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Amazon famously started as an online bookstore. In the three decades since, it has disrupted how people buy, read, and review books through steps like undercutting local bookstore prices, launching the Kindle, and buying the book-review platform Goodreads. Now, Amazon has announced new job cuts, including at its Kindle and Goodreads teams, Reuters reports. In total, the company is reportedly cutting fewer than 100 jobs across its book division. Since 2022, Amazon has laid off about 27,000 employees as part of a cost-cutting strategy, according to CNBC. The online retailer claims its decision should streamline the impacted departments. As part of our ongoing work to make our teams and programs operate more efficiently, and to better align with our business roadmap, weve made the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of roles within the Books organization, an Amazon spokesperson told Reuters. Criticism over Goodreads stewardship Amazon bought Goodreads in 2013 and has since been accused by the publishing industry of neglecting the book tracker and having only bought it to prevent competition. Goodreads hasnt been all that well maintained, or updated, or kept up with, Jane Friedman, a publishing industry consultant, told The Washington Post in 2023. It does feel like Amazon bought it and then abandoned it. The online retailer also has a review system and launched a Your Books feature in 2023 for customers to track all their digital and print titles and get reading suggestions (another option available on Goodreads). Fast Company has reached out to Amazon for comment on how many jobs were cut at Goodreads and whether the online retailer is reducing its investment in the book review platform. Some individuals also dont use Goodreads because of its connection to Amazon, as noted by CBC last year. There are entire Reddit threads devoted to alternatives with comments like, I am doing everything to avoid Jeff Bezos. Thats a bit easier to do these days as far as trackers go. A number of alternatives to Goodreads have emerged over the years, such as The StoryGraph, Bookly, and BookWyrm.
Category:
E-Commerce
Legend has it that Talking Heads played their first-ever show on June 5, 1975, in New York City, opening for the Ramones at CBGB on the Bowery. Now, 50 years later, stickers, wheatpaste posters, T-shirts, subway buskers, radio takeovers, an airplane banner, and billboards popped up along the Bowery, all with a variation of a single line: “Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa.” The cryptic street campaign is a throwback marketing push to celebrate the anniversary and a first-ever video for the bands hit song Psycho Killer, released this week. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Mike Mills, and starring Saoirse Ronan, the video chronicles the ups, downs, mundanity, absurdity, and joy of an everyday life. In a world in which CBGB is now a John Varvatos store, and the ability to reach millions of eyeballs is a small matter of algorithmic wizardry, simply seeing the Bowery plastered with less-than-obvious Talking Heads marketing is, frankly, refreshing. Modern throwback Created by experiential studio De-Yan, working with Warner Music, the goal of the work was to celebrate the iconic song of a legendary band in a way that felt a bit more 77 than social network. Jason Kreher, De-Yans chief creative officer, says this wasnt a project aimed at marketing innovation, instead the goal is to capture a sense of wonder, fun, and curiosity. The brief from Warner was simple: Build buzz around the Talking Heads as a band for people who might not have heard about them, and for people who may have forgot about them. For younger people, a guerrilla marketing music campaign is as novel to them as the song Psycho Killer by the Talking Heads, says Kreher. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time to delight people. De-Yan is known for creating mesmerizing, technologically-driven live experiences for artists like Alicia Keys and Lady Gaga, as well as brands like Louis Vuitton and La Mer. Here, though, the means were decidedly lo-fi, but the goal remains the same. I don’t imagine this is going to win awards, because it doesn’t have to, says Kreher. The song says fa-fa-fa a lot. I thought that was funny. So we put it everywhere we possibly could until we ran out of money. I don’t know if that’s innovative but it’s the correct thing to do, and I’m really excited about it. There are bootleg T-shirts in a Chinatown shop, neon signs at indie record stores, local radio takeovers (WFAFA, New Yorks only station that only plays Psycho Killer), an aerial banner that just says FAFAFAFAFA, and iconic subway buskers playing the song all day on the F(A) train line. [Photo: courtesy De-Yan] Limits > Limitless Talking Heads fans may be pissed off that this anniversary brings only a new video and this fun campaign, rather than a full-on reunion tour (the band reportedly declined an $80 million offer from Live Nation last year). Here we have an iconic band and a hit song, but what impresses about this work is actually the restraint of keeping its promotion distinctly street level. Or at least as close as you can in 2025 (see: DudeWithSign). Its part of a growing trend among brands looking to create experiences to go along with their algorithm investments. According to a study from agency Archival, 74% of Gen Zs think IRL experiences are more important than digital ones. [Photo: courtesy De-Yan] Stats like that and work like this remind me of a recent edition of James Kirkhams Inked In & Iconic newsletter about the old Nintendo Game & Watch handheld gaming devices from the 1980s. As we hurtle toward Zuckerberg’s ‘infinite creative’ future, where AI spits out endless variations of soulless content, Game & Watch reminds us what you get from limitations, simplicity and constraint, Kirkham wrote. Sometimes the most valuable thing you can offer isn’t more. It’s enough. Maybe that’s what we’re really searching for in our underground raves and our no-phone policies and our limited edition everything: the Game & Watch promise. A finite universe we can master. Boundaries. Limitations that set us free. Virality may be every brands goal, but the process behind it has become so mechanized that words like authentic and organic have seemingly lost all meaning. Kreher appreciates the limitations and constraints of budget, time, and production to craft something different. Experiences are a marketer’s fastest shortcut to meaningfl attention, he says. This was as gritty as I could get so we can make a moment that feels like a very specific time and place.
Category:
E-Commerce
The most powerful man in the world and the richest man in the world finally turned on each other. Yesterday, President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk had a full-scale war of words that seems to have been the final nail in the coffin for their bromance, which had persisted since Musk endorsed Trump for president in the summer of 2024. But it wasnt only their bromance that took a beating yesterday. Teslas stock price (Nasdaq: TSLA) did, too. Shares fell nearly 15% as investors feared that the rift between Trump and Musk could lead to troubles for the electric car maker. How are TSLA shares performing the morning after the dust-up? Heres what you need to know. Trump-Musk feud crashes TSLA stock Yesterday saw the arrival of something that many saw coming from a mile away: the inevitable turn of Donald Trump and Elon Musk against each other. However, few people probably expected the event to unfold as publicly in real-time as it did, with the president and Tesla CEO exchanging accusations, insults, and allegations on the social media platforms that they own, Truth Social and X. The feud spiraled out of Elon Musks increasing vocal opposition in recent days to the president’s proposed One Big Beautiful Bill that would see billions worth of tax cuts go to the richest Americans while adding an estimated $2.4 trillion to the deficit. Yesterday, Musk called the bill a disgusting abomination. Trump then addressed Musks comments with reporters, saying he and Musk had a great relationship and adding, I dont know if we will anymore. From there, things quickly spiraled. While the spectacle provided hours of entertainment and fascination to general audiencesand gave journalists plenty to write aboutTesla investors were probably dying a little inside with each social media volley. Shares in Elon Musks electric car company continued to crash throughout the day as the Trump-Musk feud intensified. By the end of trading yesterday, TSLA shares had fallen 14.26% to $284.70 per sharewiping more than $150 billion from Teslas market capits largest single-day loss in its history. But now it’s the morning afterand both investors and the two men involved in the feud have, hopefully, had time overnight for a breather. Indeed, it seems that at least Tesla investors have, as TSLA shares are moving upward in early-morning trading. TESLA rises in premarket trading As of the time of this writing, TSLA shares are currently trading up about 3.96% to $296 per share in premarket trading. Teslas share price recovery comes after Musk appeared to signal on X that he was open to healing the rift that had emerged between him and Trump, notes Reuters. In a post on X, billionaire investor Bill Ackman wrote that I support @realDonaldTrump and @elonmusk and they should make peace for the benefit of our great country. We are much stronger together than apart. Musk then responded to this post, saying, Youre not wrong. Shortly after, the recovery in Teslas stock price began. However, given that TSLA shares have only regained a fraction of what they lost yesterday, it’s likely that investors are erring more on the side of cautious optimism than absolute certainty that Trump and Musk will make up. Investors are still probably very likely worried about just how bad a continuing feud could be for Musk’s business interests. The president at one point threatened Musk’s companies government contracts. If the president so wished, he could also make life much more difficult for Musks publicly traded company, Tesla, by hindering its upcoming robotaxi rollout through regulations or introducing other measures that would make the car companys business more difficult. TSLA stock has had a horrible 2025 Yesterdays dramatic share price drop in Tesla was nothing less than horrifying for most Tesla investors. The nearly 15% drop was the single worst drop ever in Teslas share price in one day, noted Reuters. At the same time, Teslas shares dropping is something investors are used to this year. While Tesla shares surged to an all-time high in December, after Musk and his donations helped return Trump to the White House, the stock has taken a beating ever since Trump took office in January. Before yesterday, there were two big reasons for TSLA’s 2025 share price trouble: Teslas deteriorating brand image among consumers who found Elon Musks involvement in politics and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) off-putting and President Trumps Liberation Day tariffs, which threatened to raise prices. After yesterday, a third contributing factor to TSLAs price drop in 2025 is now the Trump-Musk feud. Since the beginning of the year, Tesla shares had fallen nearly 30% as of yesterdays close. From a high of over $428 in January, Tesla shares bottomed out in April at below $218. Until yesterday, they had managed to claw back some of that loss, rising to above $360 in late May. Then came yesterdays bromance bust-upand that nearly 15% decline. Where TSLA stock goes from here largely depends on the mood of the two men in the days ahead.
Category:
E-Commerce
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