Linda Yaccarino & Josh Feldman, NBCUniversal

A publisher of podcasts, radio shows and online articles about sports and sports culture, Barstool Sports has a robust commerce and pay-per-view events business to feed its rabidly dedicated fanbase, known as Stoolies. It is, to hear CEO Erika Nardini tell it, the publisher model of the future. All of this despite — or perhaps because of — a habit of courting controversy. The company has repeatedly been taken to task for language and behavior that ranges from juvenile to full-blown misogynistic. Nardini unpacks all of that and more on this episode of Ad Lib.

24 Tammi 201940min

Bloomberg Media has been experimenting across the board lately — from its consultancy play to an aggressive over-the-top streaming strategy to TicToc, a video partnership with Twitter. Joining us on the podcast is chief global revenue officer Keith Grossman, who breaks down why these are both the best of times and the worst of times to be in digital media -- and why there's never been a better moment to be a media brand that knows what it stands for.

17 Tammi 201941min

Twenty-one percent of the population now owns at least one smart speaker. A full 14 million people in the U.S. got their first smart speaker device in 2018 — meaning voice as a topic of fascination is not going away any time soon. From the floor of the Las Vegas Convention center this week, NPR CMO Meg Goldthwaite joins us to discuss the revolution in voice, and what it means for marketers and consumers alike.

10 Tammi 201929min

Launched in January, Verb is a hybrid shop that claims to have a new approach to the agency space. Verb boasts both traditional agency chops and consultancy offerings for both brands and other agencies — with a specialty in experiential marketing. It is the brain child of Shannon Simpson Jones and Yadira Harrison, both former VPs of the Civic Entertainment Group. We discuss the challenges and opportunities in the experiential, and the gap between brand expectations and reality. Both executives who happen to be women of color, they also weigh in on diversity and inclusivity and why it’s important to take a step back to look at who is in the room with you.

20 Joulu 201833min

The Seattle-based creative shop Wongdoody (yes, that’s its real name) celebrated its 25th anniversary this year — and as it did so, it was acquired by Indian tech giant Infosys, once known for offshoring jobs. It is, says CEO Ben Wiener, a great time for an agency like Wongdoody. As the big advertising holding companies continue to fumble, Wongdoody is seeing double digit growth, he says. It is winning new business and expanding globally. A Wongdoody lifer, Wiener started at the company as an intern in 1994. Now he runs the show from his perch in Los Angles. We discuss industry trends at large as the year winds to a close and what’s next for in 2019.

13 Joulu 201831min

Days after Salesforce co-founder Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne closed on their purchase of Time, the new owners gave its editor, Edward Felsenthal, the additional title of CEO. Felsenthal joins Ad Lib to discuss his role in the negotiation process with the Benioffs – and where he plans to take things under the new ownership. Time is on something of a roll: it won an Emmy in 2017, a National Magazine Award in 2018 and will see nearly 2 billion video streams this year. And, despite declining print revenues, Time remains the largest U.S. print title in news, with 2 million subscribers.

6 Joulu 201838min

In 2015, when Julio Bruno took over as the chief executive at Time Out, it was taking on heavy losses. An executive who had held senior positions at Diageo and TripAdvisor, Bruno saw an opportunity. Now, three years on, as Time Out celebrates its 50th anniversary, Bruno has not only begun to turn the publisher around and make it digitally relevant, but he’s taken it public, leaned into an ecommerce strategy and is building a chain of physical market places.

29 Marras 201832min

After 14 years at Anomaly, founding partner Karina Wilsher will be assuming the global CEO title at the agency. Currently the global COO, Wilsher has long been groomed for the new role and will assume the chief executive position in January. True to its name, Anomaly is an outlier in its space, a non-traditional agency that was founded with a commitment to intellectual property and creating products. Wilsher joins me today to discuss the news and what it means for her and for Anomaly. We discuss its most famous product, the legal cannabis pen Dosist, the breaking down of the holding company model, Brexit — which the London-based Wilsher describes as a “shit show.” We get into the struggles of Anomaly’s parent company MDC Partners, evolving consumer behaviors and what 2019 looks like for Anomaly.

20 Marras 201828min