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The Digiday Podcast

Digiday

The Digiday Podcast is a weekly show on the big stories and issues that matter to brands, agencies and publishers as they transition to the digital age.

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  • 503 episodes
  • Updated July 28

Episodes503

Newest first
  • Jun 16, 2025 · 30 min

    Kimberly-Clark’s Patricia Corsi on the AI hype, Cannes jargon

    On this episode of the Digiday Podcast, Patricia Corsi, chief growth officer at Kimberly-Clark, joins hosts Kimeko McCoy and Tim Peterson to kick off Cannes Lions 2025. Corsi shares her approach to Cannes and how she's sifting through AI hype chatter to get to the real talk of Cannes. This episode marks the start of Digiday’s daily podcast coverage from Cannes. Tune in every day this week for fresh conversations with marketers, media execs and creatives on the ground.

  • Jun 10, 2025 · 43 min

    Cannes survival tips, WBD split, ad spend outlook and WPP’s big AI bet

    On this episode of the Digiday Podcast, co-hosts Kimeko McCoy, senior marketing reporter, and Tim Peterson, executive editor of video and audio, sit down with editor-in-chief Jim Cooper and executive news editor Seb Joseph to share their top tips for surviving Cannes Lions (18:06). Also on this episode: Warner Bros. Discovery’s plan to split into two companies, why the ad spend outlook isn’t as grim as expected, and WPP Media’s ambitious AI play.

  • Jun 3, 2025 · 36 min

    AI’s big moves at NYT, Business Insider and Meta + A Day in the Life of Marie Claire’s EIC Nikki Ogunnaike

    On this episode of the Digiday Podcast, co-hosts Kimeko McCoy, senior marketing reporter, and Tim Peterson, executive editor of video and audio. sit with Marie Claire’s EIC Nikki Ogunnaike about her day-to-day routine (14:42). Also on this episode: Amazon announces its first content licensing deal with a publisher, Business Insider makes staff cuts amid AI growth and Meta goes all in on AI ads.

  • May 27, 2025 · 41 min

    Google’s AI Mode, OpenAI’s io buy, Publicis’s Capitv8 capture + Google’s AI ads era with Dan Taylor

    This week’s episode recaps Google’s latest AI-related announcements, OpenAI’s hardware plans following its acquisition of io and Publicis Groupe’s purchase of Captiv8 to bolster its influencer marketing business. Then Google vp of global ads Dan Taylor (18:03) joins the show to discuss how the search giant is transforming its search advertising business for the AI era.

  • May 20, 2025 · 1 hr 2 min

    Upfront Week recap, Charter-Cox merger, Microsoft’s DSP shutdown + Horizon Media’s David Campanelli on the upfront market ahead

    Digiday senior reporter Sam Bradley joins the show this week to recap the highs and lows of last week’s Upfront Week presentations in New York City, two major pay-TV and internet providers’ merger plans and Microsoft’s decision to shut down its demand-side platform. Then (19:45) Horizon Media’s president of global investment David Campanelli breaks down the state of play as TV and streaming’s annual upfront ad marketplace gets under way.

  • May 6, 2025 · 1 hr 1 min

    Big Tech earnings, AI ads, Roku’s FrndlyTV acquisition + what’s in & out in this year’s upfront

    This week’s Digiday Podcast episode recaps the gloomy Q2 outlook in Meta’s, Amazon’s and Snap’s latest quarterly earnings reports, the roll-out of ads to AI chatbots and how Roku’s FrndlyTV acquisition could set it up to be a bigger streaming aggregator. Then Digiday senior media buying editor Michael Bürgi joins hosts Kimeko McCoy and Tim Peterson (19:27) to break down what are set to be the hot topics heading into this year’s TV and streaming advertising upfront market.

  • Apr 29, 2025 · 46 min

    Google’s Third-Party Cookie U-Turn + WTF are JBPs with Exverus Media’s Hillary Kupferberg

    On this week’s episode of the Digiday podcast co-hosts Kimeko McCoy, senior marketing reporter, and Tim Peterson, executive editor of video and audio, talk about Google’s U-turn, keeping its third-party cookies in Chrome after all and the ripple effects of its anti-trust case fallout. Also on this episode, Hillary Kupferberg, vp of performance marketing at Exverus Media, breaks down the art of the JBP (joint business plan) deal in retail media (18:58).

  • Apr 22, 2025 · 1 hr 1 min

    Google’s antitrust ruling, Netflix’s latest earnings + Digiday Reporters on Tariff Ripple Effects on Market & Advertising

    On the Digiday Podcast this week, hosts Kimeko McCoy, senior marketing reporter and Tim Peterson, executive editor of video and audio, discuss the ripple effects of President Donald Trump's tariffs on the marketing and advertising industry (18:20). To make sense of all the tariff talk, they are joined by senior marketing editor Kristina Monllos and senior reporter Sam Bradley. Also on this episode, Peterson and McCoy discuss big tech’s antitrust trials, including the long-awaited ruling in Google’s ad tech antitrust battle with the Justice Department, OpenAI’s rumored X-like social media network and Netflix’s latest earnings.

  • Apr 8, 2025 · 51 min

    Why retail media is still grappling with definition and spending uncertainties

    On the Digiday Podcast this week, hosts Kimeko McCoy, senior marketing reporter and Tim Peterson, executive editor of video and audio, discuss the TikTok ban’s second extension (yes, it has been extended yet again), tariff’s trickle down effects and why agency holding companies are looking to bolster the data capabilities. Also on this episode, Amie Owen (17:28), chief commerce officer at Kinesso, a performance marketing agency within IPG Mediabrands, breaks down how economic uncertainty impacts retail media spend negotiations, otherwise known as joint business planning (JBP), as well as what’s to blame for retail media’s executive dysfunction.

  • Mar 25, 2025 · 52 min

    AI-powered paywalls and the Trump Bump: A look inside the state of the publishing business

    Sara Jerde, managing editor at Digiday, joins this week's episode of the Digiday Podcast to talk about Apple's $1 billion streaming TV loss, Ben & Jerry's ousted CEO and of course, Perplexity's proposal to buy TikTok the countdown to the ban continues. Also on this episode, Digiday senior media reporter Sara Guaglione and senior entertainment media reporter Alexander Lee joined the Digiday Podcast to preview the hot topics likely to dominate discussions with publishers during the spring edition of the Digiday Publishing Summit (22:49).

  • Mar 18, 2025 · 52 min

    TikTok ban looms closer, leaving more questions than answers in its wake

    This week's episode of the Digiday Podcast covers recession fears and signals, and their impact on the market, how streaming networks are looking to scoop up YouTube creators for shows and Scope3’s plans to pivot, bringing the ad tech company into the AI era. Also on this episode, Digiday platforms reporter Krystan Scanlon walks through the ever-looming TikTok ban, and how it could impact marketers, users and creators alike.

  • Mar 11, 2025 · 57 min

    How Pinterest went from selling views to selling clicks and conversions, with CRO Bill Watkins

    This week's episode of the Digiday Podcast covers T-Mobile and Publicis Groupe's ad tech acquisitions amidst the "everything's an ad network" narrative, the TikTok ban tug-of-war and YouTube's new subscription service, Premium Lite. Also on this episode, Pinterest's chief revenue officer Bill Watkins walks through the platform's play for more ad dollars this year with AI-powered tools, a focus on performance marketing and balancing more ads with the user experience.

  • Mar 4, 2025 · 1 hr 3 min

    How to grow a creator-based newsletter business, with Puck’s Sarah Personette

    Puck’s famed journalist-centric publishing model is changing. Sort of. The news outlet debuted in 2021 with its journalists as the company’s audience-facing focal point, not the publication. People would subscribe less so to Puck than to Matthew Belloni’s or Julia Ioffe’s newsletters via Puck. And Puck’s journalists were, in part, compensated directly for the subscribers they attracted. Lately though, Puck’s newsletters have come to resemble publications in their own right. “You almost have sub-brands under Puck that are franchises anchored by core talent versus in probably that first two years, it was a newsletter anchored by core talent,” said Puck CEO Sarah Personette on the latest Digiday Podcast episode. Belloni’s entertainment-oriented “What I’m Hearing” newsletter, for example, has enlisted contributors like legal expert Eriq Gardner and, most recently, former The Hollywood Reporter editor Kim Masters. Similarly, Lauren Sherman’s fashion-centric “Line Sheet” regularly features entries from retail writer Sarah Shapiro and beauty journalist Rachel Strugatz. This development has coincided with Puck’s paid subscriber base growing by 30% in the past year, with Personette expecting the company to become profitable this year. “Putting journalists at the center of our model still exists, but what we are trying to do, as our subscriber base has experienced incredible growth over the last few years, we want to make sure that we’re rounding out the stories and we’re rounding out the coverage by bringing other journalists in,” said Personette. The expanding nature of Puck’s newsletters raises the question of to what extent does Puck’s compensation model also have to change. Puck gained a lot of initial attention for paying bonuses to its journalists for the new subscribers their articles attract as well as for the subscribers they retain. But how’s that work if an article by Masters attracts a subscriber via Belloni’s newsletter? “So [Belloni] is a franchise manager, and there are different benefits to being a franchise manager. And he also is driving a ton of his own subs. And then we also want to make sure that the individuals that are contributing to that franchise also get bonus-ed,” Personette said.

  • Feb 25, 2025 · 51 min

    What this year’s COPPA update means for marketers, with privacy expert Debbie Reynolds

    In January, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission finalized an updated version of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. And for as much attention as the update may have received, it probably merits more. “It is a big deal. And I think because there’s been so much other activity in the news, people haven’t really paid attention to it,” Debbie Reynolds, a privacy expert and founder, CEO and chief data privacy officer at Debbie Reynolds Consulting, said on the latest Digiday Podcast episode. The primary reason the COPPA update warrants attention is that it requires companies to receive verifiable parental consent before they can target ads to children. Clear cut as that requirement may appear to be, complying with it may be more complicated. “Part of the confusion around privacy and the challenge companies will have with the update of COPPA is trying to figure out how to do things like how do you get verifiable quote-unquote parental consent beyond just having someone click a button to say, ’Hey, yeah, my parents said, “Yes,“’” said Reynolds. Case in point: Will ad-supported streaming services start asking for parents to share copies of their driver’s licenses before their families can sit down to watch a show? And will parents be willing to do that? “Anything that you give to these companies, they’re collecting, they’re storing. And then that brings up, do I trust this company enough to give them my ID, especially seeing the rash of data breaches,” Reynolds said. “It’s just going to be challenging going forward to see how companies really try to handle this issue.”

  • Feb 18, 2025 · 49 min

    How Sundial Media Group CEO Kirk McDonald is navigating the DEI backlash

    The house built around diversity, equity and inclusion is coming apart brick by brick. Since last summer, brands, retailers, holding companies and, most recently the federal government, have been dismantling (or retooling) DEI initiatives, many of which were built up after the murder of George Floyd and subsequent Black Lives Matter Movement of 2020. The “diversity” portion of diversity, equity and inclusion has become divisive, impacting multicultural marketing agencies, Black-owned brands and diverse publications. And they're starting to feel the ripple effects, according to Kirk McDonald, CEO of Sundial Media Group, holding company for brands like Essence magazine, Afropunk festival and Refinery29. Although, he said, it’s too early to tell the full impact DEI’s retooling (or rebrand) will have on the industry in terms of media spend, marketing budgets or consumer habits. McDonald recently sat down with the Digiday Podcast to talk about how Sundial’s diverse publications, geared toward women and other historically marginalized communities, are navigating the pushback.

  • Feb 11, 2025 · 48 min

    If Google's cookie phase-out ever comes, here's what a cookie-less future looks like for Mars' chief brand officer Rankin Carroll

    Google’s long kiss goodnight with third-party cookies seems never-ending at this point, as the tech giant's cookie phase-out plans still remain unclear. Seemingly, Google's plan to ask Chrome users to opt in to cookie-based tracking is reflective of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) move a few years back. Sure, marketers have long since seen the writing on the wall with this. But, as the future of third-party cookies remains rather ambiguous, marketing and brand executives, including Rankin Carroll, global chief brand officer at Mars Snacking, have started eyeing partnerships and leveraging artificial intelligence to fill in the gaps, with an eye toward a cookie-less future. “We had what we had, and it was the norm for the standard for the industry,” Carroll said on a recent episode of the Digiday Podcast. “As we move beyond that, we're focused on innovating.” In talking with Digiday, Carroll laid out Mars’ plans to scale its first-party data across brands like M&Ms and Snickers and the role partnerships play in scaling said plans. Carroll also talked about Mars' Super Bowl stunt and rehashed the company's plans to acquire the Kellanova family of snack brands.

  • Feb 4, 2025 · 46 min

    How publishers pull YouTube viewers to shop on their sites, with Architectural Digest’s Amy Astley

    Last year Architectural Digest switched up its e-commerce strategy. Having added affiliate links to its “Open Door” YouTube series showcasing celebrities’ decked-out abodes in 2021, the Condé Nast-owned publication started redirecting viewers from the Google-owned video platform to its own site to shop the decor. “It’s a much, much deeper, richer experience for the user to go to our site. It’s more fully shopped-out there, and it’s more visual. We can put photos of all the items,” sad Amy Astley, global editorial director at Architectural Digest, on the latest Digiday Podcast episode. The strategy shift has coincided with the publication doubling its commerce revenue in the past two years. And it’s not like the previous approach of embedding affiliate links on-platform in the YouTube videos’ descriptions wasn’t working. But having a place on AD’s own site for people to shop the products featured in the “Open Door” videos seems to be working even more. “We saw a four-times increase in the revenue from ‘Open Door’ from shopping it out on the site,” said Astley, noting that AD highlights the link to the site in a pinned comment atop the videos’ comments feed on YouTube. Now AD is prepping another major update to its commerce strategy. In March, the publication plans to relaunch the AD Shopping commerce property that it launched in January 2024 and is home to the “Open Door” product showcases as well as shopping selections hand-picked by AD’s own team, including Astley. “The main overhaul that we look for this year is a lot more leaning into our staff picks, leaning more into the editors and to the designers, and integrating all the shopping content more fully across everything that we do,” said Astley. (00:00) - Intro (15:32) - Interview with Amy Astley