Perpetual: My Take on theSkimm’s acquisition
Why theSkimm Mattered In 2012, theSkimm launched with a simple yet powerful idea: making news digestible for young millennial women. Founders Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin, both former NBC News producers, struck what seemed like gold almost immediately.Within their first year, they landed a spot on the Today Show. By September 2014, Reese Witherspoon was…
Read MorePerpetual: The Major Shift of Media
The Next Media Shift Is Here Every decade, media goes through a massive shift. What worked before stops working. The best operators see it coming and adapt before it happens. The next shift? It’s already here, and if you’re not preparing, you’re already behind. The Last Big Shift Almost 10 years ago, I met with…
Read MoreNegative Network Effects
Negative & Positive Network Effects There have been two transformative platforms created in the last two decades: TikTok & Facebook. The growth and engagement of both are unprecedented. At its peak, Facebook averaged 58 minutes of usage per user per day. And now, TikTok is averaging 93 minutes of usage per user per day. When…
Read MoreSetting 2024 up for success
Advertising and upfronts In the 1960s, ABC pioneered upfronts. The concept was simple: In the spring, give advertisers a glimpse at the new programming launching the following fall, then give them a chance to secure their ad spots for those programs a few months in advance. The upfront time period is full of parties, celebrity…
Read MoreAdvertising is having a moment
Advertising has caught investor’s attention It’s not big new news that advertising-driven businesses have had really crappy multiples on the public markets over the past few years. Did you know you can buy Buzzfeed today for $60M? Yes, just $60M for a business that does $300M+ in revenue. Buzzfeed’s horrible multiple is a reflection of…
Read MoreThe fragility of commodity-type businesses
There are plenty of stories about SVB, the banking crisis, and what transpired the last 7 days. It’s safe to say that numerous decisions on the financial front caused SVB to come into a liquidity crisis. But that wasn’t their real downfall. Narrative control The success of commodity businesses is primarily dictated by the perception…
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