Digiday Live

At the Digiday Agency Summit, we cut through the BS and got to some hard truths about the internet, programmatic, social and much more. In this session, Fred & Associates founder Jen Brady took the stage with Digiday’s brands reporter Tanya Dua to engage in some verbal jousting on today’s most pervasive media and marketing buzzwords like "Snapchat," "big data" and "live streaming."

Brady makes a particular point about digital experiences, specifically on the internet: "Print is coming back in great strides because of experiences. We are not creating experiences on the internet anymore."

Many are doubting Snapchat as a media vehicle, but not Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore. He joined Digiday editor-in-chief Brian Morrissey for an on-stage discussion on the future of content on phones and focusing on a brand with a specific audience. Edited highlights below.

Publishers that leaned on the distributed model got burned last year, Smith pointed out. But those that were true to their brands -- and focused on what differentiates them -- will persevere. At the Digiday Publishing Summit in Vail, Colorado, Bloomberg Media’s CEO Justin Smith came equipped with a survival guide for publishers in 2017.

Transparency is at the top of every agency’s list of priorities. In this session from the Digiday Agency Summit in Nashville, Tennessee, Noble People CEO Greg March delivered some home truths on the topic.

Harris Diamond is in the process of reinvigorating McCann, a huge holding company. In this conversation at the Digiday Agency Summit in Nashville, Tennessee, he and Digiday managing editor Shareen Pathak had a controversy-stirring talk about where the agency business is going. Diamond is a distinct optimist, which led to some disagreements.

In a climate befogged by fake news and platform distribution, publishers everywhere are grappling with how to establish - or re-establish - direct connections with their readers. Fortunately, if your brand is strong enough, people will reward you. Or, as Robert Bridge, chief customer officer of Telegraph Media Group, says in this session, "The propensity for people to pay for media has definitely changed in recent years."

In January 2017, News Corporation executives gathered in New York City to discuss the state of the duopoly for media companies in North America. Dominic Carter, News UK’s chief commercial officer, joined us in Lisbon in February to discuss the power of these twin social platforms: "That threat is not going away," he says in this session, moderated by Digiday's UK editor Jess Davies.

It helps to get advice from the experts, and when it comes to digital advantages, BuzzFeed wrote the book. In this session, BuzzFeed France editor in chief Cécile Dehesdin offers up some insider advice on how publishers can make the most of their unique digital advantages.

“We get advantages from being an online, social web company that other media such broadcast or print don’t necessarily have,” she says.

The Atlantic’s AtlanticLIVE events arm has dramatically changed the media company’s financial outlook. Steve Clemons, DC editor for The Atlantic, likens the events process to making journalism "3D" - "fantastic storytelling, fantastic journalism, supported by underwriters," he explains.

In this conversation with Digiday editor in chief Brian Morrissey, Clemons discusses the impact of the U.S. election on news coverage and how events play a critical part of a successful business model.

Rory Brown, president of the Bleacher Report, joined Digiday’s Senior Reporter, Sahil Patel, for a discussion about the Facebook-Google duopoly at an event for Digiday Pulse.