Q&A: Daily Pnut’s Tewfik Cassis on News, Satire and Entrepreneurship in the Digital Age

By Aprille Muscara On Sep 4, 2015

These days, most of us get our news from social media — although, it can get distracting to filter through the memes and cat posts. While, sadly, the golden age of newspapers has been overtaken by the overwhelming digital tide, our media consumption habits are largely similar to those of older generations. This is something the Daily Pnut, a daily digest of the world’s top headlines, gets. It also understands the satirical sensibilities of the Jon Stewart/Bassem Youssef generation.

We caught up with Editor in Chief Tewfik Cassis to tell us more about the Daily Pnut and launching a media startup in such a volatile time in the industry.

Why media?

I kind of stumbled into it by accident. I always had a passion for trying to figure out how the world works and I am probably too unstructured/rebellious to work in a large bureaucratic organisation.

I also think there is opportunity in media. The industry is reeling from wave after wave of disruption, which is exciting for someone who wants to take on that risk (like myself).

Why the sarcastic/satirical tone?

‘Cause we are quite sarcastic in general (as most of our friends will attest to).

We find that that makes people enjoy reading the news and remember it better. You see people like John Oliver having a real effect in the world and it mainly has to do with the fact that he is using humor to unpackage those issues. It’s more fun to write.

Like many, I associate e-mail newsletters, in general, with junk mail (sorry), so why a daily newsletter?

We actually got a lot of demand for a daily newsletter. I was very surprised as we were initially working on a much more serious website and a lot of people wanted whatever we wrote online to be in their inbox every day (or week).

I think it has to do with the fact that people develop certain habits and routines which are in a way similar to their parents (e.g. the morning is the best time to read the news). Once you can be part of their routine they stop viewing you as junk or a nuisance and start relying on you.

Who is your target audience?

Students and young professionals who care about the world and don’t have time to read the news.

On what basis do you choose the stories?

We go through about 2-3 rundowns on stories a day. We look at what’s trending, what’s important and what we have an edge in covering. We see how those stories evolve over the day and make bets on whether a story will continue being important or relevant.

The four of us on the team all have different backgrounds so that helps balance out the type of stories we cover. We also track big stories we miss to see if we have a systematic bias in what we are covering and then we try and correct for it.

How do you feel about being a gatekeeper, deciding which events/places/people/trends/posts are more important than others?

It’s quite scary actually. At most we can cover 11 stories a day with varying degrees of importance. Thousands of people read our stuff and for many we are becoming their primary source. So it is very important that we take that responsibility very seriously.

Do you believe in “objectivity” in journalism?

Yes and no (super unhelpful answer I know).

I think it’s very difficult to detach yourself and your opinions from what you are writing but there are ways for you to counter for that. We try to seek out different sources (some are more biased than others), avoid opinion pieces and stick to the facts when it’s a topic you care about. However, even nuanced differences in word choice can show bias in your writing. So the reality is, you can and should try to be objective, but it is almost impossible to be 100% objective.

What’s your five-year plan for Daily Pnut? Ten years? End goal?

I can see the Pnut becoming a full-blown media company with the daily newsletter as its backbone. I would love to have Pnuts in different parts of the world (Le Pnut, El Pnuto, الفول السوداني etc etc) and start producing our own high quality reporting and multi-media.

That’s the vision, but for now we want to focus on being the best newsletter that’s out there and putting it in as many people’s inbox as we can.

How do you know Noam Chomsky and did he really say that about the Daily Pnut?

Haha yes, he really did say that the Pnut was “informative and witty, a clever take on the day’s events.”

He is a Professor at MIT where I went for undergrad and I was fortunate enough to meet him a few times. When I saw that he was subscribed to the Pnut I shot him an e-mail asking him what he thought and he was nice enough to respond!

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned in your entrepreneurial journey so far?

You always learn more by having a product in the market than an idea in your head. I think this is pretty standard advice now, but we have evolved so much from where we started to where we are today and I think it all happened when we decided to launch in under two weeks and continue iterating until we landed on something.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I don’t really know, I guess I always wanted to be important. I remember my mom watching Pretty Woman when it first came out and I really like Richard Gere’s character. Flying about, wearing a suit, being all important and stuff and I thought to myself I would like to do something like that when I grow up.

Although, I think I was too young to understand Julia Roberts’ role and the rest of the plot of that movie but I understand now that it is probably not a movie a 4/5 year old should have been watching.

WE SAID THIS: Don’t miss Q&A: Ahmed Shihab-Eldin on Media, Democracy and Social Change in the Middle East.