Monetizing Media

Stephanie Solomon (CRO of Foreign Affairs) and Danny Crichton (Head of Editorial at Lux Capital & former managing editor of TechCrunch) talk to Monetizing Media host Eric Peckham about the strategy and business models of long-form political/policy magazines where top government officials, CEOs, and policy experts debate how to tackle the world's many challenges. // Keep up with other episodes and find resources for media & entertainment businesspeople at MonetizingMedia.com

Monetizing Media host Eric Peckham interviews Neal Rothschild, Director of Audience & Growth at Axios, about Axios' audience development funnel. That is, its tactics for bringing readers to their site, converting them into newsletter subscribers, retaining them as engaged newsletter readers, and converting some of them to a new portfolio of paid ($599/yr) newsletters covering deals in different industries. // Check out other episodes and find other resources for businesspeople in media & entertainment at MonetizingMedia.com

Monetizing Media host Eric Peckham is joined by Lewis Silkin partner Cliff Fluet, a leading music industry attorney, to break down which segments of the music industry are hot (or not) with dealmaking right now and why. Covering the gold rush to buy music catalogs, live music's navigation through the pandemic, consolidation opportunities among indie labels and talent management firms, the expanded licensing deals with tech platforms, and the rise (and challenges) of crypto platforms. // Keep up with all episodes and get other resources for media & entertainment businesspeople at MonetizingMedia.com

Soundcloud VP of Creator Jeff Ponchick talks with Monetizing Media's Eric Peckham about the music company's strategy to provide a tiered offering of services to indie musicians while leveraging their consumer-facing streaming platform for data to inform A&R and marketing. Soundcloud now competes with cross-platform music distributors and label services firms to identify and promote breakout artists. // Keep up with episodes and get other resources for media & entertainment businesspeople at MonetizingMedia.com

DEALS | Joost van Dreunen (investor / advisor / Superdata founder) and Mike Sepso (Vindex CEO / fmr Activision SVP) analyze the Take Two/Zynga, Microsoft/Activision, and Sony/Bungie acquisitions Monetizing Media's Eric Peckham. Why did they make sense, why did they happen now, and how do they reshape the industry? Also, has gaming bifurcated into synergy-focused giants who are happy to outsource innovation to startups and just buy them when successful? / Keep up with new episodes and get other resources on the media & entertainment business at MonetizingMedia.com

Eze Vidra, co-founder of seed stage VC firm Remagine Ventures, and Monetizing Media host Eric Peckham discuss trends and challenges in the "creator economy" as investors and entrepreneurs have flooded into the market. From the increased priority among many creators to own their own audience and be less beholden to major platforms like YouTube to creators' use of NFTs, social tokens, and AI tools, this covers a wide range of important topics. Eze also explains his specific Israel-focused strategy. // Keep up with new episodes and access extra resources for media & entertainment professionals at MonetizingMedia.com

echo3D Co-Founder & CEO Alon Grinshpoon talks to Monetizing Media host Eric Peckham about how his company is enabling developers to create and deploy AR/VR and other 3D apps/games on the cloud so they don't have to be downloaded to be used, can be updated in real-time, and can work with high-performance across a wider range of devices. // Keep up with Monetizing Media episodes and get other resources for media & entertainment businesspeople at MonetizingMedia.com

In 2019, Salone Sehgal left London Venture Partners to launch a new VC firm focused on seed stage gaming startups in India. She talks to Monetizing Media host Eric Peckham about why India's gaming ecosystem offers big opportunity, why Indians are spending a lot more on In-App Purchases than in the past, the game mechanics that are most popular among different segments of the market, and how politics has impacted domestic entrepreneurs' ability to build the next big gaming company.

Monetizing Media's Eric Peckham discusses the frontiers of where media brands are attracting and engaging a community around their content with Boye Fajinmi. Boye is a co-founder & president of The Future Party, an LA-based media and events brand targeting professionals in entertainment, tech, marketing, and other creative fields that invested early in creating content on Clubhouse and attracted a 15,000-person following. He has experimented with Discord, Community, and other tools to determine new expansions to the brand's content creation and events businesses. // Join the Monetizing Media newsletter and find more resources at MonetizingMedia.com

Pico's President Jason Bade and Chief Revenue Officer Rodolphe Ködderitzsch talk to Monetizing Media's Eric Peckham about the current boom in creator monetization tools and their work to make Pico the central CRM, analytics, and monetization solution for creators to manage their fan relationships and independent business. // Join the Monetizing Media newsletter and find more resources at MonetizingMedia.com

Eric Peckham dives into the rapidly growing webcomics industry with Michele Wells, the former editor-in-chief of DC Comics who recently joined leading webcomics platform Tapas Media as Chief Content Officer. // Join the Monetizing Media newsletter and find more resources at MonetizingMedia.com

Andrew Sugerman, President of Sketchy, talks with Monetizing Media host Eric Peckham about the intersection of education, entertainment, & gaming. Sketchy takes the learning technique of memory palaces as the basis of entertaining, interactive video courses for medical students. Backed by $30M from TCG Capital, they're now rapidly expanding to new content verticals. Andrew previously led Disney's English-language learning content efforts in China and later oversaw all Disney content across mobile apps, digital video, books, comics, and magazines. // Join the Monetizing Media newsletter and find more resources at MonetizingMedia.com

TopFan CEO Jeff Kohn and Monetizing Media host Eric Peckham discuss strategies for entertainers and entertainment franchises to own their audience, better engage super fans, and increase lifetime value (LTV) of super fans. TopFan is a platform for musicians, sports teams, movie studios, and others who have large fan bases to create online community portals with paid memberships, exclusive e-commerce, virtual events, and other special benefits. The white-label solution acts as a fan CRM and monetization tool for over 100 partners like musicians Pitbull, the Lumineers, Maroon 5, and the Zach Brown Band, sports franchises like the Denver Broncos (NFL team), and Hollywood studios like Lionsgate, MGM, WB, and Fox. // Join the Monetizing Media newsletter and find more resources at MonetizingMedia.com

Exploding Kittens co-founder & CEO Elan Lee talks with Monetizing Media host Eric Peckham about the $13 billion (and growing!) tabletop games market and his company's expansion strategy within it. Elan was a longtime video game executive who rose to become the Chief Design Officer at Xbox before leaving in late 2014 and launching Exploding Kittens as a new card game on Kickstarter. It not only had one of the most successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaigns ever but became one of the most popular tabletop games in the industry. The Exploding Kittens brand has launched several new games since (surpassing 16 million units sold) and also launched mobile games tied to the Exploding Kittens IP. It's adding new IP from both in-house development and operating as a publisher, and working to bring this IP into film & TV. // Join the Monetizing Media newsletter and find more resources at MonetizingMedia.com

James Ruben, the founder & CEO of Hellosaurus, discusses the children's 'edutainment' landscape and his company's platform of interactive videos with Monetizing Media host Eric Peckham. Previously the Head of Product at HQ Trivia, James launched Hellosaurus last year as a subscription video service for children ages 2-8, partnering with top YouTube creators to produce shows that prompt young viewers to complete tasks within the app. // Join the Monetizing Media newsletter and find more resources at MonetizingMedia.com

Artie founder & CEO Ryan Horrigan talks with Monetizing Media host Eric Peckham about his company's platform for creating multiplayer games that can be shared and played with just a link on social media, without having to download an app. By bypassing the app stores and platform-specific restrictions and enabling games developed in Unity instead of HTML5, Artie can unlock a new wave of gaming with friends on social media. // Join the Monetizing Media newsletter and find more resources at MonetizingMedia.com

The fashion industry is moving into the virtual world, with a growing economy of digital clothing to be bought and worn by our avatars on social platforms, in games, in VR, and more. Adriana Hoppenbrouwer is at the forefront of this as a Co-Founder & Commercial Director at The Fabricant, an Amsterdam-based digital fashion house. The Fabricant sells digital-only clothing designed both in-house and in partnership with brands like Adidas, Off White, Rag & Bone and more. She speaks with Monetizing Media host Eric Peckham about what it means to own and wear digital clothing, the 4 different segments of customers, partnerships with gaming companies, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).  // Join the Monetizing Media newsletter and find more resources at MonetizingMedia.com

Meet Cute founder & CEO Naomi Shah talks with Monetizing Media host Eric Peckham about building an audio-first scripted entertainment startup. Meet Cute is building a dedicated following around 15-minute romantic comedy podcasts. Since December 2019 they have released over 200 shows. // Join the Monetizing Media newsletter and find more resources at MonetizingMedia.com

Monetizing Media host Eric Peckham discusses the business of Roblox game development with Joe Ferencz, the CEO of Gamefam. Gamefam is a leading game studio and the first dedicated game publishing company on Roblox. // Join the Monetizing Media newsletter and find more resources at MonetizingMedia.com

Miles Perkins of Epic Games' Unreal Engine talks the use of game engines for virtual production in the film & TV industry with Monetizing Media host Eric Peckham. Virtual production is the frontier of Hollywood visual effects, reshaping the production process and letting creatives explore ideas for how to shoot a scene with real-time changes to a virtual environment. // Join the Monetizing Media newsletter and find more resources at MonetizingMedia.com

Monetizing Media host Eric Peckham discusses the trend of one-person newsletter businesses with Polina Marinova Pompliano. A former journalist at Fortune Magazine, Polina is part of a recent wave of content creators to launch their own freemium subscription newsletters using the Substack platform. She shares her steps in growing The Profile, the software tools she uses, her audience development tactics, and her assessment of why the trend of leading journalists going solo will continue. // Join the Monetizing Media newsletter and find more resources at MonetizingMedia.com // Subscribe to The Profile at theprofile.substack.com

Andrew Kotliar of MEP Capital discusses debt and equity financing for films, music catalogs, podcasts, live events, and more with Monetizing Media host Eric Peckham. Key points of conversation: case studies on past deals, deal structures to reduce risk, the Covid-19 pandemic's impact on financing films and live events, and supporting the growing wave of creators determined to keep (or regain) ownership of their IP. To keep up with future episodes and learn more tactical insights on the business of media, entertainment, & gaming, subscribe to the Monetizing Media newsletter at MonetizingMedia.com

This episode features a case study on The Local, a collection of English-language news sites in Europe that saw paying subscribers surge from 11,000 to 26,000 during the first 4 months of the Covid-19 pandemic. James Savage (CEO of The Local) walks Monetizing Media host Eric Peckham through The Local's bundling and pricing strategy, conversion funnel optimization with newsletters and a native app, and response to Covid-19.

Unsplash co-founder & CEO Mikael Cho talks with Monetizing Media's Eric Peckham about how his startup explored business models for their massively popular platform for free stock photography. // Sign up for the Monetizing Media newsletter at monetizingmedia.com

Sweet Capital partner Pippa Lamb sees a realignment in social media from general purpose social apps to niche social apps dedicated to users who share a specific interest or demographic. She talks to Monetizing Media's Eric Peckham about why this is happening and how she is analyzing new social media startups as an investor.

Monetizing Media's Eric Peckham talks with Arlen Marmel, an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at TCG Capital, about burgeoning startup opportunities in the social audio space.

Rosebud co-founder & CEO Lisha Li talks with Monetizing Media's Eric Peckham about how Rosebud AI-generated photos and videos of real-looking humans with impact the entertainment industry. // // Sign up for the Monetizing Media newsletter at monetizingmedia.com

XTR founder and CEO Bryn Mooser talks to Monetizing Media's Eric Peckham about how documentaries have rapidly become a lucrative business due to their massive popularity on Netflix and other streaming services. He breaks down his company's strategy for financing non-fiction content and what to expect in the space over the next couple years.

The Monetizing Media podcast dives into the business of media, entertainment, & gaming through conversations with leading entrepreneurs, executives, and investors in the industry. Subscribe to this podcast to hear upcoming episodes with guests like Unsplash CEO Mikael Cho, XTR founder Bryn Mooser, Sweet Capital partner Pippa Lamb, and more. Hosted by Eric Peckham, writer of the Monetizing Media newsletter.