Josh Topolsky Rumoured to Be Launching a Media Startup ⇥ recode.net

Noah Kulwin, Recode:

According to sources, Topolsky aims for the new business to be akin to luxury lifestyle brand Monocle, which publishes a magazine 10 times a year and a website as well as producing a radio show and events. The editor wants to build an audience with the wallet and sensibility of old media prestige brands like the New Yorker or Vanity Fair, they say.

Josh Topolsky:

Monocle is a little slow for my taste, just saying

I’m a longtime reader and fan of Monocle and I think that Topolsky is a uniquely interesting figure in the tech and media landscape, so I’m pretty excited for this. For what it’s worth, he owns dickwolves.com, in addition to the more sedate independentmedia.com.

Update: Probably a good time to re-read Topolsky’s post-Bloomberg post:

The reality in media right now is that there is an enormous amount of noise. There are countless outlets (both old and new) vying for your attention, desperate not just to capture some audience, but all the audience. And in doing that, it feels like there’s a tremendous watering down of the quality and uniqueness of what is being made. Everything looks the same, reads the same, and seems to be competing for the same eyeballs. In both execution and content, I find myself increasingly frustrated with the rat race for maximum audience at any expense. It’s cynical and it’s cyclical — which makes for an exhausting and frankly boring experience.

I think people want something better, something more meaningful. Something a lot less noisy.

Well said.

Update, January 14: Topolsky is disputing some of the style and format associations rumoured by Recode:

I have no interest in doing anything like [Monocle] at any point. @recode is way off on that.

And, in reply to the assertion that he “wants to build an audience with the wallet and sensibility of old media prestige brands like the New Yorker or Vanity Fair”:

yeahhhhh not quite

If anything, I’m even more intrigued.