Can The News Industry Survive The AI Era? — With Ben Smith, Nayeema Raza, and Joe Marchese
Ben Smith and Nayeema Raza host Mixed Signals, a new media podcast from Semafor. And Joe Marchese is the general & build partner at Human Ventures. The three join Big Technology Podcast for a VC + Journalist conversation on whether the news industry can survive its dealings with generative AI tech providers, like OpenAI, after several publications inked multi-million dollar content deals. Tune in for a conversation that explores whether the news industry is setting itself up for a repeat of past mistakes made with Facebook and Google. We also cover whether the news industry can harness AI, what the value of news is to AI companies, and whether AI can be taught to emulate media brands and pay a licensing fee. Plus much more. Tune in for a lively conversation about a core issues facing the AI field today.
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Twitter's New CEO, Streaming Wars Are Over, Traffic's Lessons
Ben Smith is the author of Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral. He's also the editor-in-chief of Semafor. He joins Ranjan Roy and Alex Kantrowitz for our weekly news recap show. We cover: 1) New Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino 2) Tucker Carlson's move to Twitter 3) End of the streaming wars 4) Trump's CNN Interview 5) Lessons from Ben's book, Traffic 6) Mark Zuckerberg's jiu-jitsu prowess.
You can find Ben's book here.
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Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com
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Ben Smith on the End of an Era for Digital Media
The 2010s saw the rise of a number of digital media startups like BuzzFeed News, Gawker Media, Vice, Business Insider and others who were set to usher in a new era of news consumption, displacing legacy outlets like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Now, by and large, that dream seems to have died. Gawker is gone. BuzzFeed News is closed. Vice has filed for bankruptcy. Insider recently had layoffs. So how did it all fall apart and what is the future for upstart media? In this episode, we speak with Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of Semafor and the author of the new book Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral, to discuss his experience as the editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News, and how times have changed so dramatically for online journalism. We also discussed what business models work today, the use of AI, and the future of news consumption.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
(Bonus) @semaforben On The Golden Age Of Digital Media And His AMAZING New Book About It
This is the book I've been dying for someone to write! This is how digital media happened for 20 years! Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral. Yay to finally having Ben Smith on the pod!
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BuzzFeed vs Gawker, AI’s impact on the future of media, and more with Semafor’s Ben Smith | E1733
Jason is joined by Semafor Co-Founder and EIC Ben Smith to dive into his new book and explore the current state of media. They break down BuzzFeed vs Gawker, why media unions might not work (29:35), the future of journalism (36:54), and much more!
(0:00) Jason kicks off the show
(1:55) Semafor's Ben Smith joins Jason
(4:27) Ben's career in media
(6:19) The previous era of publishing
(9:13) The significance of BuzzFeed and Gawker
(13:49) LinkedIn Jobs - Post your first job for free at https://linkedin.com/twist
(14:53) Gawker's ethos
(19:31) The bet on companies like Facebook for media
(23:25) BuzzFeed's future
(24:51) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://vanta.com/twist
(26:07) Vice and Vox
(29:35) Unions in media
(35:34) iConnections - Get 20% off iConnections Miami 2024 event at https://iConnections.io/twist
(36:54) The clash between journalism and business
(45:34) Broadcast TV and going direct
(46:19) What is happening with Fox and CNN
(52:48) SBF and Semafor
FOLLOW Ben: https://twitter.com/semaforben
FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis
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The social media age for news is over. Former BuzzFeed News editor Ben Smith on what’s next
Ben Smith is the former and founding editor-in-chief of Buzzfeed News, the founder and editor-in-chief of Semafor, and the author of a new book called Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral, which is about the rise and fall of the social platform age in media, through the lens of Gawker Media and Buzzfeed and, in particular, their founders, Nick Denton and Jonah Peretti.
I say the fall of the social platform age pretty literally: just before we spoke, Buzzfeed actually shut down Buzzfeed News, saying it just wasn’t making enough money, Facebook and the rest are all in on vertical video, and the chaos at Twitter means a lot of baseline media industry assumptions are now up for grabs. Ben and I talked about a lot – where do journalists build their brands now? Where does traffic even come from anymore? What’s next?
Of course, we talked about Semafor as well. Ben and his co-founder, Justin Smith, raised $25 million and launched a news website, newsletters, and events covering the US and sub-Saharan Africa, with plans to expand into other regions. I wanted to know what lessons from Buzzfeed Ben brought into Semafor and, honestly, how he’s thinking about building an audience instead of just trying to get traffic.
This is a good one. The book’s great, too.
Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23470662
Links:
Traffic by Ben Smith
What Colors Are This Dress?
TikTok - The Verge
Is Substack Notes a ‘Twitter clone’? We asked CEO Chris Best - The Verge
MyPillow CEO’s free speech social network will ban posts that take the Lord’s name in vain - The Verge
Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News
Cambridge Analytica: understanding Facebook’s data privacy scandal - The Verge
28 Signs You Were Raised By Persian Parents In America
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More Than 180 Women Have Reported Sexual Assaults At Massage Envy
Macedonia’s Pro-Trump Fake News Industry Had American Links, And Is Under Investigation For Possible Russia Ties
Watching Silicon Valley Bank melt down from the front row, with Brex CEO Henrique Dubugras - Decoder, The Verge
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
It was produced by Creighton DeSimone and Jackie McDermott with help from Hadley Robinson and it was edited by Callie Wright.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Editorial Director is Brooke Minters and our Executive Director is Eleanor Donovan.
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Deepfake Drake + HatGPT + Ben Smith on the End of the BuzzFeed Era
A song featuring A.I.-generated versions of Drake and the Weeknd went viral — before being taken down by streaming services. Is censorship of A.I.-generated songs the way forward? Or can singers benefit from synthetic voices, as some artists like Grimes are suggesting?
Then, HatGPT: Kevin and Casey pull headlines out of a hat and generate their own takes on the news.
And Ben Smith, the former BuzzFeed News editor, discusses the end of the 2010s digital media era.
On today’s episode:
Ben Smith is a journalist and co-founder of the digital media company Semafor. He was a New York Times media columnist and the first editor in chief of BuzzFeed News.
Additional reading:
An A.I.-generated song made to sound like Drake and the Weeknd went viral before being taken down by streaming services.
Grimes invited fans to make songs using A.I.-generated versions of her voice.
Snapchat saw a spike in one-star reviews after users criticized its “My AI” feature.
Taylor Swift did not invest in FTX, the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange company.
Researchers turned a goldfish into a cyborg.
The Republican National Committee released an A.I.-generated ad slamming President Biden.
The U.K. blocked Microsoft’s $69 billion bid for the video game company Activision.
Ben Smith’s book, “Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral,” is an origin story of digital media.
A BuzzFeed article set off a viral debate on the color of a dress.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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Ben Smith on the Turmoil at Buzzfeed, Fox News and Everything In Between
To make sense of a turbulent and important week in media, we turn to Ben Smith who was the founding Editor in Chief of Buzzfeed News (2012 to 2020) and the former New York Times media critic (from 2020 to 2022). On the agenda: the shuttering of Buzzfeed News, the meaning of Murdoch's settlement with Dominion and what Ben is working on these days, including his news organization Semafor and his forthcoming book, Traffic.
Since we taped Kara got her blue check (against her wishes!) when Twitter re-verified some accounts over the weekend.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com. And you can follow Kara and Nayeema on Instagram -- yes, Instagram: @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza
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The Social Media Era Of News Is Over — With Ben Smith
Ben Smith is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Semafor, and the author of Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral (available for preorder now). He joins Big Technology Podcast for a discussion of social media's divorce from the news industry, and what it means for the platforms and publishers. We talk plenty about Semafor, including how it's working to build an audience, distribute its work, run a business, and get scoops. Stay tuned for the second half where we discuss Elon's Twitter, chatbots, the lab leak hypothesis, and Trump's potential in 2024. Yes, we cover a lot. Hit play for a fun listen!
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Netflix Breaks a Losing Streak, Zuck Swipes at iMessages, and Guest Ben Smith of Semafor
Netflix beat estimates for Q3 and added two million subscribers. Meta has Super-App dreams for WhatsApp, and Mark Zuckerberg is ready to take on iMessage. Plus, Twitter freezes employees' stock accounts, and an activist investor grabs a significant stake in Salesforce. Friend of Pivot Ben Smith joins Kara and Scott to talk about the state of media, and the launch of his news platform, Semafor.
You can find Ben on Twitter at @semaforben, and Semafor at semafor.com.
You can listen to Kara’s new show, On with Kara Swisher, here.
Send us your questions! Call 855-51-PIVOT or go to nymag.com/pivot.
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New York Times’ Ben Smith Talks Slack, Newsroom Politics, And Tech Regulation
As the Media Equation columnist at The New York Times, Ben Smith is covering an industry going through transformation and turbulence. And as the former editor in chief of BuzzFeed News — a place I worked until this June — he lived that change while managing a newsroom of reporters who lived online in a VC funded media company.
In this week’s edition of the Big Technology Podcast, I caught up with Smith for a discussion focused on how tech is changing journalism, what media companies can do to connect with people that have shut them out, and where big tech regulation may lead.
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