Daily Bafflements

• The Reports Are In: “With four out of five pet owners considering their pet a member of the family and 79% saying the quality of their pet’s food is as important as their own, it’s not surprising that the premium sector accounted for 40% of the $26 billion U.S. pet food market in 2013; superpremium accounted for 10%,” according to an Institute of Food Technologies report on gourmet food industry growth. “Adding excitement to a pet’s diet via flavors, gravies, look-a-like human recipes, daypart foods (e.g., breakfast food/eggs or appetizers) was a top driver of the best-selling new pet foods in 2013…. Energy bars are among the new pet treats; pet beverages remain an enormous untapped opportunity.”
• “Close the Libraries and Give Everyone an Amazon Kindle Unlimited Subscription,” helpfully suggests this Forbes columnist. Get worse!
• Digiday goes “Inside “The Atlantic’s Events Juggernaut”—it begins with the inventor of the cronut, and goes swiftly downhill from there. (Read more about The Atlantic here.)
• You know what? Just don’t even follow this link to a New York magazine piece entitled “My Summer As a Professional Pretty Girl in the Hamptons.” It is what it says it is.