Imagine being in the middle of the moment of a content explosion for a major publication like the Huffington Post…and it feels about the same as if you were there with the Beatles when they went supernova.

Coming up, a music journalist turned content veteran, who is now charged with creating emerging products and  revenue streams for one of the most noteworthy  publications anywhere, The Washington Post, in a conversation that feels more like a master class in on the ethos and theory of content creation...

Jarrod Dicker, VP of Commercial Technology and Development at The Washington Post, joins hosts Natasha Cholerton Brown (COO of Clippn), Ritesh Gupta (Head of Content for Vayner Productions), and Michael Villasenor (Executive Creative Director of Product Design Experience for Hearst). 

In this episode:

• The evolution of content over time, from print to digital media to twitter, where content is the user’s identity
• Jarrod’s start as a content creator writing a music blog so he could get free tickets to shows
• Getting a job on the native marketing team at Huffington Post through a Craigslist ad
• The evolution of native marking and branded content from a relatively new concept to something that is done as standard, instead of something thoroughly planned and utilized to its fullest
• Learning from mistakes and gaining a proper perspective
• The need to move out of your comfort zone and unlearn what has worked in the past in order to push forward into a new era
• The importance of evaluating your brand’s value and strengths to find a business approach that works for them and not following trends, i.e. companies flocking to the subscription model because that is the current trend
• The evolution of branded content from brands teaming with publishers to get their products in front of more people and scale up to a way of sharing a brand’s story effectively rather than just distribution
• The need to transparency from outlets to show the work that goes into their content and why it is therefore worth spending money on a subscription and to lend validity to the product
• The danger of fake news and publications that put out misleading or falsified articles, and how publishers should be reacting to this trend
• The importance of reputation and the relationship between the writer and reader in news and content in general moving forward
• Jarrod shares a potential news publisher model that is closer to a music management model or early TV news
• Jarrod talks about fatherhood and his approach to exposing his two children to media
• How growing up in a musical household affected Jarrod’s exposure and early interactions with content and media and sparked his career
• Some of the industry leaders who inspire Jarrod

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