jonah peretti – Jason Toney

“Whenever things go wrong, whenever things go left, you can be in charge” – Maxwell, Listen Hear

Will we continue to invest and experiment in bringing our brands to digital spaces (and in new and interesting ways) even though the money might not be there yet?

The vast majority of the budgets in the entertainment industry are focused on declining traditional platforms like linear television and cable. That wealth of creative expression needs to be redeployed to digital networks, where creative people can connect more closely with massive audiences and where it is possible to directly serve more diverse audiences as well as for people to share media with those who matter in their lives. Social platforms are reaching more people and having a bigger impact, but they are still not taken seriously by the biggest media companies with the most resources to invest, and this is limiting our collective creative culture. — Jonah Peretti, Founder and CEO of BuzzFeed

Others are.

Will programmatic ad buyers be shamed into paying for quality?

“Honestly, the long tail is to advertising what subprime was to mortgages. No one knows what’s in it, but it helps people believe that there is a mysterious tonnage of impressions that are really low cost. But low-cost impressions would mean low-cost human attention. How can any publisher of quality content survive on low-cost impressions?” —Joe Marchese, President of advertising products for the Fox Networks Group

Will we embrace the idea that audience whims can change every day, every hour, every moment?

Will we reconsider the role and responsibilities of content recommendations engines on our pages? We trade our most valuable click real estate for dollars and maybe a bit of our souls.

Will we come up with good reasons (and good ideas) to be on even more platforms?

Will we talk more about voice?

Will we take the time to be more thoughtful in our decision-making? Will we give ourselves the space and time to sit with data, to ask the right questions, to seek the right answers, to be creative, and to do right by those that read and watch what we make?

In 2017, I hope the industry stops chasing it’s tail or the holy grail of scale and pursues something more meaningful: earning trust, respect, and an emotional connection with the real people that make up the elusive “audience.”

I know it’s what I’m going to be advocating for at every opportunity come Tuesday.

“If I were you I would say yes.” – Margaret “Shug” Avery, Maybe God Is Tryin’ to Tell You Somethin’

Make something people will love.

“We used to have Internet companies we loved. This isn’t rose-tinted nostalgia about The Good Old Days; The apps were uglier, and harder to use, and less popular back then. But we rooted for the companies that made them, because we knew that the people who made Flickr, or Blogger, or Movable Type, or Upcoming, or Manila, or Delicious, or countless other early social apps really loved the web. We loved the web because it changed our lives, permanently and for the better. That is, in fact, what I was really grieving for almost a year ago when I wrote The Web We Lost. But I was wrong. That web isn’t lost. It’s just dormant.”

— Anil Dash

Make something people need.

“The world needs sustainable, profitable, vibrant content companies staffed by dedicated professionals; especially content for people that grew up on the web, whose entertainment and news interests are largely neglected by television and newspapers.”

— Jonah Peretti

Know why you’re making it.

“[T]he best brands focus not on what they do or how they do it, but why they do it. Find your why and you’ve found your story. Transcend category by focusing on your role in people’s lives. Compelling brand stories speak to values, to what your brand stands for and why it exists.”

— Scott Donaton

Be the change.

“The job of the change agent is not just to surface high-minded ideas. It is to summon a sense of urgency inside and outside the organization, and to turn that urgency into action. It’s one thing for leaders to use fresh eyes to devise a new line of sight into the future. It’s quite another to muster the rank-and-file commitment to turn a compelling vision into a game-changing performance. My friend and Fast Company cofounder Alan Webber puts it well. Progress, he likes to say, is a math formula. It only happens when the cost of the status quo is greater than the risk of change. That’s why the third principle of change is for leaders to encourage a sense of dissatisfaction with the status quo, to persuade their colleagues that business as usual is the ultimate risk, not a safe harbor from the storms of disruption.”

— Bill Taylor

Think the best of people.

“Design everything on the assumption that people are not heartless or stupid but marvelously capable, given the chance.”

— John Chris Jones

Know your principles and values.

“Designers would do well to embrace this parent-as-designer comparison. There are limits to how much you can control the life of something you’ve created. What matters is being clear about your principles. Then you can have faith that the final product will turn out fine.”

— Baratunde Thurston

Quit coasting.

“I want you to think about something.
Maybe you’re like me: coasting along, doing okay, not lacking for anything material. You have a good life.
What else is there? Oh, that’s right: everything.”

— Chris Guillebeau

Okay.

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The Questions: 2017 Work Edition

My Tumblr is Tryin’ to Tell Me Somethin’