I’m writing this week’s newsletter from the middle of Mexico City, where I gave a speech at the Sports Innovation Summit last week. I had never been to Mexico, so this was also a great opportunity to spread the word about all the great work my team has been doing, as well as check out a new country.

I also want to let you know a few books I’ve been trying to read – swapping between three different titles right now: Crushing It! by Gary Vaynerchuck, Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari and Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson. I promise to write my hot takes on each of these as I finish them.

And, since last week my students at NYU took their midterm, it’s a good time to resurface this recent blog post I wrote about the digital marketing circle.

Now, on to this week’s reads… oh, and today is my birthday. 😉

Apple acquired Texture earlier this month. Texture is considered the Netflix of magazine subscriptions – pay once, get access to a range of titles. Texture’s content is definitely going to be a value add to Apple News and could perhaps serve as a window into a business model they’d like to get news publishers to buy in to. As much as Facebook and Google have dealt with their fair share of blows from the publishing industry, Apple seems to be gaining favor with publishers.

Speaking of Facebook: The Guardian’s story on the company’s latest data scandal with Cambridge Analytics is… well, scandalous. The type and amount of data they had access to isn’t a big surprise to those who have worked in the digital space. Now the public will be more aware of just how important their personal data has been to Facebook and, evidently, those who tap into the company’s technology.

Google announced they’ll be surfacing news content from publications users pay for content higher in search results. This makes a lot of sense. Users who pull out their wallets to pay for quality content most likely favor that content, so Google will use this to make a better user experience on their end. Win, win.

Almost 10 years ago, I had a connection who offered to get me the first one-on-one interview with Rickey Henderson after he was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame. I pitched the story to a few news websites and Yahoo! Sports bit. Actually, it was Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN’s new President, who bit. That was an amazing story to write (and opportunity) and I kept in touch with Jimmy after that. It’s exciting to see him take on this new role.

How are you doing in your NCAA bracket pool? I was doing so well – still am to some degree – with the one exception that I had Virginia winning it all. For those who don’t know, number-one ranked Virginia got upset in the first round by 16-seed UMBC – first time ever. While we’ll never forget this amazing game, seeing the interest in their social media manager and his witty posts during the content was also a treat.

Benjamin Hardy wrote a blog post for Thrive Global that details 15 steps (in his opinion) to becoming a multi-millionaire. Why I’m sharing this here is because it goes beyond the typical “put money in your 401k” advice. One of his most important pieces of advice is to invest in yourself.

Finally, speaking of surprises — or maybe non-surprises — the BBC reports that plastic particles are found in plastic water bottles.

Rock and Roll.

My last newsletter had an open rate of 44.2% (-1%).

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