Welcome to new subscribers. One way to support The Rebooting is by sharing it with colleagues and friends you think would find it valuable. I still view The Rebooting Show, as well as the overall project, as a work in progress, so please let me know guests you’d like to hear and topics covered. My email is [email protected] – or just hit reply to the email. Niche publishing brands are most powerful at intersections. For Cherie Hu, the founder of Water & Music , the intersection is music x...
Apr 04, 2022•39 min•Ep. 21
On this week’s episode of The Rebooting Show, I spoke to Skift CEO Rafat Ali. What I like about Skift is it goes narrow and deep on the business of travel while situating it within the broader context of the global economy and societal trends. Covid was a reminder that external events are out of your control and the best you can do is adapt to them. Nobody likes the painful decisions you have to make to ensure simple survival. Skift ended up cutting a third of its staff and saw revenue decline 4...
Mar 28, 2022•33 min•Ep. 20
Something about the podcast highlights format wasn’t working for me, so I’m switching up the Monday version to feature highlights from the podcast as well as some thoughts on other matters in sustainable publishing. After all, formats matter. Let me know what you think. This week’s topics: Going down the rabbit hole with TCG’s Jarrod Dicker Censorship fights Individual brands in publishing Well-paid journalists Company teardown pieces The pivot to pragmatism, web3 edition Crypto is polarizing. T...
Mar 21, 2022•41 min•Ep. 19
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify If you use Apple, please leave a rating and review. Every cycle of unbundling is followed by another period of rebundling. Media is no different – just look at the streaming market. In publishing, the shift of power from institutional brands to individual brands has unfolded over the past few years, and now a period of rebundling will begin. Puck is a seven-month-old media brand built with the institutional-individual brand continuum firmly in mind. The pu...
Mar 14, 2022•34 min•Ep. 18
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify If you use Apple, please leave a rating and review. Journalists in their 40s are under no illusions to the need for sustainable business models in news publishing. Being suddenly laid off is a rite of passage. “Those of us who started in journalism in the late ‘90s, early 2000s, very early on we were awakened to the challenges of the business models,” said David Skok, founder and CEO of The Logic , a four-year-old publisher focused on the growth of the kno...
Mar 07, 2022•31 min•Ep. 17
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Like just about everyone, I’m both horrified by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and in awe of the resistance of the Ukrainian people. Ukraine is an inspiration to the rest of the world. In places like the United States, we fail to appreciate the staggering advantages we have just by dint of where and when we were born. In September, I visited Ukraine to speak at a conference to build sustainable, independent journalism in the region. This is a hard task in...
Feb 28, 2022•42 min•Ep. 16
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Over just five years, crypto has exploded from a curiosity to a cultural touchstone, with millions of boosters, Super Bowl commercials and billions of investment in the belief that a new financial system, built for the digital age, is being created. And along the way crypto has become highly divisive. Its most ardent supporters are hardly known for their understatement, giving crypto the whiffs of both libertarianism run amok and a speculative frenzy that’...
Feb 21, 2022•40 min•Ep. 15
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Apple users: Please l eave a rating and review . When it comes to business models, software models beat publishing ones. Recurring revenue scales more quickly and at far better margins. For a decade, Famous Birthdays has chronicled the rise of digital culture through its platform for finding out more information about the digital stars from TikTok and YouTube, as well as more traditional pop stars. Famous Birthdays has relied heavily on its internal search...
Feb 14, 2022•37 min•Ep. 14
Welcome to this week’s edition of The Rebooting Show. This week’s episode is a sponsored Spotlight episode, where I feature a conversation with a sponsor of The Rebooting in order to get a better understanding of their approach to solving a challenge of building sustainable media businesses. The way these work is I agree on a general topic with the sponsor – how data plays an important role in building sustainable media businesses, in this case – and then the episodes are like any other. My goal...
Feb 07, 2022•40 min•Ep. 13
This week I’m continuing a run of discussions with people operating the publications that sit at the nexus of power and politics. Punchbowl has had a successful launch as one of the new crop of publishers. Check out the episode, and if you’re not already, please subscribe on Apple or Spotify. Also, please leave a rating and review if you use Apple . Washington D.C. has long been a company town, only the company in question is the sprawling federal government, its various apparatuses – and those ...
Jan 31, 2022•38 min•Ep. 12
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify The roaring 20s of publishing has begun with several new brands launching, each with their own twist on dealing with the challenges of audience growth and sustainable business models. What’s notable is most publications are not promising to build massive audiences. Instead, most are focused on high-value audiences that lend themselves to high-priced ads and subscriptions . Grid is one of this crop of newcomers. Laura McGann, a Vox.com editorial director wh...
Jan 24, 2022•33 min•Ep. 11
Thanks to everyone who has sent notes and left reviews for the podcast on Apple Podcasts . Thanks to Jrdoog, who called the podcast “essential for anyone working in the media industry.” Note for future guests: Jrdoog wants me to keep badgering you for numbers. Be forewarned. This week’s episode with Protocol president Bennett Richardson is brought to you by Audigent. Publishers often struggle to know which partners bring incremental value. And the complexity of programmatic advertising has only ...
Jan 17, 2022•39 min•Ep. 10
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify I’m continuing my look-ahead series of podcast episodes to kick off 2022. Last week, Sara Fischer, media reporter for Axios, laid out her big themes for the year . This week, I spoke to Troy Young, the former president of Hearst Magazines, who over the years I’ve found to be very thoughtful about how the media business is changing. Reminder: If you like the podcast, please share it with others who might also find it valuable – and leave a rating and review...
Jan 10, 2022•54 min•Ep. 9
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Hope everyone’s 2022 is off to a good start. I’m kicking off a new mini-season of episodes this month that will focus on what to expect this year in digital media. To start, I spoke with Axios media reporter Sara Fischer, who has chronicled the industry for the past five years with the Axios Media Trends weekly newsletter. As a reminder, please leave a rating and review of The Rebooting Show on Apple Podcasts . The key to sustainable media business models ...
Jan 03, 2022•41 min•Ep. 8
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Happy holidays. I’m wrapping up the year with a final podcast and then, on Wednesday, I’ll send out the second annual Rebooting Awards. In the meantime, my final podcast of the year is with Rishad Tobaccowala, a longtime advertising executive who is now also publishing his own newsletter, The Future Does Not Fit In The Containers Of The Past . If you enjoy The Rebooting Show, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts – or share it with others. But...
Dec 27, 2021•47 min•Ep. 7
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify What a strange end to the year, with Omicron the march, inflation jitters and more unknowns than seemingly ever before. But there’s not the same amount of panic and anxiety as the spring 2020 — positive Covid tests seem to be the new social media flex. Nearly two years into this pandemic era, we’ve grown resilient, whether we dwell on it or not. We have so many more tools and knowledge now than when this all started, and we are also just better equipped ou...
Dec 20, 2021•40 min•Ep. 6
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify This week, I’m wrapping up the first mini-season of The Rebooting Show. This season was dedicated to modern B2B businesses. If you haven’t already, please check out the first four episodes of the season: Adam White of Front Office Sports discussed the advantages of bootstrapping . Julia Noran Johnston of Business of Home shared how she found an underserved niche in interior designers . Angus Macaulay of Stat explained its Politico-like model for life scien...
Dec 13, 2021•29 min•Ep. 5
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify This week’s episode of The Rebooting Show features a conversation I had with one of my favorite media success stories: Industry Dive, a collection of vertical industry sites. Sean and his team have grown Industry Dive into an example of a sturdy media business, on pace to break the $100 million in revenue mark next year with healthy margins. One request: If you listen to The Rebooting Show on Apple Podcasts, please leave a rating and review. Thanks to Alfr...
Dec 06, 2021•55 min•Ep. 4
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify For episode 3 of The Rebooting Show’s mini-season focused on modern B2B media, I spoke to Angus Macaulay, COO of Stat , the health-focused site that’s one of my favorite niche media brands. Please send me an email with any feedback. Also, please rate and review the podcast. Thanks to Niceguyappreviewer, who said The Rebooting Show is “such a valuable podcast for media entrepreneurs,” noting the “insightful, actionable and relevant information.” Thank you, ...
Nov 29, 2021•47 min•Ep. 3
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Thanks for the notes following the debut of The Rebooting Show. You can subscribe now on both Apple and Spotify. We’re working hard to improve the audio quality, and I’m going to make sure the episodes get shorter. I’m always interested to hear your feedback. My email is [email protected] . One request: If you like the podcast, please rate it and leave a review. This week’s episode features Julia Noran Johnston, founder and president of the Business of ...
Nov 22, 2021•46 min•Ep. 2
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts — more platforms coming soon. After a year break from podcasting, I’ve finally started anew with The Rebooting Show, a weekly audio and video discussion that goes into the details of building sustainable media businesses with those building them. (The video is still in the works, and it will take a bit of time before the podcast feed is available on Apple and Spotify. Apologies.) The goal for the show is to focus on the mechanics and execution since I believe too much...
Nov 15, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 1
