NewCo Shift Readers –
As regular readers of NewCo Shift, you’ve come to expect an eclectic mix of stories covering the biggest shift in our economy since the Industrial Revolution. In the past two months we’ve been brewing up something new. Starting on Monday we’re experimenting with a fresh idea, and I want to tell you about it, and also seek your input.
We’ll still be writing and curating stories about our core narrative (for a refresher, here’s my post outlining our editorial point of view from back in April). But starting this week, a new section of NewCo Shift will focus on helping you get your job done every day. We’re calling it “Get Shift Done” — GSD for short.
GSD will focus on helping the modern, platform-based workforce. All NewCos are mission driven. However, to execute on that mission, you need to use the modern tools of the platform economy — most of which are “software as a service” tools, SaaS for short. Today’s SaaS tools are super powerful, but they don’t come with a manual. Wouldn’t it be cool, we thought, if there was a place that offered tips, tricks, and advice for the platform economy workforce? Fortunately for us, our launch sponsors Xero and Work Market agree.
So thanks to them both, we’re launching GSD. We’re starting slow — just a few new stories a day — but we’ll be building up from there. We’ll focus on the largest SaaS platforms — Google Apps, Office 365, Slack, Salesforce, etc. — but also expect to read articles on fast-growing new services like WorkFlowy and InVision (we’ve partnered with Siftery, an amazing SaaS data company, to help us grok this landscape).
Initially, GSD will live as a new section of NewCo Shift, acting as its service journalism arm, focusing on where the rubber meets the road in the transition to a platform economy. And that’s where my call for feedback comes in. Since NewCo Shift is on the Medium platform, and we want GSD to be a part of Shift, you’ll see more GSD type stories in your feeds. They’ll be short, to the point, and very focused — but they might not be of general interest to everyone. We’re eager to know if GSD is working for you — or if you would prefer to follow it as a separate publication, free of more traditional Shift stories. We’re hopeful that Medium will make it possible for readers to follow different sections of a particular publication, but for now, it’s all or nothing. Please let us know by leaving a comment here, or by emailing us at editorial@newco.co.
Thanks, and together let’s Get Shift Done!
Best,
John Battelle
EIC, NewCo Shift