[Originally posted on Medium] In A.M. Rosethanl’s 2006 obituary in the New York Times, Robert McFadden explains of Rosenthal’s tenure as managing and executive editor: By the end of the 1960′s, The Times, despite a distinguished journalistic history, had a clouded future. Its reporting and writing were widely regarded as thorough but ponderous. Revenues were declining, profits were marginal, circulation was [...]

[Originally posted on Medium] In being part of a team that’s building a company there will always be a long list of opportunities and tasks. That you should pick the most important ones and focus is obvious. A harder state to obtain is to not let the things you aren’t focusing on bother you. Saying a process, particular marketing material, [...]

  Scale in the absence of defining “scale in what” is like an all you can eat buffet – it sounds enticing in concept but often makes no practical sense. Worse, depending on what’s on the menu, it can badly upset your stomach. For example, who would wants to buy an all you can eat buffet, only to find out [...]

Many people buying digital media are looking to see an actual purchase consummated online as part of their online advertising campaign.  In most cases, this is not, actually an achievable or relevant goal because relatively few goods are actually purchased online.  No one buys cars, snacks, movie tickets, sodas, pet food, and many other categories of products online.  In fact, [...]

The length of the new iPhone 5 screen should be an important boon to native, social monetization.  Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and BuzzFeed all monetize with units in the stream of the core experience. For example, here’s a mobile story unit for Bing running in BuzzFeed’s iOS app: The CTR’s and engagement on our mobile units are as strong and [...]

On Bloomberg TV last week, our investor Eric Hippeau discussed how social advertising would finally allow the web to unlock the advertising quality and budgets of television advertising. Social advertising requires new types of creative and processes, and the rise of television is a good example of how advertising changed with the advent of a new medium.  I asked on [...]

The McKayla Maroney “not impressed meme” showcases the power of Twitter in allowing celebrities to interact with their own pop culture moments. These kind of water cooler moments have occurred around large televised events like the Olympics for decades but prior to Twitter, the central celebrity players lacked a simple lightweight way to respond. Maroney was able to tweet out [...]

Discussing Facebook and BuzzFeed mobile, social advertising with Andrew Ross Sorkin and Julia Boorstin.

co-authored with Jonah Peretti There is big and recent trend in technology towards vertical integration. Apple has been doing it for years, but this started as a liability because it made it hard for the company to scale and give consumers choice. Today it has become an advantage because it makes it possible to laser focus on consumer experience by [...]