Track Stars (EXCLUSIVE): As a complement to my August cover story detailing the rise of creators as media companies, I profiled one of the more promising entrants in this emerging field: Track Star, a social video franchise helmed by Jack Coyne and, as of January, financially backed by Gus Wenner, the former CEO of Rolling Stone and son of its founder, Jann Wenner. The story has an enticing narrative simplicity: Wenner, a scion of legacy media, betting on Coyne, an avatar of the next generation. Together, the two aim to build Track Star into a music media empire tailormade for a new set of consumer behaviors. The company recently brought on its first chief revenue officer, as well as its first outside talent, and it plans to unveil a slate of new shows, live events, and digital products in the coming months.
A Perfectly Imperfect Substack: The newsletter brand Perfectly Imperfect, which skyrocketed to virality during the pandemic by asking a rotating set of IYKYK tastemakers about their interests, announced last week its intent to launch a platform intended to rival Substack. According to an email describing the product, sent by founder Tyler Bainbridge, the platform will look like if Tumblr had a newsletter ecosystem, with “best-in-class community features, monetization, customization, lower rates, and comprehensive audience analytics.” Bainbridge did not respond to my request for comment, but the product is worth keeping an eye on. Perfectly Imperfect has built a far more curated brand than Substack or Beehiiv, and it will be interesting to see how it plans to use that element of taste as a differentiating factor.
The Creator Events Boom (EXCLUSIVE): It is no secret that events have become a linchpin of the media business. But now they are growing in adoption among a separate cohort of publisher: creators. A handful of solo or independent operators, including news creators like Oliver Darcy, Alex Heath, and Bryan Morrissey, are launching or expanding their events footprint, while Emily Sundberg has thrown subscriber parties in cities across the Western Hemisphere. Smooth Media, a creator monetization firm, will announce Thursday that it has hired Rita Ruan, most recently the senior events producer at Dow Jones, to lead its experiential efforts. The trend is not necessarily groundbreaking on its own; instead, it is further evidence that everything media companies are doing, creators are set to replicate—likely with better margins.
Baesler Insider (EXCLUSIVE): When Axel Springer executive Claudius Senst announced in a company meeting on Tuesday that the interim CEO of Business Insider, Christian Baesler, would be taking on the role full-time, the audience gasped. (You can watch them do so here.) But when I heard the news, I blanched. I had reported several weeks ago that Baesler had no plans to adopt the position full-time, owing to a personal project he had raised money for and staffed. I was prepared to eat my fair share of crow, after dressing down my source, of course, before Baesler admitted to me that both were true. Prior to assuming the interim job, Baesler raised capital and staffed a startup, in which he remains an investor. Baesler declined to share any more details about the company, saying only that music will play a role in it and it does not compete with either BI or Axel Springer. Whatever it does, Baesler found the future of BI a more compelling proposition, a bet that hopefully he does not come to regret.
