| Hi, Facebook and Google dominate the media business — even though they don’t like to call themselves media businesses. The two tech companies account for the majority of digital ad dollars, and they’re the primary distributors of digital eyeballs. In the last year, that dominance has generated a downside, too, in the form of critical backlash about their power. In short, if you’re in the media business, you spend a lot of time thinking about Google and Facebook, and figuring out how to compete in a landscape they dominate. That’s why Kara Swisher and I are happy to have some of the key people from both companies at next month’s Code Media conference, where we talk to the most influential leaders at the intersection of media and technology: Susan Wojcicki is the CEO of YouTube, which is not only the largest video site in the world, but the only one with a massive advertising business. That makes it increasingly important to marketers, publishers and content makers — and parent company Google’s finances. We’ll talk to Wojcicki about how she has continued to grow even as Facebook has ramped up a challenge — and how she’s dealing with increased criticism about the way her property deals with objectionable content. Adam Mosseri and Campbell Brown have a lot to say about the way media companies work with Facebook and its user base of two billion people: Mosseri is the product boss in charge of News Feed, the network’s most crucial distribution engine, and Brown is the former journalist who’s now in charge of connecting publishers with the network, and trying to make them happier. Their boss, CEO Mark Zuckerberg, says “Facebook has a lot of work to do” this year. We want to ask them what that means, and what it means for the media world. Wojcicki, Mosseri and Brown join a list of impressive speakers who will be onstage with us at the Paséa Hotel and Spa in Huntington Beach, California, February 12 and 13. We’re not done adding names to that list — we’ve got a couple of great ones we still haven’t told you about — but there’s no need to wait: See you in February! Peter Kafka |
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