Matt Levine - Wall Street’s Art Critic - [Making Media, EP.35]

Matt Levine - Wall Street’s Art Critic - [Making Media, EP.35]

Author: Colossus | Investing & Business Podcasts September 7, 2023 Duration: 57:18
Today we speak with the Wall Street Wonder, Matt Levine. Matt's Bloomberg column, Money Stuff, has become a must read for most of the finance community. It's that rare place where you get laughter, learning, and complex topics. During the conversation, we talk with Matt about his ability to translate those complex topics, how his early legal career at Wachtell Lipton, and then his banking career at Goldman Sachs have played a role in his success, and we cover a ton of topics in terms of what's going on in the markets today - the overall regulatory structure and some very abstract questions. Please enjoy this conversation with Matt Levine. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here. ----- Making Media is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Making Media, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @ReustleMatt | @domcooke | @MakingMediaPod | @JoinColossus  Show Notes  (00:01:51) - (First question) - Today's regulatory efficiency versus history   (00:07:26) - The area of finance he would like to investigate the most   (00:09:39) - The access he has to both public and private finance for his articles (00:10:21) - His relationship with his readers (00:11:08) - Responses from the individuals he writes his columns about  (00:12:24) - Legalization of unregulated activities making for the most interesting articles  (00:14:31) - His reason for defending finance and banks (00:17:19) - His view on whether derivatives around financial securities are a net positive  (00:18:22) - His view on himself and how he would categories what he does  (00:19:16) - What it’s like being an opinion writer for Bloomberg (00:21:35) - His view on large companies owning individual writers IP’s  (00:25:24) - Twitter's relevance in today's society and its continued impact on social culture   (00:26:39) - Replacements for Twitter and where journalists look for interesting writing topics  (00:27:28) - Topics he feels trapped into writing about due to their popularity (00:30:27) - His knowledge of special purpose acquisition companies or SPACs (00:31:52) - His perspective on the fallout from SPACs   (00:35:34) - His process on researching topics he finds most interesting to write about  (00:37:00) - Strategies he uses to choose topics he wants to write about   (00:37:51) - The moment he knew readers were interested in his opinions   (00:39:25) - Analytics and the importance of how his columns perform   (00:41:03) - Performance reviews he receives from Bloomberg  (00:42:02) - How writing columns has detached him from his previous financial careers (00:43:24) - His future in writing and whether he plans to change or expand his endeavors  (00:44:56) - Harnessing the power of his readers and expanding his reach with media  (00:46:33) - The transition from traditional media career paths to creator-led career paths    (00:50:28) - Debrief

Matt Reustle and Dom Cooke have spent years analyzing companies as investors, but found themselves drawn into a new, messy, and fascinating world: building a media company from the ground up. Their Making Media podcast, from Colossus | Investing & Business Podcasts, is the raw audio journal of that transition. Instead of theory, you get the real-time experiments, stumbles, and occasional breakthroughs of two practitioners who are actively trying to construct something lasting. Each conversation pulls back the curtain with seasoned media operators who have navigated these waters, offering hard-won tactical advice rarely shared publicly. Between these interviews, Matt and Dom hold themselves accountable, documenting the progress of their own ventures and breaking down the books, articles, and interviews that shape their thinking. The underlying mission gives this business and entrepreneurship podcast its pulse: a genuine fight to create substantive, long-form content in an economy increasingly optimized for fleeting clicks. For anyone curious about the operational realities of publishing, audience building, and sustainable creation, this series feels like getting a direct feed from the workshop floor, where ideas are forged into tangible assets.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 65

Making Media
Podcast Episodes
Building The Athletic with Adam Hansmann - [Making Media, EP.54] [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:14
Our guest today is Adam Hansmann, co-founder of The Athletic. The Athletic launched in 2016 when the idea of paying for content was still considered contrarian and newspapers & local coverage of sports was dwindling. Yet…
2023 Recap - [Making Media, EP.52] [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:57
We reflect on Making Media's inaugural year and 2023 as a whole for the podcasting world. From shifts in the macro podcast environment to our most memorable recordings, we round up our first year and look to the next. Fo…
A Lesson in Paid Growth with Jonathan Becker - [Making Media, EP.50] [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:59
Our guest today is Jonathan Becker, Founder of Thrive Digital. Paid growth is a complex topic and it is something that we reference quite a bit on the show, but we've never really dug in. Jonathan and his team at Thrive…
The North Face Presents with Kaki Orr - [Making Media, EP.49] [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:28
Today, we’re joined by Kaki Orr, the Creative Director for Branded Content at The North Face. After a career as a professional skier where she was sponsored by The North Face, Kaki joined the company and has since led th…
The Story of Stripe Press with Tamara Winter - [Making Media, EP.47] [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:37
Our guest today is Tammy Winter, the Commissioning Editor of Stripe Press. As the name suggests, Stripe Press is a division within Stripe. Founded in 2010 by two Irish brothers, John and Patrick Collison, Stripe is a pay…
Inside Architectural Digest with Amy Astley - [Making Media, EP.45] [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:39
Our guest today is Amy Astley, global editorial director and editor-in-chief of the Iconic Architectural Digest. It's rare to find a brand like AD that has a hundred-year-old history and effectively balances that rich he…