The new audience development playbook

Welcome to a new edition of The Rebooting. Today:

For years, audience development meant chasing traffic and pageviews. The media landscape has obviously changed. Niche is in. Direct connections are in. Audience-centricity is in. 

The Rebooting’s latest research, conducted in partnership with Omeda and in collaboration with Debra Aho Williamson, surveyed 97 publishing executives to understand what's working in audience development today. The results point to a clear trend: publishers are focusing less on third-party platforms and more on direct, owned relationships. At the same time, many are in the position of continuing to operate their old businesses while they build the next business. 

A few key insights:

The full report dives deeper into these trends, including how publishers are adapting their audience strategies for 2025. 

Gavin Newsom has a new podcast. This is normal in 2025. He’s taking an interesting approach by inviting right-wing alternative media figures like Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon. One point of the discussion with Kirk, who has used alternative media as a front to his political action committee Turning Point USA, tells the California governor that Democrats can’t handle long-form podcasts. 

His description was, well, unique: “Democrats can't survive in long-form podcasting. It's too unscripted, too masculine… to go into the wilderness, no rules, duel it out.” Bit much, but he's hitting on an important point about how the nature of communications is changing for politicians, business executives and media personalities.

Leave aside for a moment whether podcasting is the height of masculinity and the modern equivalent of the man in the arena. What he’s getting at, and what Newsom is trying to capture, is that the norms of media have changed in a populist time where authenticity’s value has skyrocketed. Long-form podcasts are a classic form of messy media. They’re less about communicating specific points, more about getting a measure of how someone thinks. 

That puts pressure on public figures like Newsom, who have mastered the dark arts of media training to hammer poll-tested political points. Politicians and executives aren’t all that different. Their public personas have been heavily manicured as they’ve often outsourced this critical function to a phalanx of PR and “comms” people. Mark Zuckerberg’s wooden efforts at public speaking are a case in point. Like any good student, Zuckerberg became a capable, if robotic public speaker. He would answer the question he wanted, not the one asked. He hit his talking points. In public presentations, you could almost see him hit the “move arm in a sweeping gesture” command. And none of it worked particularly well

That doesn't cut it anymore, whether you’re a politician, business executive or media personality. Being highly packaged and rehearsed is moving from an asset to a liability. Traditional media rewarded soundbites while alternative media like podcasts reward nuance and relatability.

That’s an awkward fit. I listened to a podcast with a top media executive who I have interviewed previously and know to be very media trained and cautious. The effect was jarring. I’m more attuned to the mechanics, but it entered the uncanny valley as I heard this executive tick through their talking points and be thrown off when the conversation veered in a different direction from their PR prep. Like many media conventions, it came across as phony in the current environment. 

This is not that different from how the best sales approach is to not be salesy.

That’s not an argument against preparation. But it needs to be around how to handle tough questions with clear, concise positions while allowing for thinking out loud. I have often had the strange experience of knowing executives who are personally thoughtful and engaging –  until we go on stage or the podcast begins. 

Podcasts are poor fits for many executives. There are tells.

This goes beyond podcasts. It’s why industry events need to be upended. The canned panel with the prep call is well past its expiration date. Only a couple years ago, I had a big media executive grouse after a session that I asked a question we didn’t discuss on the prep call. Not made for the new world. If you can’t think on your feet when discussing your work, you have no shot.

The go-direct mantra is becoming the norm. I don’t see that changing. Corporate trends that start in Silicon Valley tend to ooze throughout the economy. It will require a different skillset that many who rose the ranks of corporations do not have. And that’s because caution almost always was rewarded.

Lulu Cheng Meservey, who used to lead communications at Substack, is a leading proponent of upending the PR playbook. She advocates basically for founders to stop giving so much power to PR. This is an appealing message to a group that seems to regret giving too much power to HR during the DEI era. 

Being a good communicator is critical for any politician or business leader, only how it is executed has changed. You need to be good at jazz more than excel at memorizing sheet music. Kirk was saying that typical Democratic politicians are quick enough on their feet. Newsom himself is a typical polished politician from another era. He’ll have a harder time pulling off this pivot than a new-style unconventional politician like John Fetterman.

The same is true of media personalities that are embarking on the independent path. The skillsets needed to make it as a YouTube-style creator are arguably different from those required to be a TV talking head. Look at how celebrities struggled at Spotify.

The most talented will make the leap, of course. I’m reminded of that when reading Tina Brown’s Fresh Hell Substack. She is an immensely talented writer who is great at magazines, books or newsletters. That’s rare. The coming years will see a flood of talent leaving the heavily produced confines of traditional media for the looser world of independent media. Some will make the leap, but they will need to master new skills rather than treat independent media as simply an alternative distribution channel.

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