you and your teams make choices that align with your core purpose. It's a resource I hope you'll bookmark and return to whenever you face a critical decision.

Here’s a look at the other pieces from this week, in case you missed them:

On the State of News & Media:

• The Original Social Network: How Newspapers Built and Bound Communities: A look back at the foundational role newspapers played in creating a sense of shared community.
• A Blueprint for Local News: What if a community had no local newspaper?: A thought experiment on the essential value of local news and a model for what could come next.
• The Paywall Predicament: Why Americans Won't Pay for News: An exploration of the psychological and economic barriers that prevent people from paying for news, and what it means for the industry.

On Strategy & Culture:

• Forget the Whale: A piece on strategic focus and the hidden dangers of chasing monumental, all-or-nothing goals.
• Culture Fit: The Interview Secret Sauce or a Recipe for Bias?: A critical examination of a common hiring practice and its potential to either build a cohesive team or create a homogenous echo chamber.

Thank you for reading and being part of the Backstory & Strategy community. I hope you have a wonderful weekend with your family.

Best,

Yoni

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