Workweek at Work: The independent media company Workweek, whose product innovation is often overlooked because of its niche focus on professional communities, introduced a new product last week called Partner Platform. Founder Adam Ryan walked me through the offering, which effectively brings a level of fidelity to newsletter advertising that exists nowhere else. In short, Workweek only tracks ad engagement when it is verified and tied to a relevant user. It also pushes that engagement to advertisers’ CRMs. In one case study, a SaaS company reported that 40% of closed deals included someone who had engaged with a Workweek ad—before sales interacted with that target company. Jacob Donnelly has a great write-up. Workweek is more proof that B2B media will have far more staying power than its consumer-centric counterparts.
Hearst Ads Eye AI (EXCLUSIVE): On Tuesday, Hearst Magazines unveiled a new advertising product that will become available to clients next week. Called Aura IQ, the platform uses artificial intelligence to ingest RFPs and automatically generate bespoke campaigns for brand clients, complete with wholly unique audiences composed specifically of Hearst users most likely to engage with the creative. The product is one of the few practical uses of AI that has found its way into the media-planning process. It is also another data point in a larger trend I have lately noticed, in that AI is enabling publishers’ comparatively small engineering teams to build proprietary products. For all of the ways that the technology is making life harder for media brands, AI is increasingly allowing their software teams to ideate and ship products at a previously unimaginable clip.
The Bad Trade Desk: Senior executives continue to flee The Trade Desk, including four CFOs and four board members in the last year. On Monday, its chief revenue officer, Anders Mortensen, left after just seven months. Frustration among departing executives has centered on the company’s rising take rate and internal leadership decisions under CEO Jeff Green, my colleague Trishla Ostwal reported. Green, who famously in March invested roughly $150 million in Trade Desk stock, has seen the value of that investment decline around 20%, or around $30 million, since then. The S&P 500, meanwhile, is up 7% in the same period.
Quote/Unquote
On Tuesday, I moderated a live panel at Tribeca X, the creator-centric spinoff of the Tribeca Film Festival. On stage with me were Kickstarter cofounder Yancey Strickler, Track Star founder and creator Jack Coyne, and former Rolling Stone CEO Gus Wenner, who is now involved with Track Star.
The topic of conversation was creators and the infrastructure they need to succeed. Strickler, who is also working on a new legal framework called Artist Corporations, had a unique vision for the future of the creator economy, while Wenner and Coyne spoke to their plans to turn Track Star into MTV for the social era. Below is an excerpt from the conversation, which I will share later this week when it airs in full.
This interview has been edited.
Mark Stenberg: How is AI influencing how Kickstarter thinks about supporting creators and their projects?
Yancey Strickler: It’s still a third-rail issue in the creative community, a threat to many smaller artists who have made a living through platforms online. It’s seen as a core labor threat, and I don’t think that perspective is wrong. There’s a reckoning that’s going to happen, and I don’t know where it all nets out. But I personally think we’re in the Napster era of AI. Maybe we have one of the higher public opinions of AI right now versus what it might be in the future.
