Join Recode Senior Correspondent Peter Kafka for a series of unscripted conversations with top executives on industry trends, evolving consumption habits, and how the current upheaval in media may bring about lasting change. Here are some themes Peter will explore:
- How networks, studios, and streaming services are evolving as entertainment consumption habits shift
- Big-picture view of how the pandemic has accelerated industry trends
- Opportunities for ad-supported media and the Google/Facebook duopoly
- Covering the 2020 election in an increasingly fragmented media world and polarized environment
This series will give you a front-row seat to his trademark hard-hitting journalism and analysis, and will offer a behind-the-scenes look into how executives are navigating this moment and identifying future opportunities.
Peter Kafka is known for his hard-hitting interviews that cut through the PR noise and break the news, putting him among the Influencer Index’s Top 50 Journalists CEOs Follow. He recently hosted Land of the Giants: The Netflix Effect, which won Adweek's 2020 Podcast of the Year: TV and Streaming. Host of the weekly Recode Media podcast and producer of the annual Code Media conference, Kafka has been covering the media industry for over 20 years — with a focus on its convergence with technology.
Dentsu is a modern marketing solutions company. Our mission is to help clients navigate, progress, and thrive in a world of change. Businesses rely on our integrated network of agencies and specialized practices to champion meaningful progress through creative, media, commerce, data, and technology. Part of dentsu group, our global network comprises 66,000 diverse people in 143 countries, who are dedicated to teaming for growth and good. Some of our award-winning agencies include 360i, Carat, dentsumcgarrybowen, DEG, dentsu X, iProspect, and Merkle. Follow us on Twitter @dentsuUSA and visit dentsu.com/us.
Michael Nathanson is a senior research analyst at MoffettNathanson, covering both the media industry and the leading digital advertising companies. For the past decade, Nathanson has been consistently named one of the leading media analysts in the US by Institutional Investor magazine. Prior to co-founding MoffettNathanson with Craig Moffett in 2013, Nathanson worked at Sanford Bernstein from 1998 to 2010 and at Nomura from 2010 to 2013. Before he began working on Wall Street, he held strategic planning and financial analysis positions at Time Warner, Cablevision, and MGM. He received a BA from Brandeis University and a master’s degree from the Yale School of Management. Nathanson lives in Scarsdale, New York, with his wife and two children.
Lydia Polgreen is an award-winning journalist and media executive who currently serves as head of content at Gimlet, a Spotify Studio. Prior to that, Polgreen served as editor in chief of HuffPost, leading a team of more than 600 journalists publishing 16 editions in nine languages. She joined HuffPost in January 2017 after a 15-year career at the New York Times that included roles as associate masthead editor, deputy international editor, South Africa bureau chief, a correspondent for the New Delhi bureau, and chief of the West Africa bureau. Before joining the Times, Polgreen was a staff writer for the Orlando Sentinel and the Albany Times Union.
She received her B.A. in liberal arts from St. John’s College in 1997. In 2000 she graduated, with honors, from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism with her M.S. in journalism.
Polgreen was a 2006 recipient of the George Polk Award for foreign reporting, in recognition of her travels deep into the war-torn western regions of Sudan to report on the carnage in Darfur. She received the 2009 Livingston Award for international reporting for her series, “The Spoils,” a riveting account of how mineral wealth has brought misery and exploitation to much of Africa. In 2007, she was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. In 2011, she was awarded the Columbia University Medal for Excellence.
Polgreen serves on the Board of Overseers of the Columbia Journalism Review and the Board of Directors of the Committee to Protect Journalists. Polgreen grew up in Kenya, Ghana, and Minnesota. She currently resides in New York with her wife, documentary photographer Candace Feit.
Robert M. Bakish is president and chief executive officer of ViacomCBS. Bakish oversees one of the world’s leading producers of media and entertainment content, driven by a global portfolio of powerful consumer brands, including CBS, Showtime, Nickelodeon, MTV, BET, Comedy Central, and Paramount Pictures. In this role, which he assumed in December 2019, Bakish is responsible for growing the company’s creative assets and capabilities to serve important and diverse audiences in more than 180 countries.
Prior to the recombination of Viacom and CBS, Bakish was the president and chief executive officer of Viacom since December 2016 and previously headed the company’s international business as president and CEO of Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) since 2007.
He joined Viacom in 1997, and held a series of senior corporate, sales, and development positions. He previously worked as a partner with Booz Allen Hamilton in its media and entertainment practice.