In an ideal world, we’d be all over these niches ourselves! We’re grateful that our articles are well-received, but we know their format (heavy on text and charts) might deter some people.
Videos are a big one. Kurzgesagt and Vox are the ones that come closest in terms of style and quality. (In my dream world, each article we’d publish would have its own Kurzgesagt-style video.) This niche could comfortably accommodate several players if they’re ready to meet the high production quality threshold needed.
Regarding books, I’m not so sure about a distinct “niche” as such. I think it comes down to the author’s style. Some books (Factfulness is an obvious example, and my colleague Hannah Ritchie’s upcoming book will likely fall into this category, too) are essentially doing this already.
For the “tool” niche, I think Tableau, Datawrapper, and the like have it reasonably well covered. There’s room for more innovation, but the barrier to entry is higher if you want to offer something genuinely creative and competitive.
The biggest niche I can think of would be “news reporting in the style of OWID”. I think there’s a great need for this; something that combines OWID’s editorial style, high standard of research, and reliance on evidence and data, but applied to current events (like the situation in Ukraine or the migrant crisis).
Vox’s reporting style, or what the FT and Economist data teams do, comes somewhat close to this idea. FiveThirtyEight is another comparison, although their focus has primarily been on US politics and sports rather than global issues. (And unfortunately, given recent layoffs there, the future doesn’t look too bright for them.) Still, I believe there’s a niche for a more prominent, more focused player to emerge in this area.
Thanks, Lizka!
In an ideal world, we’d be all over these niches ourselves! We’re grateful that our articles are well-received, but we know their format (heavy on text and charts) might deter some people.
Videos are a big one. Kurzgesagt and Vox are the ones that come closest in terms of style and quality. (In my dream world, each article we’d publish would have its own Kurzgesagt-style video.) This niche could comfortably accommodate several players if they’re ready to meet the high production quality threshold needed.
Regarding books, I’m not so sure about a distinct “niche” as such. I think it comes down to the author’s style. Some books (Factfulness is an obvious example, and my colleague Hannah Ritchie’s upcoming book will likely fall into this category, too) are essentially doing this already.
For the “tool” niche, I think Tableau, Datawrapper, and the like have it reasonably well covered. There’s room for more innovation, but the barrier to entry is higher if you want to offer something genuinely creative and competitive.
The biggest niche I can think of would be “news reporting in the style of OWID”. I think there’s a great need for this; something that combines OWID’s editorial style, high standard of research, and reliance on evidence and data, but applied to current events (like the situation in Ukraine or the migrant crisis).
Vox’s reporting style, or what the FT and Economist data teams do, comes somewhat close to this idea. FiveThirtyEight is another comparison, although their focus has primarily been on US politics and sports rather than global issues. (And unfortunately, given recent layoffs there, the future doesn’t look too bright for them.) Still, I believe there’s a niche for a more prominent, more focused player to emerge in this area.