Holiday Giveaway and 2025!

What's On Tap

• Giveaway Time!!

• Top Stories of 2024

• What I’m Watching In 2025

• Trivia, Oh Baby!

Giveaway Time!!

It’s the season of giving and I’m here to do my part.

I’m giving away $25 Chic Fil A gift cards to two subscribers. Here’s how to get it:

1. Refer 4 friends to Make That Make Sense by using the referral code down below (friends must have at least some interest in the business of media)

2. Follow Make That Make Sense on X (@MTMSTalkShow) and subscribe to the YouTube channel (@MakeThatMakeSense)

Top Stories of 2024

AI Companies and Publishers cuddle up

Since the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, AI companies and publishers had been at a relative standstill. Publishers cried foul as AI companies began using publisher content without permission, in order to consistently improve their models.

In 2024, the two sides seem to have come to a compromise. This year we saw several licensing agreements between AI/Tech companies and publishers. These agreements give AI/Tech companies legal permission to use publisher content to improve their models, as well as, provide publishers with an influx of cash. We covered the OpenAI - DotDash Meredith licensing agreement with Vox Media’s President of Revenue and Growth, Ryan Pauley, back in November. Here are some more deals that happened this year.

• Vox Media and Open AI agree to licensing partnership

• Perplexity agrees to licensing partnership with ADWeek and the Los Angeles Times

• Microsoft signs licensing deal with Axel Springer

• Meta signs licensing with Reuters

Legacy Media Downsizing

For Cable TV, 2024 could aptly be described as a not good, very bad year. Back in August, Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery both wrote down their Cable TV assets by $9.1 Billion and $6 Billion respectively. In November, Comcast announced the spin off of their cable assets.

Once a lucrative asset, cable networks are now having a miserable time trying to compete with streaming competitors. Consumer viewing habits have fundamentally shifted towards streaming, allowing streaming platforms to raise prices and become profitable for the first time. In 2025, expect to see streaming services continue to act like the cable companies they’ve unseated, by raising subscription prices and adding more advertising in order to become more profitable.

Retail Media Gold Rush 

With the decline of third party cookies, accessing first party data has become absolutely critical for CPG brands. As a result, 2024 marked a huge year for retail media investment. Many companies with tons of first party data, like United Airlines and Paypal, introduced their own media networks in 2024, giving brands increased visibility into the habits and behavior of their customers.

While Amazon still dominates the retail media landscape, other major retailers like Walmart, experienced increased revenue growth in 2024 for their retail media networks. More partnerships between retail media networks and social media/streaming platforms are coming in 2025, as we saw this year between NBC and Walmart, as well as Amazon’s integration with TikTok.

What I’m Watching In 2025

Creators Go Corporate

As a new grad entering the job market for the first time, I’m astounded by the increase of content related roles being posted for companies outside of media. As companies shift away from traditional advertising and pour more money into organic content, companies of all shapes and sizes are hiring niche content creators to help expand the companies’ visibility across social channels. In fact, I’ve been working in a content focused role at the Danish Investment firm, Nordic Bloom, in Copenhagen since graduating college.

I expect “content focused” roles at all types of companies to grow exponentially in 2025. Not only do these content focused roles represent a new evolution of companies’ marketing and communications partnerships, but these roles also provide creators with greater stability than they have by being independent.

The Future of TikTok

January 19th will be a critical day for the media world. The future of TikTok is very much in the air and while President Elect Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to delay the impending TikTok ban, there is still a chance that come Inauguration Day, the digital media, influencer and e-commerce spaces will be turned upside down. It is worth mentioning that one of several candidates, including former LA Dodgers owner, Frank McCourt, has expressed serious interest in buying TikTok, reportedly raising $20 billion from a group of investors. McCourt has proposed overhauling TikTok’s business model. (Reuters)

If TikTok is banned, it’s hard to know how successful other social platforms will be at integrating TikTok’s massive U.S. user base. Other platforms like Youtube, Linkedin and Spotify have all implemented short form video, but the bigger looming question relates to the future of live shopping in the U.S. . TikTok Shop has been the main catalyst of live shopping growth in the U.S. and it’s unknown as of now what will happen to the booming industry if TikTok is banned.

Traditional Media M&A

As we’ve talked about across a number of episodes, we’re likely to see increased Media M&A activity in 2025. The Skydance - Paramount Merger is scheduled to be completed during the first half of 2025. Industry analysts also expect Comcast, Disney and Fox Corp to be active in the M&A space in the upcoming year. However, as our first guest, Mike Beyman, the Head of Strategy and Business Operations at ADWeek, explained, media consolidation hasn’t historically shown to be that effective economically. Whether past precedent will dissuade future major media M&A is yet to be seen.

Trivia, Oh Baby!

Make That Make Sense is back with our first episode of 2025 on January 10th! Subscribe to the Youtube channel to get notified!!