Family Style, Family Size (EXCLUSIVE): A decade ago, Complex built First We Feast, along with franchises like Hot Ones, into a pop culture goliath. Now, after losing First We Feast in the BuzzFeed divorce, Complex is keen to try again. Last week, the company announced its plan to turn Family Style, the food festival it acquired two years ago, into a year-round food media brand. The franchise has expanded from one event to seven and will soon debut four new series of original programming. The company’s goal is to cross $20 million in revenue this year. One of its new shows? An interview series where the host and guest eat a series of fortune cookies, as hilarity presumably ensues. The premise feels oddly familiar …
Pulled Quotes
“[Zaslav]’s like a funeral parlor attendant who dressed up the corpse, made it look good enough for the funeral—good enough to sell—and is getting away with half a billion dollars.”
An anonymous Hollywood executive, on David Zaslav’s stewardship of WBD
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“[Allbirds] is not the only brand that soared in the 2010s on the back of enthusiasm from young shoppers only to come crashing back down in the past few years.”
The Economist, on the decline of millennial brands like Allbirds, Casper, and Warby Parker
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“When I realized that there was not going to be any context given, I was a little annoyed.”
Podcast fan Jordan Blair, on the downside of video-first podcasts
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“You wanna go to a thousand-dollar dinner and have an amazing evening and then sometimes get a gift on top of it and be paid for it? It’s crazy.”
Bravo celebrity Jeff Lewis, on the allure of Fan Social
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Quote/Unquote
Christine Cook is the chief commercial officer of Bloomberg Media, which last week hosted its Upfront presentation, an annual showcase of new editorial programming, ad products, and technology. The publisher, a division of Bloomberg L.P., has found itself at the nexus of several favorable trends: It serves an affluent business audience, produces reams of premium video programming, and has a largely benevolent billionaire owner.
As such, it has benefitted from many of the paradigm shifts that are otherwise upending the media industry, notching a 6% increase in first quarter advertising growth, a 30% increase in sponsorship revenue from live events, and 4.5% growth in hours watched. The privately held media company now has more than 720,000 paying subscribers, up 10% year over year.
This interview has been edited.
Mark Stenberg: What new products did Bloomberg Media unveil at its Upfront last week?
Christine: Much of our focus was on doubling down on what is working. We expanded The Weekend, which we launched last year, by adding new talent and programming. We talked about the expansion of Bloomberg Live, which has seen huge growth and helped us achieve an 82% client retention rate. We also mentioned Bloomberg New Economy Forum, which spotlights the next wave of economic growth and will convene in India this October.