What is Paul Ryan up to these days? OR What are SPACs?

He is running a special purpose acquisition company (also known as a SPAC) worth 300m, that’s what. But what is that? A company with no product except synergy — that sounds like some nonsense from 30 Rock…

Unfortunately this is the same answer for the question — what is happening at Buzzfeed, why did Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias exited Vox and why it will merge with Vice. Because all media companies with starting with V must merge to be some sort of Voltron?

The truth in the boutique media world is that a SPAC has come to save the day and combine many distinct assets into a larger stronger media company. Content is a weak king, it is that which we bedazzle with advertisements and gate with subscriptions, but is painfully dependent on the advertising duopoly.

The Case for Vertical Integration

When you are operating in an ecosystem of firms there are two major problems: the firms that you depend do what they are going to do and they are busy consuming ecosystem resources. What does that really mean? If there are going to be a bunch of companies, they are all going to need money. If you believe that all the money in the ecosystem is rightfully yours, you might get jealous of the other firms. Why shouldn’t a doughnut maker also own a flour mill?