Tech CEOs avoid the media by going to this friendly podcaster

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Ellen Huet of Bloomberg News writes about how many tech CEOs go to friendly podcaster Lex Fridman instead of the news media to get their messages out.

Huet writes, “The tech industry has in recent years sought more ways to ‘go direct’ — that is, to get talking points out into the world without having to deal with traditional media, which some view as adversarial and unfairly critical.

“In that frame of mind, the ideal interlocutor is someone who offers a platform — and maybe even is a tech industry insider — and isn’t a journalist. The options are expanding: In addition to Fridman, podcasters like Dwarkesh Patel also give tech leaders the chance to explain themselves in long, meandering conversations. Even Bill Gates has an interview podcast now. (Altman was one of his first guests.)

“Tech’s attempts to make its own industry-friendly media empires have sometimes fizzled out. In 2021, venture firm Andreessen Horowitz launched media site Future.com, hoping to offer an ‘optimistic lens on technology and the future.’ That effort only lasted about a year before drying up.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.