The New Rules of Media | Marc Andreessen & Ben Horowitz
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What are the new rules of media in the internet era?
One rule of old media is don't be interested. Like, that's the worst thing you can do. There is no way to get to anything resembling a story that you're gonna like through the traditional media anymore. Like, it's just basically not possible.
Old media, you had very restricted channels with very restricted formats. New media is unlimited formats, unlimited channels. And the brand is now the person. The grand wizard of this is Alex Karp.
If you watch his interviews, he never talks about Palantir. Everybody just naturally thinks inside out, me and my company and my product out into the world.
How is the shift from legacy media to creator-led platforms changing communication?
Don't think that way. Think in terms of like, what are the most interesting things happening in the world? And then how do those things relate to us?
Old media is defense-oriented. New media is offense. Talk more about why that is.
There's still this anxiety that people have, which is legacy media somehow is like where the respectability or the prestige is. I don't believe that anymore. And I think it's very important for people to kind of get that out of their system.
For decades, most public communication flowed through a small number of institutions.
Why is authenticity a competitive advantage for founders?
Television networks, newspapers, magazines, and a handful of gatekeepers determined which stories were told and who got to tell them. That world is changing. Today, founders, creators, investors, and operators can communicate directly with audiences through social media platforms, newsletters, podcasts, and video. The result is a new set of rules for how ideas spread, how brands are built, and how influence works. Recorded live at the New Media Summit, this conversation explores the rise of direct communication, the decline of traditional gatekeepers, and what founders can learn from the people who have successfully built audiences in the internet era.
So first, I just want to say it's Gabby's birthday today. Welcome, Gabby, to the firm. Thanks. I'm so excited the Knicks won in five for many reasons. But one is that Ben had four seats to game six and wasn't going to make it today.
How can founders build audiences through direct communication?
And so we're so lucky that we get to have Ben here. And Mark, not a huge basketball guy, but he did tweet about how Jalen Brunson, he had a comment that he operates purely on instinct, not on introspection. And Mark appreciates that. Retard Maxing, obviously working. Exactly. many people are saying across industries. And so I actually think that's a pretty interesting segue because one of the rules of new media, Mark, that we were talking about with the CEO last week in our growth portfolio is authenticity and sort of being able to have the same conversations on camera that you would have in person behind closed doors. Why don't you talk about that a bit more and why that's so important to really nail in terms of nailing your voice and how to build that presence?
Because a lot of mistakes that founders will make is trying to be too buttoned up, trying to be too media trained, et cetera, as we uncover the new rules of new media.
What mistakes do founders make in their media strategies?
Why don't you start there?
Yeah, so I had this really formative experience when I was younger. So in the 90s, when Ben and I were coming up, you know, it was pre-blogs, pre-YouTube, all this stuff. And so in those days, the assumption was 100% of what you did, if you were running a company or doing anything, was you're going to have to work through established media, legacy media. And then everybody would get, of course, media trained in how to do it. And most painful experience in the world. Oh, yeah.
So for people who haven't been through media training, it's actually...
Yeah. So, okay.
How does storytelling impact brand building in new media?
So here's how media training works. I don't really still do it, but do they still do it? You guys still do it? Okay. Okay. So people who haven't been through it. Yeah. So it's like you get put in front of a camera in your face and then somebody like who you think is your friend, they do the full 60 minutes interview with you for like an hour. And then they literally make you sit there and watch it, which is just like the meanest thing you could do to somebody.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What are the new rules of media in the internet era?
0:00–0:35
2
How is the shift from legacy media to creator-led platforms changing communication?
0:35–0:59
3
Why is authenticity a competitive advantage for founders?
0:59–1:52
4
How can founders build audiences through direct communication?
1:52–2:42
5
What mistakes do founders make in their media strategies?
2:42–3:07
6
How does storytelling impact brand building in new media?
3:07–3:26
7
What role does personal branding play for CEOs in today's media landscape?
3:26–3:40
8
What advice do experts have for founders navigating new media challenges?
3:40–41:00
Speakers
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