Hello. Today, we’re announcing TRB Audience Summit. I hope you’ll come spend the day with me and 200 people building the next generation of media businesses on Sept 17 in NYC.
Couple other things to know:
On Tuesday, July 28, we are partnering with Affinity Global on the latest edition of Affinity Conversations. We have a great group of publisher commerce executives coming to discuss he future of publishing, supply, and sustainable audience growth. I’ll be joined by Affinity CEO Lavin Punjabi and NucleusLinks CEO Cornelius Frey, along with top executives from Hearst, People Inc, USA Today, The Independent and more. We have a couple available spots for publishing executives in charge of affiliate/commerce operations. Get in touch with Marci Chocky to express your interest: [email protected]
I spoke to MIke Nuzzo, svp of Hearst Data Solutions, about how Hearst is using its influence in LLMs to help brand partners increase their visibility in what’s emerging as a key discovery channel.
On the latest episode of PvA OT, Mostly Metrics’ CJ Gustafson joined us to discuss how CFOs are calculating the ROI on their rising token bills. Plus: CJ talked about building Mostly Metrics from $150,000 a year in revenue to $5 million this year – without any full-time employees. Never believe that media is doomed.
On PvA, we discussed why News Items has become so influential with an old-school aggregation approach. Its success, along with others doing modern aggregation, flies in the face of doom-mongering predictions about AI taking over how people find valuable and interesting information. The human touch still matters.
I’ve joined Editory as an advisor. They’re solving a critical problem for newsrooms: How to quickly and efficiently create video. David Rodin and team have ambitious plans for building the tools newsrooms need to meet audience needs. Check them out.
The Center Square is a nonprofit newsroom publishing original reporting across state and national markets. Before beehiiv, newsletters were managed externally, meaning slower turnaround, no direct access to subscriber data, and limited visibility into performance.
After migrating in-house on beehiiv, average open rates climbed from 52% to 72%, click-through rates increased 42.4%, and RSS automation saved more than 15 hours a week. A small internal team now manages 12 state and national newsletters without outside help, and the beehiiv Ad Network added a revenue stream that previously didn’t exist.
Introducing TRB Audience Summit
Over the weekend, I spent the day at a retreat with top publishing executives. These private conversations reinforced some simple beliefs I have about this industry:
Media People are resilient. AI is just the latest in a long line of existential threats. The people who operate these businesses are battle hardened and mostly unfazed by hard problems.
The future of media is in relentless audience focus. Everyone is operating an old model built around pageviews generated from Google and social platforms. The new model is based on relentless audience focus.
Conversation is valuable. I’ve found over the past five years the job of The Rebooting is to get the right people in a room and enable them to learn from each other and connect with each other and the aligned partners that they will need to build the new models.
That’s the thinking behind TRB Audience Summit, which will bring together a curated group of 200 top media executives for a day that is rooted in uncovering the new models that will power the next generation of media companies. We are holding the event on Sept 17 at the People Inc auditorium in Lower Manhattan, or as Puck would say South Tribeca.
I spent nearly a decade standing on stages in over air conditioned dark hotel ballrooms with terrible carpeting and nice weather outside. I developed a lot of strong feelings about resorts – and what makes a valuable event.
The best events have the right people in the room. TRB Audience Summit will be invite only. We have a media pass for qualified media professionals and an ecosystem pass for technology and services business that partner with publishers. Over the past three years, we’ve gathered over 500 of the top operators in the business. This event is designed for them. We will have top executives from the largest media companies as well as operators of upstarts.
Big rooms and small rooms are needed. We will have big picture discussions on the main stage – executives like USA Today Co CEO MIke Reed, KCRW president Jennifer Ferro, Daily Beast CTO Ken Pelzer, Front Office Sports CEO Adam White and PBS CEO Paula Kerger. We will also have private salons focused on our “what’s working” conversational case study format. These will be led by executives who put strategy into practice. These salons will be focused on topics like audience strategies, new product development, AI adoption, and diversified revenue strategies.
Participation and conversation are key. The Rebooting is rooted in conversation. Our gatherings are designed to spur valuable conversation among peers. This is how people connect with each other and new ideas. The competition for publishers is not from other publishers. TRB Audience Summit will be focused on moving everyone there from attendees to participants. We will have ample time for connection from breaks to lunch to drinks.
TRB Audience Summit is supported by our partners: Beehiiv, Omeda, DanAds, ProRata and our host partner, People Inc. For more information on partnership opportunities, send me a note at [email protected].
There are many events these days, I know. I didn’t want to do one until I was sure it would be differentiated and valuable. We are taking early applications to reserve your spot at TRB Audience Summit. TRB Pro members get 25% off their passes.
Send me a note with your feedback by hitting reply.