The Digest: Fairfield County Marketing & Media Pros

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Digest.

This week, one of the companies that shaped my career was sold to a competitor founded by former employees. Let’s dive into a little M&A analysis on Fixated acquiring Studio71.

First, a quick primer. In 2013, I was one of Studio71’s first employees in New York. There were six of us sitting at four desks in the shared conference room of private equity investors. Back then, it was still called The Collective, a traditional music/talent management company. Half of every company meeting was spent talking about Linkin Park’s summer concert tour.

Eventually it became Collective Digital Studio (CDS) with a greater focus on YouTube talent, before being acquired by German media conglomerate Pro.Sieben and becoming Studio71.

CDS/Studio71 was one of the first YouTube Multi-Channel Networks (MCN). It represented digital creators and top influencers as talent managers, developed and distributed original content, paired creators with brands for partnerships, sold YouTube media on its creators’ channels, and built an industry-leading podcast network.

Founded in 2023, Fixated manages creators with a mixed offering of infrastructure support, strategy, and hands-on creative execution to help clients develop sustainable careers.

This deal makes sense for Fixated to combine Studio71’s much bigger roster of established creators with their infrastructure to support representation, distribution, monetization, and career development.

The trendiest investments and strategies in the creator economy today are about infrastructure to support talent becoming media companies.

Every article and report in this week’s newsletter is really about infrastructure. Not just for helping creators become media companies, but core business fundamentals that create sustainable value.

YouTube is partnering with SiriusXM for audio ad sales. Netflix is going vertical to capture the shift in audience behaviors. Marc Jacobs is building an entertainment layer into its marketing stack.

And I probably could have led with this, but please please please read the study of the current state of Kids Media in the Insights section. If you have kids, it should be required reading. If you work in media but don’t have kids, you should still understand how terrible the current state of Kids Media is because it’s only getting worse.

My fear is that our kids will grow up watching AI slop and hamster prison breaks instead of quality educational entertainment that families enjoy together. I’m personally trying to do something about that, and encourage everyone to get involved if that can help.

Time for the news, insights, and local jobs.

What’s Next?

This digest is a starting point. The goal is to build a community of senior marketing and media professionals in Fairfield County. If you have news to share, a campaign to highlight, job opportunities, or an event to promote, please email me at [email protected] 

Best,

Shawn