Mixed Signals from Semafor Media
Every Friday media reporter Max Tani and Semafor Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith pull back the curtain on the most important stories about media, revealing why you see and hear what you see and hear. Mixed Signals from Semafor Media is supported by Think with Google.
Episodes
April 25, 2025 • 48 mins
Ezra Klein is on a book tour — you may have heard his voice on some of your other favorite podcasts talking about Abundance. Today, Ben and Max also talk to The New York Times columnist and host… but you won’t hear anything about the book (so you’ll just have to buy it). Instead, they ask Ezra what he’s learned about the media and podcasting through this latest tour, how the “abundance” framework might apply to media, and if Trump ...
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April 18, 2025 • 47 mins
Tina Brown has shaped the culture and captured the zeitgeist since she reinvented Vanity Fair and The New Yorker in the 1980s and 1990s. But now, she’s moved onto the digital media space with her Substack, Fresh Hell. This week, Ben and Max talk to the magazine icon about what she makes of the state of print media today, if we still need editors in a world filled with influencers, and what she thinks the future holds for her former...
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April 11, 2025 • 51 mins
In a YouTube landscape filled with podcasts and talking heads, Jubilee Media’s wild debate videos stand apart: A doctor debates 20 anti-vaxxers, Ben Shapiro debates 25 liberals, Pete Buttigieg debates 25 conservatives. But are these viral videos bringing a divided America back together or are they just profiting off of polarization? This week, Ben and Max bring on Jubilee’s founder and CEO, Jason Y. Lee, to talk about his vision fo...
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Since the 80s, Piers Morgan has ridden massive changes in the media industry, jumping from print to cable to, more recently, YouTube. This week on Mixed Signals, the TV star joins Ben and (subbing in for Max) Semafor’s head of comms, Meera Pattni, to discuss how he’s building his Uncensored brand, what he likes about being a YouTuber, and if he misses anything about legacy media. They also talk about how some journalists take thems...
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March 28, 2025 • 41 mins
Nick Denton, the founder of Gawker, more or less disappeared from the Internet in 2017, after a public legal battle with Hulk Hogan (backed by Peter Thiel) resulted in the site being shut down… That is until earlier this month, when Denton suddenly reappeared on X, tweeting over 200 times over the course of days. In his first podcast appearance since his recent return, Ben and Max talk to the former digital media mogul about why he...
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March 21, 2025 • 44 mins
YouTube is undeniably the dominant media platform of the moment, and it’s increasingly the go-to place for what used to be an audio-only medium: podcasts. Last month, the company announced that podcasts on YouTube rack up 1 billion viewers a month. This week, Ben and Max bring on CEO Neal Mohan to talk about how YouTube has become the epicenter of culture, how the company is thinking about podcasts and TV, and who Neal thinks its b...
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March 14, 2025 • 45 mins
In this moment of media fragmentation and the rise of niche communities, are there still ways to reach mass audiences? This week, Ben and Max bring on legendary marketing executive, Frank Cooper, who’s always been at the center of big cultural shifts from his time at Def Jam in the 90s, AOL in the 2000s, and BuzzFeed in the 2010s. Throughout his career, he’s also been seen as the culture translator for big corporations, as the CMO ...
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March 7, 2025 • 38 mins
This week, we get an inside look at the independent creator model of media with a two-part conversation: First, Ben and Max interview Substack co-founder and chief writing officer, Hamish McKenzie, about the platform’s appeal for the resistance on the left, their move into video, and why they turned down Elon Musk’s offer to buy them a few years ago. Then, former Mixed Signals co-host and newly independent creator, Nayeema Raza, jo...
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March 5, 2025 • 40 mins
Today, we have a special bonus episode: Ben and Max break down the most interesting moments from the Innovating to Restore Trust in News summit held last week in Washington, D.C. They discuss Gallup’s findings on the worsening trust in news media, New York Times executive editor Joe Kahn’s acknowledgment that Donald Trump is good for business, and FCC chair Brendan Carr’s plans to go after liberal media. Plus, Ben responds to Megyn...
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February 28, 2025 • 50 mins
The 97th Academy Awards are this weekend, giving us a glimpse into the past and future of Hollywood and the entertainment industry. For an insider’s take on the state of the business and how the Academy works, Ben and Max bring on Matt Belloni, founding partner of Puck and host of The Town podcast. They talk about Netflix’s Oscars strategy with Emilia Pérez, the disconnect between the Academy’s interests and what happens on stage, ...
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February 14, 2025 • 50 mins
This week, a big story of media consolidation – and one that devoted Mixed Signals listeners would have seen coming: Fox announced that it has acquired Red Seat Ventures, the digital media company that produces and markets the podcasts of several big names in conservative media, including Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, and Bill O’Reilly. Ben and Max bring on Red Seat’s co-founder, Chris Balfe, to talk about the acquisition, how Piers...
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February 7, 2025 • 40 mins
The Super Bowl, the biggest single media event in the US, is upon us. And the Chiefs and the Eagles aren’t the only ones with a lot on the line: advertisers have staked their reputations – and for Instacart’s Laura Jones, her job – on 30 seconds of airtime this Sunday. This week, Ben and Max bring on the Instacart CMO to talk about what it takes to make a Super Bowl ad, the thinking behind their Marvel-style approach, and her high ...
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January 31, 2025 • 46 mins
Kara Swisher has been a reporter, an editor, a founder, and is now one of the most successful podcasters in the world. This week, Ben and Max bring on the host of On with Kara Swisher and co-host of the popular tech podcast Pivot to talk about the business of media in 2025. She talks unabashedly about her own income, and whether other journalists can and should break out of big media companies to build brands like hers. She’s also ...
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January 24, 2025 • 40 mins
This week, we look at digital fragmentation through the eyes of a transformed marketing industry – because to really see where media is headed, you have to follow the money. Ben and Max bring on CMO of Verizon and former Twitter CMO, Leslie Berland, to talk about how creators have changed marketing and what she thinks is coming next. They also talk about how Twitter and social media changed the brains of the people who worked there...
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January 17, 2025 • 42 mins
As the second inauguration of Donald Trump approaches and global leaders head to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum, we at Mixed Signals want to know: what will media’s role be in an increasingly unstable era? And will it bring more order or disorder for global politics? To discuss this, Ben and Max bring on political risk advisor Ian Bremmer of the Eurasia Group. They talk about how global leaders are engaging with ne...
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January 10, 2025 • 42 mins
This year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) showcased an array of new gadgets, screens, and robots – but will any of them impact how and what we consume? Or will the real changes come from Washington, where the big tech companies from Meta to Amazon seem to be targeting their attention? To discuss all the ways that tech and tech leaders will impact the media industry this year and beyond, Ben and Max talk to Jessica Lessin, founder...
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January 3, 2025 • 46 mins
We’re kicking off 2025 with a foray into dating apps — and an announcement of Nayeema’s next venture (not a dating app but a new show called Smart Girl Dumb Questions). But first: Today’s episode of Mixed Signals merges Ben and Nayeema’s interests in CMO podcasts and dating apps, respectively. Tinder CMO Melissa Hobley joins us to talk about digital exhaustion, the reality of rebranding and the political license that comes with a G...
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December 20, 2024 • 54 mins
On Monday, Carlos Watson, the founder of Ozy Media, was sentenced to nearly 10 years – 116 months – in prison for fraud. Today, in Ben’s first extensive conversation about it since Watson’s arrest, he and Nayeema discuss Ozy, the scandal, and what it reveals about the broader digital media and advertising business. They bring on Madison and Wall analyst and former GroupM Global President for Business Intelligence, Brian Wieser, to ...
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December 13, 2024 • 56 mins
YouTube and podcasts have come fully of age as dominant forms of media, and legacy media companies are frantic to buy their way in. Ben and Nayeema tackle this with Colin and Samir, two veteran YouTubers and media thinkers who have spent years helping their peers figure out digital media. They talk about this latest rise of YouTube, the reality of revenue-backed creative, and what legacy media gets wrong about digital creators. It’...
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December 6, 2024 • 47 mins
Mixed Signals is back for Season 2, and this season we’re following the money in the changing media business. What happens now, after the clear win by podcasts and YouTubers in the election? Is it the end of legacy media, for real this time? And can advertisers keep up with audiences’ evolving media diet? To kick off this conversation, Ben and Nayeema bring on author, New Yorker writer, and media savant, Ken Auletta, who’s been exa...
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