ClassPass fans are freaking out
The Story
This week, popular fitness startup
, jacked up its membership price in New York City from $125/month to $190/month.
Why should you care?
If you’re a loyal ClassPass-goer, it’s now more expensive to use this service than some Equinox gym memberships. Of course, that's not really a fair comparison. ClassPass lets you attend classes at gyms and studios all over the city to mix up your workout versus remain tied to one gym. The $190/month price plan is for unlimited classes — current users can get 10 classes per month for $125 (for new users it’s $135) or five classes per month for $75. [Vanity Fair]
Virtual Reality won Tribeca Film Festival
The Story
Virtual Reality made a huge splash at the Tribeca Film Festival, which has everyone in Hollywood thinking about the medium as a potential customer draw.
Why this is huge
The entertainment industry is poised to change as a result of virtual reality — drastically. The Tribeca Film Festival’s Virtual Arcade previewed the opportunities that virtual reality presents as an outlet for directors and producers to create new worlds that audiences will experience first-hand. [Huffington Post]
About.com launches a health brand
The Story
This week, New York-based About.com launched Verywell, a site for health information.
A little background
About.com has been working on rebuilding its own technology in order to provide helpful content on a very wide array of topics. Verywell will launch with more than 50,000 pieces of content ranging from common medical conditions to general health tips. [TechCrunch]
Arianna Huffington’s latest venture? Uber
The Story
On Wednesday Uber announced that The Huffington Post’s Editor-in-Chief, Arianna Huffington, will be joining Uber’s board of directors.
Is this partnership ethical?
Huffington’s new role raised some concerns about her site’s editorial independence. According to media ethics experts, the publication will have to take precautions to keep readers’ trust. However, Huffington also announced that she was recusing herself from The Huffington Post’s news coverage of Uber. [The Washington Post]
NYC's fundings of the week
, $12 million
Investors: The round comes from previous backers including PLC Ventures, Peter Gammell, Sam Mostyn and Lachlan Murdoch, as well as new investors Radek Sali (CEO of Swisse Wellness) and Greg Roebuck (CEO of carsales.com.au).
Unlockd is an ad startup that helps you get discounts on your phone bill. With Unlockd, a cellphone company can provide the lower prices that consumers are looking for, then pay for the discount through ad revenue. With the new funding, the company is looking to expand to the United Kingdom and then to Asia. Unlockd has now raised more than $17 million in total. [TechCrunch]
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