Good afternoon!

The Medium delivers in-depth analyses of the media marketplace’s transformation as creators, tech companies and 10 million emerging advertisers revolutionize the business models for “premium content”.

[Author’s Note: I had a fun conversation with Cathy Hackl, a globally recognized tech leader and futurist, in her AdWeek podcast “TechMagic” (NOTE: it starts 32 minutes in). It covers generative AI in media, spatial computing and my Medium Shift column “Media Executives Covet Games, but Are Ill-Suited to Run Them”.

Cathy delivered a terrific talk on spatial computing at DLD 24 in January.]

A shareholder letter from Matrix Asset Advisors to the board of directors Paramount Global was released while I was editing today's essay. The essay analyzes the proposed Paramount-Skydance merger based on "Three Guidelines To Understand This "Weird" Market Moment In Media", and the shareholder letter expresses “distress” at the proposed deal terms.

I believe the complaints from Matrix are worth adding to the essay, so I will be writing a longer essay for Thursday. Odds are the news cycle will deliver more things to add by then.

In the meantime, I recommend reading these essays for some key questions to be asking about the Paramount-Skydance merger:

1. "Comcast's Future Looks More Xumo Than Peacock" (April 2023)
2. "Is It Charter's or Comcast's Wicked Game Against Disney?" (September 2023)
   
3. "Imagining Paramount Global's Future Post-Skydance Acquisition" (December 2023)
4. "YouTube, FASTs Share Suboptimal Models for Connected TV Growth" (April 2024)