Despite the dominance of platforms like Spotify, there's a growing fatigue with algorithmic recommendations. Consumers feel this approach can be impersonal and lead to a "lowest common denominator" experience, creating a market opportunity for brands that offer authentic, human-led taste-making and curation.
To mitigate the risk of investing in a single personality, Wenner's strategy is to acquire a creator-led company with the goal of turning it into a brand umbrella, like a "new MTV." This involves building a stable of talent under that brand, transforming a personal show into a scalable media company.
A key opportunity exists in pairing successful creators, who have audience and cultural relevance but lack business infrastructure, with media companies that possess monetization engines but have lost touch with talent-driven content. This symbiotic relationship forms the basis for a modern media M&A strategy.
The success of family-run media giants like The New York Times highlights a key advantage over venture-backed counterparts. They prioritize long-term stewardship and legacy over a mindset of rapid growth and seeking an exit, fostering stability and a deeper, more resilient brand identity.
In the mid-2010s, VC-backed media like BuzzFeed operated under a "growth at all costs" mandate where achieving profitability was seen as a failure to spend enough on expansion. This created an unsustainable competitive landscape for privately-owned, profit-focused businesses that couldn't afford to "sell $1 for 50 cents."
The power has shifted from media outlets to celebrities, who can go direct to their audience. This manifests in negotiations where stars demand control over aspects like photography. Publications like Rolling Stone are forced to choose between losing access and compromising their brand's journalistic integrity.
Gus Wenner views personality-driven creators as the modern embodiment of legendary journalists like Hunter S. Thompson. This talent-first approach, once central to iconic media brands, has been lost by many traditional publishers but is key to winning in the current landscape where personalities build the brand.
Gus Wenner reveals the unique stress of divesting his family's assets at age 26. The process involved high-stakes personal liabilities for his family—not a typical corporate bankruptcy—while he simultaneously managed world-shaking journalism and staff morale, highlighting the unique pressures on heirs of legacy brands.
Gus Wenner was convinced to invest after musicians told him that appearing on the TikTok show Trackstar "moved the needle more... than anything else I did in this promotional cycle." This reveals that targeted, high-engagement creator content can now outperform traditional media appearances for audience impact and cultural relevance.