Jessica Pressler talks 'lady grifters' + Ken Auletta on the 'frenemies' of the ad business

Channels with Peter Kafka

Vox Media Podcast Network

Business News, News, Tv & Film, Technology

4.4 • 585 Ratings

🗓️ 7 June 2018

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this special episode of Recode Media, you get two interviews for the price of one: First, Recode's Peter Kafka talks with Jessica Pressler, a New York Magazine staff writer whose longform story about a New York City high society grifter, Anna Sorokin, became a viral hit online. Pressler explains how she reported that story in a matter of months, and why Sorokin's con worked so well. Later in the show, Kafka is joined by New Yorker media critic Ken Auletta, who's the author of a new book called "Frenemies: The Epic Disruption of the Ad Business (and Everything Else)." Auletta says advertising is in peril as people have shifted to smaller screens and ad-free media viewing. He also expains why media companies like Fox and Time Warner are trying to sell, and recounts how he tried (and failed) to break the Harvey Weinstein story in the early 2000s. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today's show is brought to you by Airtable, the all-in-one collaboration platform.
0:05.5	Content industry is constantly evolving.
0:07.8	To keep up, you need a tool that's flexible enough to adapt to your process, but powerful
0:11.7	enough to keep everybody on the same page.
0:14.1	Airtable has been used by companies like Time Magazine, Group 9 Media, and BuzzFeed motion pictures.
0:19.3	It lets you manage your entire creative process from ideation to content creation.
0:23.7	Airtable empowers you to do your work, your way.
0:26.3	You can try it today.
0:27.7	Just head to Airtable.com slash recode Media to receive $50 in free credits.
0:38.8	This is Recode Media with Peter Kafka.
0:41.1	That is me.
0:41.8	I am part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
0:44.0	I'm here at Fox Media Headquarters on a beautiful day in New York City.
0:47.3	Today, Recode Media listeners, is a special day because you get two podcasts for the
0:51.3	price of one, which is $0.
0:53.5	Lucky you. We have two very cool guests here.
0:56.2	I wanted to make sure you got to hear both of them in the same podcast. First, I talked to Jessica
1:00.3	Pressler, the great New York magazine writer. She has an amazing story. You may have read about this
1:05.6	New York grifter socialite slash fraud. It's amazing. You really enjoy the story. If you haven't read it, go read it. And we had a great conversation. That runs about half an hour. And then after that, I talked to Ken Aletta, the great New Yorker writer, media critic. He's got a new book out about the ad business called Frenemies. We talked about that. This is a conversation about Google and ad tech. It's also a conversation about how Ronan Farrow got the Harvey Weinstein story, how Ken tried to get that years ago and didn't, how Ken helped bring Ronan Farrow to the New Yorker. That's a very cool story as well. They're all coming up. They're all free. Enjoy. One thing we ask of you before we get started tell someone else about the show and
1:45.2	while you're at it go to apple podcast and rate and review us if you want to spend that time
1:50.0	criticizing kara swisher or kara fisher as you called her random person uh you can do that's not
1:56.8	the best use of your time kara will not read those comments but if you you want to praise this podcast and Apple Podcast, go ahead and do that.
	...

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