Podcast #32: Clover Newsletter—Turning over a new leaf (or four) with founders Liza Darwin and Casey Lewis
New media on old platforms: This week Paul Ford and Rich Ziade talk to Liza Darwin and Casey Lewis, former teen magazine editors who launched “Clover,” a daily topical newsletter and app for girls ages 13–22, early this year. They discuss their former employers’ struggles adapt to the internet age, the email behavior of today’s teenagers, nostalgia for Google Reader, inadvertently building a community, and sexism in the venture capital world.
Liza: So we basically were just at a bar one night in Brooklyn, discussing our days at work, and basically sort of talking about the state of the internet and how there’s got to be a better way to get this information to teens that is so clearly lacking.
Casey: Because we were hitting them over the head with, you know, these celebrities like Kylie Jenner, and I feel like we always reference Kylie Jenner, it’s sort of unfair to Kylie, but…
Liza: No offense, Kylie.
Casey: But, but —
Paul: I don’t think she’s listening. [laughter]
Rich: She’s not tuned in.
Casey: She has other things to do.
Casey: We launched [our app] three weeks ago and somehow the app store featured us.
Paul: That’s great.
Rich: That’s awesome.
Casey: It was like a fairy godmother put it there, and it helped downloads —
Rich: That’s often how people describe the app store. [laughter] The lord above.
Rich: Have you thought about going back to the big media companies for funding?
Casey and Liza: [dramatic pause]
Casey: So…no.
Liza: Not right now.
Casey: Yes. [laughter]
Rich: Whoa. That was a heavy pause.
Paul: Yeah, that was like a whole indie film, just played out in their eye contact.
Links
- Clover
- Liza Darwin
- Casey Lewis
- Paul actually cares a lot about the Kardashians
- Other newsletters mentioned: theSkimm, Lenny, The Ann Friedman Weekly, DailyCandy
- Clover launches an app
Track Changes is the weekly technology and culture podcast from Postlight, hosted by Paul Ford and Rich Ziade. Coordination, research, and management by Elizabeth Minkel, who also prepared the summary of this episode. Production and editing by Tom Meyers. Podcast logo and design by Matt Quintanilla of Postlight. We record with Paul Ruest and Noriko Okabe at Argot Studios. Listen to more episodes here.
