Really like this, Ben. What you and Jim are circling is the quiet rewrite: we’re not talking about “jobs in media” anymore, we’re talking about operators building systems around a community. The content is the ignition, not the engine. The engine is everything wrapped around it—trust, continuity, events, products, private spaces, the flywheel you’re describing here.
I’ve got a book on this subject coming in January, and the core argument overlaps with what you and Jim lay out here: platforms rent you reach, legacy can buy catalogs, but the real leverage sits in the operating system and the community it compounds over time.
Really like this, Ben. What you and Jim are circling is the quiet rewrite: we’re not talking about “jobs in media” anymore, we’re talking about operators building systems around a community. The content is the ignition, not the engine. The engine is everything wrapped around it—trust, continuity, events, products, private spaces, the flywheel you’re describing here.
I’ve got a book on this subject coming in January, and the core argument overlaps with what you and Jim lay out here: platforms rent you reach, legacy can buy catalogs, but the real leverage sits in the operating system and the community it compounds over time.