At a subscriber’s request, here’s a cheat sheet with ten cloud targets based in Boston. Three of the ten, predictably, work at TechTarget. It’s a sign of the times that no IDG/Foundry names show up on the list.
Lots of people cover cloud these days but who’s at the core of it? This SWMS cheat sheet offers 17 targets across Tier 1, trades and verticals. The challenge was not to omit obvious go-to’s, but still come up with targets you may not have considered.
Forbes this week began accepting applications for this year’s Cloud 100 List as well as the accompanying Cloud 100 Rising Stars list, which focuses on private cloud startups with less than $25 million in funding.
When editorial layoffs come around, the topic of Substack comes up soon after. “How many reporters will wind up there?” our subscribers often ask.
Now in its second month, new cloud publication Silverlinings has established itself. Should you approach? Let’s first address the mission.
This list of two dozen targets is a roll-up of cloud targets you already know — and perhaps a few you don’t — as well as Google/Alphabet beat reporters in Tier 1. Hope you find it helpful.
YOUR ACCOUNT
FRIDGE NOTES
This is majorly tl;dr, but recent research from FT Strategies and Reuters empirically uncovers every trend there is, when it comes to the health of the media business. In short, “the media” is barely breakeven, here and around the world. AI search may prove devastating.
The WSJ this week launched CEO Brief, a newsletter designed to inform readers, and to attract new members to the WSJ Leadership Institute. This organization is already a Dow Jones profit center, and a great example of how Tier 1 can lessen dependence on advertising. Former Fortune CEO Alan Murray runs the institute and is the nominal editor of CEO Brief — and promises to read every bit of reader mail — though he has delegated the writing of the newsletter to subordinates in the early going.
Fast Company’s Lydia Dishman has joined (SWMS subscriber) Method Communications as VP of content strategy. Lydia joins an already strong content team, which includes former NY Times reporter Tim Race and B2B tech edit vet John Foley.
“I’m leaving to build something new,” Alex posted on X today. He spent 12 years at Forbes as a reporter and a builder of databases and lists. It’s time he gets to keep the money.
Axios reported on Jan. 24 that private equity firm Blackstone will sell IDG/Foundry, publishers of InfoWorld, Computerworld and Network World (and owners of IDC) to another private equity firm called Regent, which bought streaming video channel Cheddar in 2023. Remains to be seen how the ownership change will affect IDG’s venerable IT titles, but it’s unlikely their budgets will go up.
Unionized writers have secured new protections governing the use of generative AI in member newsrooms, reports the Hollywood Reporter. The union — Writers Guild of America, East — represents Fast Company, Wired and many other prominent titles. The union won agreement that publications “will not lay off current staff employees due to the use of generative AI,” and also that “advance notice [must be given] if the company plans to make the use of generative AI systems a requirement of [editors’] jobs.”
