Game Over - People vs Algorithms

I look for patterns in media, business and culture. My POV is informed by 30 years of leadership in media and advertising businesses. Sometimes it’s nice to read in the browser. More fun on this week’s podcast. Out Thursday, 8am EST. Despite having spent many years of my life attempting to prove the contrary, my new theory is that much of digital media is just structurally imperiled. It has only sustained this long by an endless string of hacks and low cost capital. The “Great January Media Reckoning” (GJMR), now spilling into February, is more than a seasonal affair. It is the conclusion of something that was truly only ever temporal on account of the medium’s deep structural flaws. My podcast friend, Alex Schleifer, wanted to know why things are so bad and who was to blame. Alex, bless him, tends to see media’s troubles as a fixable, if complex, product problem. For better or worse, I look at it from the perspective of the muddy, body-strewn trenches. In response, I insensitively cal

I look for patterns in media, business and culture. My POV is informed by 30 years of leadership in media and advertising businesses. Sometimes it’s nice to read in the browser. More fun on this week’s podcast. Out Thursday, 8am EST. Despite having spent many years of my life attempting to prove the contrary, my new theory is that much of digital media is just structurally imperiled. It has only sustained this long by an endless string of hacks and low cost capital. The “Great January Media Reckoning” (GJMR), now spilling into February, is more than a seasonal affair. It is the conclusion of s