Paper to Pixel
An interview with Bustle Digital Group president Jason Wagenheim
This week’s newsletter features episode 3 of the Cadence Talks, a series of full-length video conversations with some of the music industry’s most interesting individuals available to our premium subscribers.
If you are a free subscriber, you can continue to enjoy our regular newsletter each week. If you want to support The Cadence and get access to full-length video talks and other bonus content, click here.
It might be hard to believe, but magazine advertising was invented in 1741 by, wait for it… Benjamin Franklin, who used money earned by selling space in the Philadelphia Gazette to grow it into the largest newspaper in the colonies. That model of ads supplementing revenue from sales remained the dominant way of doing business for newspapers and magazines for over 250 years.
But in the early 2000s, the first cracks began to form in the financial foundation of publishing as online outlets started to slowly eat away at print readership. In response, publishers scrambled to fill the gaps with low-margin online ads and high-dollar marketing activations that would become known as branded content.
Jason Wagenheim was a pioneer in this new way of doing business — starting his career in digital sales for titillating titles like Maxim and Blender before moving on up to Conde Nast, Time Inc. and, since 2016, Bustle Digital Group. The path from paper to pixel hasn’t been easy for anyone. But with nearly a quarter-century of experience, Jason is a rare breed of businessman who has managed the transitions.
“The real change really happened in 2007 when the smartphone came out,” he recalls of the biggest shift since the Gutenberg press. “Now you have the power of your social media in your hand. And by the way, the thing that's also powering it is also your phone and your camcorder. And it's got all these fun little apps that make it easy. That really turbo’d the decline of ink on paper and changed what magazine brands actually did for their readership. It changed the terms of engagement.”
Since the iPhone replaced the magazine rack, publishing has been in a constant state of upheaval — blogging, pivot-to-video, short-form content, long-form content, quizzes, clickbait, etc. And Jason insists things will not slow down anytime in the future.
“We are in a permacrisis,” he explains, not just for publishing or marketers but the world at large. “If it's not COVID, it's supply chain. Or it's war in Ukraine, or it's inflation or it's media businesses having thousands and thousands of layoffs. The sooner you can accept that. The sooner you can get on with your day and realize, okay, what am I going to do today?”
The next crisis, by all accounts, is going to be AI and the ability of large language models to devalue knowledge work in the same way automation threatened factory labor in the 70s and 80s. So-called content farmers probably do have reason to worry. But Jason insists that the ability to craft high-quality editorial and pair it with exciting IRL experiences will remain the domain of humans, at least for a while.
“There's three things that we can, that we can do that robots or chat will never replace. The first is premium content — beautiful photography, well-styled photos, really great storytelling,” he begins. “The second is access to talent. How do we think about influencers in a different way? How do we tap talent to tell great stories for our partners and our readers? And the third is around experiential. We had a fucking awesome time at Coachella this year. We raised millions of dollars in sponsorship. We had thousands of people come through the two activations that we did. AI is never going to replace an IRL experience.”
It’s also less likely that AI, trained on existing data, will excel at discovering new innovations. At least not without humans at the helm. Imagine AI trying to come up with Bustle’s blend of “color, shape, size, political, racial, sexual orientation” if it only had pre-2013 women’s magazine data to deal with.
“In 2013, women's lifestyle media consisted of mostly tall, very skinny white girls,” he admits. “There were no people of color. There was no conversation about body positivity or inclusivity. Bustle launched to reach every girl that was between the coasts, not just the girl that went to F.I.T. and interned at Vogue and had no idea what was happening in the middle of the country.”
One might also wonder how a middle-aged white man such as Jason has thrived in a woke workplace where righteous demands for equality can sometimes paint those with privilege in a strictly adversarial light.
“I don't know why or how it happened,” Jason laughs. “I've always been in women's lifestyle media for the most part. I was at Vanity Fair, Glamour for a heartbeat. I was 40 years old and the publisher of Teen Vogue. That would never happen now for all the reasons you can imagine.
“But what I can tell you is I have a lot of great women around me who have been mentors and friends,” he continues. “I surround myself with really incredible women who important things about how to be a gentleman and how to treat people right.”
“It keeps me relevant,” he concludes. “I'm very grateful for that. Just being open-minded and, I hate to use the word, but an ally.”
Like we already said, if you want to watch our full 60-minute Cadence Talks conversation with Jason Wagenheim, click here and upgrade to one of our paid tiers to get access to all of the premium material.
TAKEAWAYS
Salient statements from this week’s music news.
1. The Hype Around Copyright Royalty Board Reform
Calls to change the process by which royalties are set will serve high-priced lawyers more than the musicians they claim to represent.
Takeaway: Rather than making the bubble bigger, make the table longer. Another way to make the CRB process more efficient is for there to be less of it because more was decided through voluntary agreements among more people.
2. Tidal Joins Rivals in Raising Monthly Prices
The post-pandemic subscription squeeze proves that DSP will raise their prices, but only when their own revenues are affected.
Takeaway: Subscription revenue in the U.S. took a dip in 2022, to 7.2% growth from 22.2% in 2021, according to the RIAA. With subscriptions now accounting for 58% of all U.S. recorded music revenue, overall revenue growth slowed to 6.1% from 23.2% the prior year.
3. TikTok’s Parent Has Launched an AI Music Making App
TikTok can’t function without music. But it might be able to live without labels.
Takeaway: It’s hard to avoid the impression that TikTok is positioning itself to be an all-in-one shop for music creators. Use Ripple to generate a song and turn it into a track, then take it to SoundOn for distribution on TikTok and other platforms. No labels – major, indie or otherwise – needed.
