The old adage goes “every company is now a media company.”

The new approach is companies buying media companies, and OpenAI has joined the chat.

OpenAI has acquired popular tech industry talk show TBPN — Technology Business Programming Network — making this the AI giant’s first acquisition of a media company.

a daily live show that airs on YouTube and X for three hours, focusing on tech, business, AI, and defense.

The show has gained a cult following in Silicon Valley, a safe space where industry power players can speak candidly and be questioned by fellow insiders. The show has a reputation for being something of a Sports Center for the tech industry

Marketing 101 is to hang out where your audience already is.
Brands with bank accounts big enough want to own where their audience already hangs out.


Maybe we should be valuing AI hallucinations higher…


Operate where signal meets strategy


Gas Pump Economics

What happens when a vibecession meets an oil cliff?

We might be about to find out.

The world will be short some 350 million barrels of jet fuel and other refined crude products by the end of April

Compounding supply losses are pushing the world toward an “oil cliff” come April 19

average airfare over the past week was $465, up about 25% year-over-year and at least a seven-year high.

Elsewhere…

Amazon is adding a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge for third-party sellers in the U.S. and Canada.

“Elevated costs in fulfillment and logistics have increased the cost of operating across the industry,” Amazon wrote. “We have absorbed these increased costs so far. However, similar to other major carriers, when costs remain elevated, we implement temporary surcharges on our fulfillment fees to recover a portion of the actual cost increases we are experiencing.”

The gas pump is one of the clearest indicators for consumers. Shoppers only feel as rich as their bank account balance, inflation and rising fuel prices eat away at that faster than they’d like.

The summer travel market could be in for a big hit. And if / when shipping increases get passed through to shoppers, it could be an austere summer.

Memorial Day could be sluggish, or it could explode is shoppers enter deal seeking mode and wait for holiday discounts.


This is not a marketing plan…

Step 1: In development
Step 2: TBD
Step 3: We’ll know it when we see it
Step 4: Scale
Step 5: Profit


Compared to February, consumers are now more confident about current conditions. Or sentiment is down.

One story is the same across both surveys, expectations are trending down.

Trickle down economics does exist, when the trickle is starting with the slot machine spinning at the gas pump.


This diagram has become my labyrinth


ChatGPT ads are going well for OpenAI and soon more advertisers will have access.

Self-serve advertiser access is on track to launch in April

No word yet on if/how the premium minimums and pricing from the beta will apply to self-serve.


🚨 Ecomm and catalog advertisers on Meta, you may want to check your ad previews today.

The transition from square to 4:5 vertical images is coming to catalog ads. You may have some weird crops if you were using overlays and images optimized for square viewing.

Per Meta’s design specifications for carousel ads:

The 4:5 aspect ratio is only available for Advantage+ catalog ads that are created using the carousel format and with product images from your catalog.

Expect 4:5 to be the new default soon and prep your designers accordingly.


Sell for today or build for tomorrow