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Hello and welcome to the 165th edition of Fresh Salmon.

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What does it tell you when even a top venture capital firm starts buying a podcast network?

This month (in April 2025), Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) - one of Silicon Valley’s elite VC firms acquired a tech podcast network called Turpentine to scale up its content machine (Introducing Erik Torenberg | Andreessen Horowitz).

Why would a VC firm do that? Because attention is the new currency.

As a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen put it, “We sometimes call ourselves a media company that monetizes via investing.” 

Let that sink in. Even the investors are doubling down on media strategy.

In today’s noisy digital world, this move broadcasts a clear signal: to stand out and own your audience, you must think and operate like a media company.

From Content Marketing to Media-First (Content Marketing Is Dead, Long Live Media!)

Most B2B teams have dabbled in content marketing - blog posts, whitepapers, the occasional webinar. But ask yourself: when everyone is doing content marketing, how effective is it anymore? 

The truth is, “content marketing” as we knew it is outdated. 

The internet is saturated with decent content; being just another voice is not enough.

The future is media-first.

Instead of thinking like a marketer who occasionally publishes content, think like a media producer whose entire mission is to captivate an audience.

This isn’t just semantics. A media-first mindset means your company isn’t treating content as a side project or marketing filler - it’s a core product.

Why the shift?

Because in B2B, trust and attention are everything, and those are earned by delivering consistent value, not occasional salesy blogs.

Consider that HubSpot (a B2B software company) acquired The Hustle newsletter and podcast network to fuel its audience growth.

Salesforce launched a streaming service, Salesforce+, to serve up business content on demand.

These moves reflect a broader trend: leading B2B brands are no longer just sellers - they’re becoming publishers and broadcasters.

If you’re still thinking of content as a marketing afterthought, it’s time to evolve.

Media-first means building an audience before you ever sell, so when you do, people actually pay attention.

Meet our secondary partner for today’s edition: GoldCo. Check them out 👇👇

4 Reasons The Dollar Could Collapse

If you’ve noticed that your dollars don’t seem to go as far as they used to, you’re not alone. Millions of Americans are in the same boat.

The recent inflation rate, the highest in over 40 years, was a wake up call that made many people realize that the financial stability they had taken for granted for decades no longer exists.

The US government has been tempted to use its reserve currency status to its financial advantage. This has resulted in massive devaluation of the dollar.

A way to help protect your dollars is to diversify your money with assets that don’t depend upon the strength and health of the dollar for their value. Precious metals like gold and silver, for instance, are in demand around the world 24/7 and aren’t dependent upon the value of the dollar.

To find out reasons why experts are predicting the collapse of the dollar, request your free digital copy of the 4 Reasons the Dollar Could Crash eBook.

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Your Podcast (or Video Show) as the Core Content Pillar

So, where should a B2B company begin its media journey? 

One of the most effective ways is by launching a flagship podcast or video show.

Why a show? Because it acts as a core content pillar that can drive your entire content strategy.

A weekly 30-minute podcast or video series gives your brand a voice (literally) and a personality. It’s engaging, it’s personal, and it creates a loyal audience who regularly tunes in.

Think about it: a podcast or video show is basically a digital fireside chat with your industry.

You can invite expert guests (instantly borrowing their credibility and audience), discuss pain points your customers care about, and position your brand at the center of important conversations.

Over time, your show becomes the go-to resource in your niche. And importantly, a show is consistent - it trains your audience to expect value from you on a regular schedule.

This isn’t a one-off whitepaper that collects dust; it’s a living, evolving media asset.

Actionable tip: Start simple but stay consistent. 

Pick a format, and release new episodes on a set cadence (e.g., every Tuesday at 10am).

Consistency builds habit, and habit builds a following.

Before long, your little podcast could be the industry talk everyone shares.

Repurpose Everything: The Massive Distribution Advantage of a Media Mindset

Building a media-first operation isn’t just about creating a show - it's about maximizing every piece of content your show produces.

A huge advantage of operating like a media company is the massive repurposing and multi-channel distribution you can pull off.

Think one podcast episode is just one piece of content? Think again. A single 30-minute podcast or video can explode into a library of micro-content across platforms:

• Blog Posts: Transcribe the episode and shape it into an insightful article or Q&A post.

• Social Media Clips: Cut 3-4 insightful snippets into short videos for LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok – wherever your audience scrolls.

• Quote Graphics: Turn the best one-liners or takeaways into graphic quotes for easy sharing.

• Email Newsletters: Summarize the episode’s key lessons in your newsletter (driving those readers to listen/watch the full episode).

• Slide Decks or Infographics: If the episode is instructional, convert tips into a visual deck or infographic.

In a media operation, one piece of core content feeds dozens of channels.

This not only stretches your content farther (more ROI from each piece), but also creates an omnipresent brand effect.

Your audience might miss one channel, but catch you on another.

You’re everywhere in their digital life, providing value in formats they prefer.

Traditional content marketing often failed here - it might publish a blog, but wouldn’t properly distribute it. Media-first flips that: distribution is front and center. 

You plan from the start how to blast each story far and wide. The result?

Your ideas travel further, your brand name shows up in more feeds, and your message actually gets heard.

It’s a smarter, louder way to market.

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Media Ownership = Stronger Brand, Trust and Sales Pipeline

Let’s talk outcomes. What do you actually get by owning your media? 

In short: a stronger brand, deeper trust, and a healthier sales pipeline. When you consistently produce media that educates or entertains, your brand transforms into an authority voice rather than just another vendor.

You’re not pitching products every time; you’re delivering value.

Over time, this earns trust with your audience.

Listeners or viewers start to feel like they know you. They rely on you for insights.

And when it comes time to consider solutions, who do you think they’ll call first? The company that has been helping them all along, not the one cold-calling out of the blue.

Owning a media channel also means owning your audience.

You’re not renting attention from Facebook or Google ads; the audience willingly subscribes to you. That is powerful.

For one, it insulates you from algorithm changes or rising ad costs - your podcast subscribers or newsletter readers are yours. Also, the feedback loop is incredible: you get direct insight into what content resonates, which topics spark engagement, which guests or formats drive interest.

That intelligence feeds into your product development and sales approach.

And let’s not forget the sales pipeline.

A media-driven brand attracts inbound interest. Maybe a podcast listener fills out a form for a demo after hearing a pain point addressed on your show.

Maybe your YouTube video series draws prospects into your newsletter funnel. This kind of inbound attention is high-quality – they come in already trusting you.

Your sales team will tell you that an educated lead who’s been following your content is vastly easier to close than a cold lead.

In effect, your media content is warming up the market at scale, all the time.

That shortens sales cycles and lowers customer acquisition costs.

Brand, trust, pipeline – this is the trifecta that a media-first strategy strengthens in a way old-school content marketing or advertising simply can’t match.

Two Paths to Media Domination: Build Your Own vs. Partner Up

By now you might be thinking, “This sounds great, but how do we actually do it?” 

There are two main paths for a B2B company to embrace the media model: build your own media presence, or partner with (or acquire) an existing one.

1. Build Your Own Media Network (The DIY Route): 

   This is the harder, slower, but ultimately most rewarding path. It means starting from scratch: launching your own podcast, video series, newsletter, community, or even mini-conferences.

   You’ll need to commit resources - hire or develop in-house content talent, maybe ex-journalists or creators, invest in good production values, and most of all, be patient. Building an audience takes time.

   The upside? You have full control over the content and brand experience. You shape the narrative in your industry.

   Many companies have done this successfully. For example, HubSpot’s massive blog and YouTube following, built over years, now basically operates like a media outlet for marketers.

   If you go this route, set realistic expectations (it might take a year or two to see big results) but know that you’re investing in an asset that you own outright. It’s like building your own distribution pipeline from the ground up.

2. Partner with Existing Media (The Accelerated Route): 

   If building from zero sounds daunting (or too slow), the faster way is to tap into someone else’s established audience. This can take several forms.

   You might sponsor a popular industry podcast or newsletter (instant access to their listeners/readers). You could co-create content with influencers or thought leaders in your space (leveraging their following).

   In some cases, you could even acquire a media property outright, as we saw with a16z and others. Not every company has the budget to buy a media brand, but partnerships are a scalable strategy for all sizes.

   By partnering, you basically borrow distribution to speed up your reach. The trade-off is, of course, less control and an ongoing dependency on someone else’s platform. But a smart partnership (with clear alignment and maybe exclusivity) can be a brilliant way to hit the ground running. Many B2B brands start here to kickstart their audience, then gradually build their own channels in parallel.

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer – some will blend both paths. The key is recognizing that you need a media strategy, period. Whether you build it or borrow it, don’t stay on the sidelines.

Ignore This Shift at Your Own Peril (What Happens If You Don’t Adapt)

Real talk: What happens to B2B brands that shrug off this whole media-first idea? 

In a word, obscurity. If you ignore this shift, you risk becoming invisible in your market over the next few years. The digital noise is only increasing, and simply having a product and a sales team won’t cut it if your competitors are running full-fledged media engines that command the audience’s attention.

You’ll be stuck renting attention (via ads, trade shows, cold outreach) in an era when the best companies are owning attention. That’s a losing equation over time – it gets more expensive and less effective year after year.

Companies that don’t embrace a media mindset will also struggle with trust. Why should a prospect trust your expertise if they never hear from you until you’re pitching them?

B2B buyers are evolving; they spend hours educating themselves, consuming content, and forming opinions long before contacting a vendor. If your voice isn’t in that mix, you won’t even be a contender on their shortlist.

Ignoring the media-first approach is basically ceding thought leadership to someone else — likely a competitor or a savvy upstart that’s happily engaging your would-be customers through a podcast show.

In short, you’ll fall behind. And once you’re behind in capturing mindshare, it’s extremely hard to catch up. Don’t let that happen. The cost of inaction here is an eroding brand and a drying up pipeline.

Conclusion: Media Will Eat Everything Next – Will You Be Ahead of the Curve?

Just over a decade ago, Marc Andreessen famously wrote that “software will eat the world.” 

That prophecy turned out true in B2B and beyond. Now, we’re seeing the next chapter: media will eat everything next.

In the coming years, the line between a “company” and a “media company” will blur in every industry. Marketing is becoming publishing.

The businesses that embrace this reality now will own the future of their markets. They’ll be the ones with audiences on tap, with customers who feel like fans, and with a constant spotlight on their ideas.

Those that don’t?

They’ll find themselves shouting into a void, or scrambling to buy attention from the new media titans.

So ask yourself, is your B2B brand ready to ride this media-first wave? 

It’s time to make a choice. You can keep doing the same old content marketing playbook and hope for the best… or you can think bigger and become the go-to media hub in your niche.

The opportunity to differentiate is enormous for those bold enough to act. In a world where media eats everything, the winners will be those who become media.

Will that be you?

The playbook is yours for the taking – start building that audience now, and lead your industry instead of lagging behind. The companies that act like media companies today are the ones that will dominate tomorrow.

The writing’s on the wall, and the camera is rolling.

It’s time to hit record.

Interesting Thing That I Wrote This Week

That’s it for this week! If you found this newsletter valuable, share it with a friend.

See you next time!

Do what is good for your soul ❤️

All the best,

Vivek

PS. Whenever you are ready, here are 3 ways in which I can help you and your business:

#1: B2B Marketing Consulting and Go-To-Market Advisory for your business.

#2: 1-on-1 Personal Coaching and Mentoring on anything related to Marketing and Go-To-Market Strategies for you.

#3: Promoting you or your brand via this newsletter.

For any of these things just shoot me a reply, and we will arrange a time to chat.