Podcast
The Rebooting Show
Hosted by Brian Morrissey · EN
The Rebooting Show gets into the weeds with those building and operating media businesses, giving an open view into how the smartest people in the media business are building sustainable media businesses. https://www.therebooting.com/ (www.therebooting.com)
44episodes
Episodes
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What publishers get wrong about community
3d ago00:55:48Tap to summarizeDaniel Scharff isn't a media guy. He's a CPG operator who stumbled into community-building almost by accident, looking for people to talk to at trade shows. That accidental start turned into Startup CPG, a Slack-based community that's become a trusted gathering spot for direct-to-consumer operators in packaged goods. We talk through what it actually takes to build a community that people show up for: why "the things that don't scale" are the whole point, why Slack works better than purpose-built community platforms despite not being designed for the job, how to think about trade shows versus owned events, and why proximity to the industry — not content production — is the real unlock for publishers trying to build the same thing. Chapters: 01:29 Intro 08:23 Why CPG Is Exploding 10:39 Forces Driving New Brands 17:17 From Meetups to National Slack 24:13 Signature Series and Events 27:39 Monetization Free Community 32:09 Educational Partner Webinars 38:43 Measuring Reach And Engagement 42:52 Hiring And Team Growth 44:09 Partnerships And Success Ops 49:20 Scale Versus Depth 51:14 Trade Shows 52:35 Why Slack Works
Transcribe →Why AI could speed micropayments
1w ago00:42:47Tap to summarizeAI agents are consuming content at a scale the web was never built for — and they don't watch ads, subscribe, or click. In this episode of TRB Conversations, powered by EX.CO, recorded at Cannes, Brian Morrissey talks with Cosmin Ene, CEO of Supertab, about why the old ads-vs-subscriptions dichotomy breaks down in an agentic world — and why micropayments, an idea publishers have circled for two decades, may finally have found its moment. Cosmin makes the case that grounding — not AI training — is the real emerging monetization opportunity, why bulk licensing deals actually hurt publishers by capping upside and hiding usage data, and why he believes the market for AI-agent content payments will regulate itself the way any two-sided market does. He also walks through how Supertab Connect works in practice: rights declaration, pricing, metering, and settlement — and makes the case that this is publishing's "YouTube moment," circa 2007, not a fast-money play. Topics covered: Why AI agents threaten the ad- and subscription-funded web What "grounding" means and why it's more valuable than training-data settlements Why publishers' old fear of subscription cannibalization doesn't apply to agents The problem with one-off bulk licensing deals (and the information asymmetry they create) How AI-agent price discovery will actually work Why publishers shouldn't expect meaningful revenue for 12–24 months — and what to do now 00:00 Intro — is AI scraping breaking the open web? 04:00 Why ads and subscriptions don't work on AI agents 12:00 What "grounding" means and why it's the real opportunity 16:00 The math problem with suing AI companies for content 25:00 Inside Supertab Connect: rights, pricing, metering, settlement 38:00 Why publishers shouldn't expect fast revenue
Transcribe →Agents won’t replace human trust
1w ago00:52:45Tap to summarizeAt the Bloomberg Studios in Cannes, Bloomberg Media chief commercial officer Christine Cook and HSBC CMO for corporate and institutional banking Nicole German joined me to discuss the current and future shifts as media moves into an agentic era. The conclusion: Lots of change is still to come, but the one thing that won’t change much is that humans will continue to trust other humans rather than handing over important decisions to robots. Topics we discuss: Agents as the next algorithm, not a new paradigm: Christine argues agentic AI is best understood as an evolution of the same discoverability dynamics that reshaped Twitter, Meta and LinkedIn over the past decade. She contends that whoever builds and programs an agent will bake in an angle or motivation, meaning marketers should expect the same unpredictable shifts they've already lived through with platform algorithms. The barbell between digital hype and live connection: Christine makes the case that the industry's energy is badly out of balance, with far too much attention on agentic AI and not enough on why executives still fly across the world to sit at a table together. She points to the disconnect at Cannes itself, where billboards promise a fully automated future while attendees pack parties and roundtables in search of in-person contact. Why high-stakes B2B deals still require humans in the room: Nicole draws a firm line for HSBC, stating the bank has no plans to let agents make decisions without human intervention on large, multi-jurisdictional transactions. She frames AI as an input into the process, useful for surfacing insights, but not a substitute for the trust built when a team of humans is physically present with a client. The disorienting new mechanics of agent-based discoverability: Nicole describes HSBC's early efforts to optimize for GEO and AEO as "a bit of Whac-A-Mole," requiring the bank to rebuild its websites for technical findability and even write an internal playbook for making RFPs discoverable inside clients' proprietary agents. It's a sign that even sophisticated B2B marketers are still reverse-engineering rules for a fundamentally different kind of search. AI's dividend is time, not fewer people: Both guests push back on predictions of marketing job losses, arguing instead that efficiency gains free up capacity for deeper client work and creative judgment. Christine notes that marketing organizations have historically operated lean already, while Nicole frames the goal as more time spent on the craft of marketing rather than simply producing more output. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:27 Beehiiv Spot 02:49 Welcome 03:13 Agentic AI Hype Check 05:28 Bloomberg AI From Bottom Up 07:36 HSBC Clients and AI Search 10:39 Marketing to Agents Soon 13:09 AEO and Algorithm Evolution 21:30 Experiential Marketing and Trust 28:16 Curated Rooms Build Integrity 30:19 In House vs Partner Media 34:08 Brands Becoming Media 36:42 Direct to Audience Strategy 38:36 Creators in Regulated Finance 44:54 AI Inside Marketing Teams 49:13 AI Inside Bloomberg Operations
Transcribe →TRB Live in Cannes: Publishers' Google problem
2w ago00:38:12Tap to summarizePeople Inc CEO Neil Vogel explains his beef with Google and how publishing now requires running multiple playbooks customized for each brand. Axios chief media correspondent Sara Fischer says an AI marketplace can only emerge if Google participates. Chapters: 00:00 Beehiiv Spot 01:14 Intro 04:36 Welcome 05:26 Cannes Takeaways 07:34 Google Traffic Breakup 11:53 Premium Barbell Strategy 15:46 AI Deals And Regulation 18:47 Marketplace Needs Google 25:55 Agents And Trust Markets 27:44 Humans Still Choose 33:34 Journalism In New Mediums
Transcribe →Esses' Ojus Jain on building an F1 culture brand
3w ago00:55:58Tap to summarizeEsses is betting a high-end print magazine will help establish brand credibility an email list alone cannot. Founder Ojus Jain is building a model that uses that credibility and editorial distribution to power brand activations around the crowded F1 race calendar. Chapters: 00:00 Beehiiv Spot 01:29 Welcome 02:43 Why Esses? 05:04 Affluent F1 Audience 06:15 F1 Goes Global 11:53 Why Print Matters 15:18 Events As Growth Engine 17:45 Distribution And Partnerships 21:54 Tentpole Activations Strategy 28:38 Events Versus Editorial 31:19 Journalism Role 34:26 Subscriptions As Membership 38:22 Who Advertises In F1 42:37 Media Brand Inspirations 44:08 KPIs Investors Watch 45:28 Funding And Profitability 47:54 Event Margins Reality 50:45 Next Year Priorities
Transcribe →KRCW's Jennifer Ferro on building a community model
4w ago00:49:15Tap to summarizeKCRW is a local institution in Los Angeles, home to Morning Becomes Eclectic, the long-running music-discovery program. The public radio station is using its standing to lean into a community model that includes 100 events per year, such as a pie baking contest that drew 400 bakers and 10,000 attendees and a summer series of 18 free, all-ages events at cultural centers across Southern California. Its membership program has 55,000 paying members. "We use media to cultivate this community,” Jennifer Ferro, president of KCRW, told me on The Rebooting Show. “ We don't build a community in order to make media." Chapters: 00:00 Beehiiv Spot 01:29 Welcome 01:34 KCRW Origin Story 04:35 Why Radio Matters 09:44 Public Media Funding 13:59 Rage Giving 20:41 Events As Community 23:10 Brand Beyond Radio 24:28 Newsletters And Channels 28:07 Audience Channel Pie 30:46 Email Conversion Power 31:50 Voluntary Giving 34:46 Modern Pledge Drives 36:59 Voluntary Model Beyond NPR 40:08 Why Audio Feels Intimate 42:33 Future Of Public Media 45:36 Gen Z And Human Trust
Transcribe →News as a feature
Jun 1600:41:14Tap to summarizeThe Reuters Institute's new digital news report lays bare the challenges facing journalism as people increasingly stop seeking out news products. Instead, news is a feature of other products. Jim Egan, one of the report's authors, joins me to discuss the implications. Chapters: 00:00 Beehiiv Spot 01:29 Welcome 02:00 The Digital News Report 02:55 News Becomes a Feature 06:59 Video Wins Offsite 08:14 Paying for News Ceiling 12:43 News Avoidance Rising 15:52 AI Chatbots for News 17:50 Rise of News Creators 20:54 Focus on News Lovers 23:00 Trust and Its Limits 29:44 Platform Strategy Reality 34:50 Other Report Signals 37:28 Global Video Markets
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Dynamo's Nicholas Carlson on finding content-market fit
Jun 901:03:20Tap to summarizeA year after its launch, Dynamo’s Nich Carlson joined me to discuss what he’s learned in starting a YouTube-first video programmer. Dynamo is home to “Business Explains the World,” a documentary-style show on interesting business and economics topics. We’d spoken soon after Dynamo’s launch, so I had Nich back to reflect on Year 1. Nich was candid about the difficulties inherent to running a fledgling business. The thread I see in the new crop of media startups like Dynamo is, even if they raise small amounts like Dynamo, they focus primarily on getting content-market fit. There's leverage in having makers, not monetizers or strategists, running the business. Instagram is critical. When Dynamo launched, Nich thought LinkedIn would be a natural complement to YouTube. Only he’s not found that. Instead, Instagram is a critical channel, particularly in reaching a female-skewed audience. Plus: Instagram’s ad ecosystem is strong. Getting your hands dirty. Nich ran a large newsroom at Business Insider. That’s a lot of management and meetings. With Dynamo, Nich’s original conception of being more of an executive producer guiding the process became being very involved in making the product. Creators are the comp. Dynamo is looking to build a media company that’s creator-native. He looks at what YouTubers like Jonny Harris and Cleo Abram are doing rather than established media companies. Accept uncertainty. Running a company is a nonstop stream of decisions, small and big. On the small, Nich focuses on speed over certainty, and even on large decisions, he’s accepted he’ll rarely be more than 60% sure. Waiting for certainty usually means waiting forever. Lean by default. Rather than 700 people like BI at its peak, Dynamo is 1/100th the size. That means everyone needs to be a doer and the focus is on improving the work rather than coordination. Chapters: 00:00 Beehiiv Spotlight 01:29 Welcome 02:08 Lessons From the Scale Era 08:02 Where Media Energy Is Now 09:34 Are Journalistic Creators Legit 13:17 Platform Bets 14:48 Why Instagram Is Winning 17:21 Monetization and Outsourced Sales 20:50 What Works on YouTube 23:11 Short Form and Clipping Strategy 25:54 Well-made Objects 28:10 Unit Economics and Profitability Goals 33:07 Doubling Down on Series 34:15 Selling Host Read Ads 37:04 Creative Edge in Ads 38:14 Founder Lessons and Decisions 41:16 Year Two Big Bets 45:06 Back in the Kitchen 48:23 Scaling Beyond the Founder 52:29 Cinematic Universe Strategy 55:18 Staying Lean as You Grow 59:13 Creators With Momentum
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The new social with Rachel Karten
Jun 200:42:30Tap to summarizeTikTok broke social media's original contract — grow followers, followers see content — and replaced it with algorithmic sorting that rewards entertaining strangers over satisfying your loyal audience. Link in Bio's Rachel Karten joins The Rebooting Show to discuss what comes next for brands, social media managers, and the practitioners building media businesses around specific professional communities. Chapters: 00:00 Beehiiv Spot 01:40 Conversation with Rachel 02:36 Starting in Social Media 04:42 Post Social Media Era 07:52 Middle Lane Disappears 08:42 Brands As Programmers 10:10 Duolingo Hook Strategy 13:40 Entertainment Vs Community 16:58 Social Role Evolves 20:01 Tech Marketing Reality Check 23:44 Clipping And Flooding 26:08 Why Link In Bio 32:23 Monetization And Community 33:59 Consulting Flywheel 36:31 Events And Scaling Up
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The Dow Jones recipe for growth
May 2600:53:28Tap to summarizeIn the wreckage of the scale era, The Wall Street Journal is one of the winners. It has 4.5 million paid subscriptions and the broader Dow Jones portfolio has 6.3 million with a foothold in B2B data assets like OPIS and Risk & Compliance. The Journal has more pep under the editorial leadership of Emma Tucker. Scott Havens, a veteran of leadership positions at Bloomberg Media, The Atlantic, Time, joined at the start of the year as the chief growth officer of Dow Jones and global head of consumer. Scott joined me on The Rebooting Show to discuss where those growth opportunities lie. "Since I left business school and got into digital in the late 90s, it was always about building something new,” Scott tole me. “ The pathway for media growth usually is launching new things. You can always optimize your current stuff, but I've seen success from putting new things into the market, exploring new areas for audiences and for sponsors." Chapters: 00:00 Beehiiv Spot 01:21 Intro 04:02 Conversation with Scott 04:22 Growth Remit 06:52 Breaking Down Dow Jones 10:06 Niche Expansion Strategy 12:14 Sports as Asset Class 16:19 Picking New Verticals 20:12 Creators and Talent Labs 25:32 New Creator Business Models 27:09 Video Strategy Across Platforms 32:38 International Growth Strategy 38:56 Events As Growth Engine 46:21 Next Phase Subscription Growth
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