Andrew Martonik

Spy x Family CODE: White REVIEW: https://lnkd.in/gYwP_urt By Gerrymelyn Casupang, The Kitsune Network's newest member! #Crunchyroll #anime #spyxfamily #Toho #SpyXFamilyCODEWhite

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UGC creators should be on red alert. UGC is turning AI-GC. We've been sharing our thoughts on AI disruption on Influencer Marketing, and predicted UGC was the most vulnerable category of the creator economy, the most susceptible to transformation. Now Techcrunch reports that TikTok will allow brands to create UGCs (more like AI GCs) with genAI. What does this mean for creators? What does this mean for brands and agencies? Will YouTube and IG follow? https://lnkd.in/dU-iPaBK

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For the final episode of Fund/Build/Scale's first season, I sat down with repeat founders Dheeraj Pandey (Nutanix, DevRev) and Manish Chandra (Kaboodle, Poshmark). For more than an hour, we discussed some of the fundamental challenges founders must overcome if they hope to be successful over the long term. Some of the takeaways are below, but our conversation went well beyond basic best practices. We talked about how they learned to embrace paradoxical values, overcome feelings of isolation, stay in close touch with customers, and perhaps most critically, adapt to challenges. As Dheeraj said, "building a startup is a mental game more than anything else." I'd like to thank everyone who's backed Fund/Build/Scale, starting with Navin Chaddha and Kamini Ramani at Mayfield Fund and Rehan Jalil at Securiti. They've been great sponsors, and I'm deeply appreciative of their support! Season 2 starts soon, and I don't want you to miss an episode, so please subscribe!

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Disney Calendar Q1 2024 Earnings (FY Q2): DTC streaming business of Disney+ and Hulu had an operating income profit of $47M, ESPN+ lost $65 million. Added 6.3M Disney+ Core subs (117.6M total), excluding Disney+ Hotstar, which lost 2.3M subs. Hulu SVOD gained 700,000 subs (45.8M total), Hulu + Live TV lost 100,000 subs (4.5M total). ESPN+ lost 400,000 subs (24.8M total). Will add an ESPN Plus tile to Disney+ this fall, giving subscribers access to "select live games and studio programming" within the Disney+ app. Disney will begin cracking down on password sharing starting in some markets in June, followed by a wide rollout in September. UPDATED 11:28am EST - Stock is down almost 10%. Earnings release: https://lnkd.in/ea58MB2n -- #hulu #streamingmedia #disneyplus #espnplus #SVOD #AVOD

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SCOOP: An OpenAI pitch deck obtained by ADWEEK reveals the details of its Preferred Publisher Program. The AI firm has courted publishers, like Dotdash Meredith, to partner by promising payment, “richer brand expression and greater visibility in search results. My latest for ADWEEK: https://lnkd.in/egiVYmr8 #media #AI

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It's M&A season for media companies. And The Walt Disney Company, like others, faces a host of questions about its future as people tune out linear TV but the rise of streaming hasn't translated into profits. Bob Iger bought some time with a rosy Q1 earnings report, but some think he should sell ESPN and its linear channels or the company altogether. Disney just appointed two senior execs to oversee M&A and corporate strategy as it considers its future. Read the memo in Business Insider: #disney #corporatestrategy #deals #entertainment #mergersandacquisitions https://lnkd.in/gDzxkTBS

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Stacker has signed distribution partnerships with over 150 media groups. 7 years in, here’s a few things we’ve learned about syndicating to publishers: 1. A shift from “free content” to impact It used to be enough to offer a firehose of free content - now it won’t get you a meeting. There is too much free content out there, and a deeper investment in analytics has helped editors understand what content is helping drive their business KPIs. (When ending their relationship with AP last month, Gannett CEO Mike Reed said that AP’s articles were the “least performing content” on Gannett’s sites, a factor in their decision to end the relationship.) *I regularly post on exactly what content publishers are gravitating to - give a follow 🙂* 2. Local news is less fragmented than it looks A handful of groups own a surprising number of news outlets. Even independent outlets are connected (and can be reached) through trade orgs like Local Media Consortium, LION: Local Independent Online News Publishers or Institute for Nonprofit News This mix of consolidation and alliances makes partnering with large swaths of publishers at least more fathomable than initially meets the eye. 3. Niche is Big A wave of amazing publications have been launched over the past five years that are hyper focused on specific audiences, creating an opportunity to reach niche segments like BIPOC audiences, those interested in climate change, those in specific neighborhoods of a major city, etc. Many of these upstarts have hyper-engaged audiences, and are getting a LOT less pitches for partnerships. Call it a syndication arbitrage opportunity :) 4. Finance content is oversaturated - and there’s a shortage of high-quality lifestyle and culture content So many orgs are producing finance content and making it available to publishers. If you’re looking for distribution, find areas you can expand beyond finance. (Or if you’re going to focus on finance, you need to rise above the rest). Most often requested topics: travel, health & fitness, cannabis, parenting, etc. 5. News outlets are more innovative than they get credit for Local news and legacy media gets a bad rap, and I am continuously amazed by the willingness to test + innovate by our partners, while sticking to their principles. Approach with an open mind, show value, and figure out how you're different.

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Our favorite impact.com partnerships duo (affiilate + creator) took #iPX24 by storm! Thanks to Vana Han, Jessica Turner, Brittny Kindred, Caitlyn Kumi and Amelia Glynn for taking the stage with me - your insights, tips, and best practices were so tangible and actionable. If you didn't make it live and want to learn more, you can dive into the top session highlights here ⬇️

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Happy Monday! This one is for founders (most PR folks know better): Asking reporters "can you please feature our product/help us out" is the quickest way to guarantee 1) no response 2) no coverage Please do some basic homework to understand how journalism works

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Pioneer Square Labs is hiring a New Ventures Lead. It's one of the best roles in Seattle and you should ping me if you're interested. PSL is a magical place. In 2 years I had the pleasure of supporting unbelievable CEOs while they turned nascent, fragile ideas into the next class of How-Did-This-Not-Exist-Before companies. To name drop: Scott Case at Recurrent, Devin Miller/Bassam Saliba at SecureSave, Clara Siegel at Dance Church and Cris Eugster/Michael Leggett at Ever.green. In a word, this is role for people who love building momentum, from laughably minute wins (someone clicked on our site!) to bet-the-company decisions (fundraising/business modeling/management team hiring). Not a role for someone who wants to be a aloof advisor. It's a chance to be a do-er for several startup management teams in a short span. Also, you'll work with T. A. McCann, Julie Sandler, Greg Gottesman, Geoff Entress, David Zager, Palvi Mehta (et. al) which is, in a word, gold.

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My idea of relaxing over the holiday weekend is researching music streaming platforms and seeing how they compare for both artists and listeners. After trying out a handful of services, here's what I found: -Qobuz has the best royalty payment (nearly 1.5 cents/song) but the clunkiest UI and is missing a few crucial albums (including a favorite From Hüsker Dü). Curation is pretty much non-existent, though they have a killer newsletter. -TIDAL has the second-best royalty payment (nearly 1.0 cents/song) and a Spotify Connect-like interface for smart speakers, but is also missing some key albums (like a few Stereolab favorites) and has some weird design quirks. Also, it appears their curation efforts were more or less curbed after recent layoffs. It's still a fantastic app. -Apple Music pays 2x more than Spotify. It unfortunately has a 100,000 song limit for the user library. For someone who’s been listening to digital music for 25 years and amassed a totally legal library (combined with saved streaming albums), this is unacceptable and something that's been the case for nearly a decade. It’s also missing more albums than any other service I tried (including a few Kim Deal singles). Curation is good, but nowhere near as good as when the service first started, as many of the official playlists I follow haven't been updated in years. -Out of everything I tested, Spotify is the best in terms of music availability, worst in terms of royalty payments to artists, and the best curation/playlists. I do wish I could turn off "made for" playlists for genre playlists as it's constantly feeding me songs I've already heard, and I look to these playlists for discovery rather than reminiscing or nostalgia. (Unless, of course, it's "Songs Like 'Reminiscing' By Little River Band.") They are also missing some Drag City artists like Joanna Newsom (likely due to the artist's choice) and are the only service I tested without a lossless option, though I assume this will change eventually. I've been a Spotify user for a year, making the switch after I hit Apple's 100k library limit. I will likely stick with the service for some time, while simultaneously supporting artists (and getting my Newsom fix) via Bandcamp and live shows. That said, whoever gets Spaceman 3's The Perfect Prescription first is the service I will stick with for life.

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Wouldn’t it be great if every promotion came with a raise? That’s not always the case, though. Sometimes people are offered dry promotions, which come with new titles and responsibilities but no bump in pay. What should you do if you’re offered one of these? How should the initial conversation and any follow-up discussions go? How do you tackle the salary piece specifically? Sonia Dobinsky, a career and leadership coach, had terrific insights and advice on the topic in this BioSpace article. https://lnkd.in/gpmytn7R #drypromotions #careeradvice #biospace

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Ready to optimize your #recruiting strategy? Join my Monster colleagues on June 18 at 1:00 PM EST for a virtual roundtable discussion. Topics include job posting models, how to execute faster, and cost containment. Register today!

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A new analysis from Parrot Analytics breaks down the TV content catalog of Netflix over time. Since Q1 2022, we see an increase in the percent of TV content classified as original exclusives with the percent of licensed exclusive content declining. While things leveled off at the end of 2023, six in ten TV shows on Netflix are original content available only on the platform. #netflix #tvshows #television #streaming #svod #avod #originalcontent #streamingcontent #contentdiscovery #licensedcontent #streamingvideo

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Superfan Connections are Key to the New Creator Economy, Contends Patreon’s Jack Conte The internet may have started as a platform that democratized creative distribution for creators who could build legions of followers, but Patreon CEO Jack Conte says that model is broken. Rather than stand by witnessing the demise of the follower, platforms like his are offering a new way for creators and fans to connect in deeper, more fulfilling online communities. “The next decade of professional creativity on the internet will be organized around the concept of the true follower in an effort to build a better way that art can exist on the Web." https://lnkd.in/gds2Sw-w #CreatorEconomy

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Can someone smarter than me please explain the following: Hubspot is now trading at $600 a share. They have a market cap of $30 Billion. They may now be bought by Alphabet. Yet, to the best of my knowledge, they have never once been profitable. In fact, in Q2 of last year alone, they lost $118 million. How does that work? I thought profit was something investors looked for. I have to think that most other businesses in this situation would collapse under their own weight - but these folks (and I'm a customer) are being rewarded. Is being profitable something only non-funded businesses have to worry about? https://lnkd.in/e2HTCxvr

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New from me: Earlier this month, reports emerged that Apple was preparing to launch a "web eraser" tool in its Safari browser. Effectively an ad blocker, it's anticipated to let users get rid of unwanted parts of a website -- ads, images, text -- and remember those choices the next time they visit. Publishers and other companies in the online ad community have been lamenting its expected rollout over fears it could devastate media companies' ad revenue in an already choppy period. Over in France, a group of trade associations representing more than 800 publishers, advertisers, agencies, sales houses, and adtech companies has written to Tim Cook, urging Apple to reconsider. Read more over at Business Insider https://lnkd.in/eGJE-ZWP #apple #adblocking #digitaladvertising #weberaser #ios18 #wwdc #safari

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Few brands, if any, manage to start with an audience of new parents and expand. But the folks at Hatch did just that when they realized the Rest light-up sound machine was being used by parents who wanted one for their own room. Cue a new product line, replete with a brand repositioning and one heck of a social listening strategy. Loved chatting with this team about their experiences for Modern Retail! #ecommerce #retail #sleep #wellness #rest #marketing #influencermarketing #celebrityinfluencerse #social #socialstrategy #sociallistening https://lnkd.in/dka_pXJ4

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