Backchannel

[Learned lots this week in meetings with editors and subscribers. Here are this week's notes from the field. Hope you enjoy. Please let us know if you like this format and how we can make it better.] 

First, the newsy stuff. Business Insider is close to launching a consumer tech publication that will offer news, reviews and analysis with the 'tude we have come to expect from BI.

Clickbait and native advertising may be remembered as 2014's big themes, but a third one -- the emergence of "agenda setter" publications -- will affect PR the most. The latest agenda setter is Backchannel, the "lithe, nimble center for meaningful, fun tech writing" launched this week and edited by former Wired and Newsweek scribe Steven Levy.