Markets in the midst of technological change tend to have two camps. One is the legacy incumbents that have strengths in their brands and the other in upstarts that are nimbler. In digital media, it turned out brand won.

At Possible, The Rebooting held TRB Conversations, a series of podcast discussions with media leaders on what they’re betting on. The connective tissue that emerged is that publishers are leaning more heavily on the value of their brands as they reorient their businesses to focus less on scale and more on depth.

This episode features conversations with Shachar Oren, CMO/CRO of EX.CO; Brendan Spain, vp of advertising for the Americas, The Financial Times; Rachael Savage, svp of ad revenue operations, Hearst Magazines; and Avi Zimack, chief growth officer, Bustle Digital Group.

Chapters:

• 00:00 Welcome

• 00:57 EX.CO

• 01:20 CTV Meets Digital Lessons

• 02:45 Closing the CTV Budget Gap

• 06:49 All Screens Advertising Future

• 09:10 Measurement and Agentic Shift

• 11:32 FT Brand Safety Reality

• 14:29 FT Video and Paywall Growth

• 16:39 Global Brand Advantage

• 22:20 Hearst Brands Need Playbooks

• 25:34 Scale vs Niche Monetization

• 28:16 Hearst AI and Data Backbone

• 33:06 BDG Pivot to Activations

• 37:50 Influencers and Brand Seals

• 43:57 Events Plus Data Flywheel