What we are thinking about.
Notes from running 8 publications and building tools for them. Restaurant SEO, local marketing, the boring parts that move the needle.
Nike’s World Cup Circus: Marketing Gimmicks Dressed as 'Collabs' and the Cult of Surprise
Nike’s 'surprise' World Cup cast isn’t a marketing revolution. It’s another round of influencer-driven noise, dressed up as innovation and risk-taking.
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World Cup 2026: $50M Sponsor Tax and CPMs That Would Make Wall Street Blush
World Cup 2026 ad buys aren’t investments — they’re ransom notes. If you’re swallowing $50M CPM packages, you’re not bold; you’re bait.
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CMOs in Chicago Admit What’s Actually Broken—But Are Still Too Chicken to Fix It
Chicago’s CMO confab turned into a therapy circle for execs too scared to fix what they know is broken. Don’t call it strategy—call it stalling.
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Penske Media Circles the Last Vox Leftovers—And the Industry’s Rotted Logic
Penske Media is eyeing the last of Vox Media’s unsold brands, in a deal that’s less about strategy and more about cleaning up after a decade of VC delusion.
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Publicis’ Carla Serrano Calls Out the AI Boys’ Club: Women Get Squeezed Out as Execs Chase the Next Shiny Algorithm
Carla Serrano of Publicis is calling out the agency world: as AI hype takes over, women are being pushed out of leadership. The fix? Make real diversity cost money.
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AI Isn’t Your Brain—Stop Letting It Do the Thinking for You
If you’re letting AI do your thinking, you’re not just lazy—you’re forgettable. AI is a sounding board, not a substitute for actual brains.
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Why Google and Agencies Want You to Love AI Cannibalization in 2026
By June 2026, over 55% of indexed content is AI-generated and at least 30% of SERPs are pure cannibal soup. Don't believe the hype machines.
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Vox Media’s Yard Sale: Popsugar, She Media, and the Revolving Door of Execs
Vox Media’s portfolio fire sale is the last gasp of the failed digital media roll-up model. Execs are fleeing, and Penske smells blood.
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LiveRamp Just Lost Its 'Switzerland' Status—And Agencies Know It Means War
Publicis’ LiveRamp buyout just detonated the illusion of data neutrality. Agencies aren’t sticking around to see their secrets piped to a rival.
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Google’s Native Checkout: Nowhere Left to Hide from the Ad Machine
Google just turned every YouTube video and Search result into a storefront. If you’re not plugged into their native checkout, you’re already obsolete.
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Viant’s ‘Bias Targeting’ for CTV: The Ad Industry’s Latest Exercise in Faux Objectivity
Viant’s new ‘news bias’ targeting for CTV is just more adtech theater—outsourcing judgment to algorithms instead of demanding real due diligence.
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MS NOW Taps Sandi Cohen as Executive Producer—Will NBC Let Her Do Anything Interesting?
Sandi Cohen, fresh off a senior producer role at CNN, is taking the reins of NBC’s new MS NOW show. But will the network let her do anything that matters?
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James Murdoch Slices Up Vox Media, Guts Media Nostalgia—Welcome to the Billionaire Chop Shop
James Murdoch is carving up Vox Media, handing New York Magazine and Vox to CEO Jim Bankoff while the rest is left for scraps. This isn’t a rescue—it’s a billionaire’s part-time hobby.
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Squarespace's 2026 SEO Tools Are a Trap: Why Publishers Should Run, Not Walk, Away
Squarespace rolled out its 2026 SEO toolkit promising simplicity, but it still buries publishers under lazy defaults and misleading metrics.
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Why Every '10x SEO Agency' Selling AI Content in 2026 Deserves a Loud Call-Out
By early 2026, over 70% of agencies calling themselves ‘10x SEO’ are pushing AI-generated content with zero strategy or value. This grift needs to end.
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GPT-5 Turbo’s SEO Impact Exposed: Why AI Content Alone Tanks Rankings in 2026
GPT-5 Turbo was released in early 2026 with sweeping claims about changing SEO content. Reality check: Google still punishes lazy AI content without human rigor.
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DoorDash Taps Former Amazon Marketing Head Tim Castree—But Does He Really Move the Needle?
DoorDash’s new CMO, ex-Amazon’s Tim Castree, faces the brutal task of turning marketing hype into real, sustainable growth in an overcrowded delivery market.
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Amazon’s Affiliate Program Slashes Commissions and Dismantles Reporting: Publishers Left Holding the Bag
Amazon has cut affiliate commissions by up to 50% and gutted reporting tools, leaving publishers scrambling to salvage their commerce revenue streams. This move exposes the dangers of over-reliance on platform-dependent affiliate programs.
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