Making Media

In this episode of Making Media, Matt and I speak with Bryan Barletta – the founder of Sounds Profitable. Sounds Profitable is a research group focused on the business of podcasting. They produce content, events, and research on all aspects of the podcasting industry. In our conversation, we explore podcasting’s growth problem; why there aren’t enough ad dollars in the industry, whether that will...

We are joined by the Founder and CEO of ConvertKit, Nathan Barry. Nathan might be the most transparent business builder we've ever encountered, and he's conveniently built one hell of a newsletter software business while operating that way. We dive into the various hype cycles of newsletters, the evolution of the creator economy, and Nathan's own approach to content and transparency. Whether you'r...

A special announcement today. The Colossus Merchandise Shop is open for business. If you're listening to this, that means we avoided my biggest fear. We did not break the internet, but please head over to joincolossus.com where you will find a link to our shop. Staying on that theme, Dom and I hosted Michael Williams from A Continuous Lean for a timely conversation on branding, merchandise, and ho...

We’re delighted to be joined by Adi Ignatius, the Editor in Chief of the Harvard Business Review. HBR is over 100 years old and has created some of the best business content ever produced but few people talk about it as a media force. Last year it made $302 million in revenue, had 11 million monthly visitors to its website, and was followed by tens of millions of people on social media. There's no...

For this episode of Making Media, we spoke with Hiten Samtani, SVP of Content at The Real Deal. Now, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but real estate media is everywhere and, to me, The Real Deal sits uniquely at the epicenter of this industry. They are the largest real estate focused publication in the US, they have over 3 million monthly visitors to their website, tens of thousands of paying subs...

For this week's Making Media, we sit down with longtime journalist and media observer, Simon Owens. Simon started in newspapers, he’s worked with large brands like US News and World Report, PBS, the Atlantic, New York Magazine, ESPN, and now he writes independently on Substack. All of his perspectives are rooted from actual experience. He's a true practitioner in the industry he covers, which we l...

We answer frequent questions sent to us over the past few weeks. Dom goes on the offensive over podcast show notes, Matt gets excited about episode artwork, and we debate the perfect length for an episode. Sprinkled between those topics, we discuss sponsorship and the end-to-end process for a show like Business Breakdowns.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to lea...

Today, we speak with one of YouTube's biggest stars, Doug DeMuro. Doug has one of, if not the biggest, YouTube channels dedicated to cars. He's been on the platform for a decade and has amassed 4.6 million subscribers to date. But he's not wedded to the video aggregator and is keenly aware of its downfalls, which is why he launched a car auction business, Cars & Bids, in 2020. Earlier this year, T...

We’re very excited for this one. Part of our mission with Making Media is to highlight great content across the internet. Today, we’re starting with business essays and to bring some wisdom to the conversation, we enlisted one of our favorite writers, Packy McCormick. Hear us break down our most influential business essays, read them through the links in the shownotes, and let us know what you thi...

We hear you, you’re enjoying our debriefs and want more inside Colossus content. Here it is, we spend the first portion of this episode going over important events at Colossus HQ before diving into our conversation with podcast legend, Eric Nuzum. Eric has been podcasting for as long as podcasts have been a thing. He started NPR’s podcasting efforts in 2005 and was their chief creative director fo...

If you make a podcast or like sports, you're gonna enjoy this episode. We've brought on someone I consider to be an audio genius. Spike Eskin runs all of programming at New York's WFAN, the original and biggest sports talk radio station, and he's only the second person to ever have that job. Now you're probably thinking, doesn't everyone just listen to podcasts now? Well, the answer to that is no,...

What goes into a podcast launch, how does this launch compare to previous ones, and why is Jimmy Chin a bucket list guest? We go behind the scenes of launch week to share the chaos and reflect on the numbers after the first two episodes. Enjoy, subscribe, and get in touch.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.   -----  ...

For this episode of Making Media, Dom and I sit down with Sean Griffey, CEO and Co-Founder of Industry Dive. When I first heard Sean talk about B2B media and his strategy for building Industry Dive, I needed to hear more. I devoured a ton of his podcast appearances and various interviews that he did because I often feel like conversations on media strategy purely focus on audience growth. They don...

For episode number 1 - we sat down with the father of Colossus, Patrick O'Shaughnessy.  You likely listen to Patrick's Invest Like the Best podcast but in the small chance you don't - I'd highlight it's the magnet that brought everyone at Colossus to Colossus. We had this conversation between Christmas and New Years of 2022. It was originally intended to be an annual recap episode but Dom and I de...

Welcome to Making Media, where Colossus colleagues Matt Reustle and Dom Cooke will talk to the best media operators, document their own media-building efforts, and dissect their favorite business content in preposterous detail. In this primer, Matt and Dom describe the show’s origin story, what you can expect on a weekly basis, and why it matters.    The first two episodes will launch on Monday, J...