The Modern Media Landscape

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Show Notes

(00:02:20) - (First question) - Simons’ history in media and what he thinks is happening right now with new companies compared to previously successful ones

(00:05:20) - A case study for the archetypical 2023 media company 

(00:07:28) - A swing back towards advertising in media companies 

(00:08:59) - Thoughts on Substack and Puck and which model will emerge as the standard

(00:10:49) - What pulled him in the most to make the switch over to Substack 

(00:13:52) - Whether or not he’d stay on Substack if they changed their take rate 

(00:15:22) - Best practices for implementing subscription models

(00:20:34) - Lessons to take away from The Athletic experiment 

(00:22:58) - Whether or not there’s truth to the claim that investigative deep dive journalism is dying out

(00:24:51) - The narrative that every company wants to become a media company 

(00:26:59) - Ways where becoming a media company has worked well like Hubspot 

(00:28:23) - The push and pull between a company and their media arm 

(00:30:04) - Whether or not there will be dedicated mediums for multimedia brands 

(00:32:21) - Thoughts on YouTube shorts winning the short form video wars

(00:33:56) - How important events are for media companies and why they do them

(00:35:24) - Overall audience size and the shift in monetizing with advertising 

(00:39:09) - Different data points that can be collected from various platforms and the role they play in informing delivery writ large 

(00:40:39) - Whether or not the shift back towards email lists is here to stay or cyclical 

(00:43:14) - Cultivating community and where he stands on community building in media 

(00:45:19) - What creators and companies can do to build up their defensibility

(00:46:23) - Axios’ ten thousand dollar subscription product 

(00:49:17) - The one media business that’s likely to have a stronghold on the industry in ten years from now 

(00:51:35) - De-brief