The Rebooting Show

Christian Muche built Dmexco into Europe's biggest digital marketing event, walked away, and then launched Possible in Miami Beach — after Martin Sorrell told him the world didn't need another marketing event. We talk about what it took to launch a new tentpole event during a pandemic, why he chose Miami , how the hosted buyer model brings marketers into the room, and why quality has replaced quantity as the currency of events. The Rebooting is a media partner of Possible this year. Hope to see you in Miami Beach from April 27-29.

Former Athletic and Puck exec Max Tcheyan is launching Caper, a media brand covering the power dynamics behind the restaurant world. Max explains why he thinks food media is where sports media was in 2016, how dining culture has become a status marker for the affluent, and why he's betting that the prosumer playbook that worked for Hollywood and DC coverage can work for hospitality. We also discuss the risks of building a niche publication for an audience that would rather eat than read.

Lisa Hughes, CEO of the Philadelphia Inquirer and former New Yorker business chief, transformed the paper toward reader-funded revenue and AI-powered local coverage. The conversation covers AI tools that monitor municipal meetings and drive high-open hyperlocal newsletters. It also highlights a consumer-first revenue mix, reinvented sales and branded content, weekend and regional expansion, and the case for keeping seven-day print.

Robin Thurston, media and product executive who scaled MapMyFitness and now leads Outside, explains how he fused magazines with mapping apps, SaaS and events to build a media-as-flywheel. He discusses combining content, utility and commerce. He walks through technical integration, revenue shifts to subscriptions and SaaS, and the creation of Outside Days to grow and diversify the audience.

Dmitry Shishkin, media strategist and former BBC and Ringier exec who created the User Needs framework, argues journalism should adopt a product mindset. He discusses why newsrooms overproduce low-value updates. He explains the BBC research that mapped six user needs, how to match format to need, and what leadership and AI mean for future newsroom structures.

Adam Singolda, founder and CEO of Taboola, built a business around open web publishing and ad recommendations. He discusses AI-driven features like Deeper Dive and how conversational models change site search. He explores shifting monetization models, why GEO matters more than traditional SEO, and how publishers can adapt to AI-driven product and revenue shifts.

The industrial logic of media, premised on scarcity, has been replaced by a platform logic that is no less centralizing. Meet the new boss. Entertainment industry veteran Darren Cross breaks down what platform logic is, and how it dictates what's made, who has power and where our attention goes.

Helena Bottemiller Evich, founder of Food Fix and former Politico reporter, built a sustainable subscription food-policy newsletter. She discusses leaving legacy media to launch a paid model, pricing and conversion guesswork, balancing simplicity versus scaling, optionality between lifestyle business or expansion, and how to adapt reporting and operations for growth.

Everything comes back in fashion. Why not the portal? Yahoo is a true legacy brand of the internet. An OG portal that failed to stem the rise of Google, missed on buying Facebook and for the last four-plus years has been a ward of private equity under the ownership of Apollo. It’s also found the market turning in its favor in many ways.Kat Downs Mulder, svp and general manager of Yahoo News and home, joined me on The Rebooting Show to discuss the portal’s comeback.

James Capo, CEO of Omeda and veteran media executive, explains the shift from traffic to a connection economy where audience relationships are the core asset. He discusses operationalizing audience-first strategies, consolidating audience data, the convergence of B2B and consumer media, and practical AI uses that add real utility rather than repeating past mistakes.