BuzzFeed vs Gawker, AI’s impact on the future of media, and more with Semafor’s Ben Smith | E1733
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.2 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 2 May 2023
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jason is joined by Semafor Co-Founder and EIC Ben Smith to dive into his new book and explore the current state of media. They break down BuzzFeed vs Gawker, why media unions might not work (29:35), the future of journalism (36:54), and much more!
(0:00) Jason kicks off the show
(1:55) Semafor's Ben Smith joins Jason
(4:27) Ben's career in media
(6:19) The previous era of publishing
(9:13) The significance of BuzzFeed and Gawker
(13:49) LinkedIn Jobs - Post your first job for free at https://linkedin.com/twist
(14:53) Gawker's ethos
(19:31) The bet on companies like Facebook for media
(23:25) BuzzFeed's future
(24:51) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://vanta.com/twist
(26:07) Vice and Vox
(29:35) Unions in media
(35:34) iConnections - Get 20% off iConnections Miami 2024 event at https://iConnections.io/twist
(36:54) The clash between journalism and business
(45:34) Broadcast TV and going direct
(46:19) What is happening with Fox and CNN
(52:48) SBF and Semafor
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, everybody. We've got a great show for you today. Ben Smith. Yes, you know him. |
| 0:03.5 | The co-founder and intern chief of Semaphore joins us to talk about all things. |
| 0:08.5 | Tech and media. He, of course, was the founder of Buzzfeed news. |
| 0:14.4 | And he before that worked at the New York Times, right in their media column. |
| 0:18.2 | A lot of things went wrong and he just wrote a book. |
| 0:20.6 | The book is called Traffic Genius, |
| 0:22.1 | Roverly and the Delusion in the billion dollar race to go viral. |
| 0:25.4 | This is a book about Gawker and Nick Denton versus Jonah and Buzzfeed. |
| 0:30.4 | Both of those businesses have burned up in a just huge barnfire. |
| 0:36.2 | He was there. He saw it happen. |
| 0:37.6 | And he explains all of that. |
| 0:39.0 | And more plus we talk about the standoff between media, |
| 0:42.7 | attack. We talk about VC dollars going into media companies being a bad idea, |
| 0:46.1 | including the 10 million dollars that Ben took from Sam Bankman, |
| 0:51.3 | a freed of FTX fame, and now he's got to give that money back. |
| 0:55.4 | Oh, Lord, it's a great episode. Stick with us. |
| 0:58.9 | This week in startups is brought to you by LinkedIn jobs. |
| 1:03.3 | A business is only as strong as its people and every higher matters. |
| 1:07.6 | Post your first job for free at LinkedIn.com slash twist. |
| 1:13.2 | Vanta compliance and security shouldn't be a deal breaker for startups to win new |
| 1:18.1 | business. Vanta makes it easy for companies to get a sock to report fast. |
| 1:23.4 | Twist listeners can get $1,000 off for a limited time. |
... |
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