The Community Exchange Podcast by OpenWeb

On this episode of The Community Exchange Podcast, we welcome Mary Liz McCurdy, SVP of Business Development at The Atlantic, to discuss: — From the Stanford Daily to Google to The Atlantic — a career built around saving journalism — Turning The Atlantic into a subscription-first business based on loyalty and community — How The Atlantic maps threats and opportunities across the entire content supply chain — The four C's every publisher needs in any AI deal: consent, credit, compensation, and control — Why blocking bots by default is non-negotiable, and how to build a smart allow list — Partnering with startups to fight misinformation, deepfakes, and AI slop — What tech culture gets right that media companies still haven't figured out — Why betting on early-stage startups is The Atlantic's big, hairy, audacious goal And more. New episodes of The Community Exchange Podcast are released each week. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts to get the latest right in your feed.

On this episode of The Community Exchange Podcast, we welcome Kelly Andresen, EVP of Demand Sales at OpenWeb, to discuss: From Washington Post ad innovations to building branded content studios from scratch Why storytelling is still the most underrated skill in advertising Why human relationships matter more than ever in a world run by AI The role of agencies in this new digital landscape. Why the open internet is becoming more attractive as walled gardens get crowded The shift from impressions to outcomes as the core advertiser metric Why sales teams are changing and what great salespeople actually look like How attention, not scale, should define advertising success going forward And more. New episodes of The Community Exchange Podcast are released each week. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts to get the latest right in your feed.

On this episode of The Community Exchange Podcast, we welcome Nikhil Kolar, VP, Product & Engineering at Microsoft to discuss: — From Amazon and Bing to leading Microsoft's content ecosystem — Why publishers need a seat at the AI table this time — Flipping the bot strategy: only allow the ones that pay you — The Microsoft Publisher Content Marketplace and fair content compensation — How agentic experiences are driving conversions two to three times higher — How to get found and monetize in a world run by agents — Why ethically sourced content is becoming a business imperative for enterprises — The future of content compensation as AI consumption scales And more. New episodes of The Community Exchange Podcast are released each week. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts to get the latest right in your feed.

On this episode of The Community Exchange Podcast, we welcome Karen Oh, Chief of Staff and Head of Strategic Partnerships & Initiatives at Ziff Davis, to discuss: • Building a career across Goldman Sachs, Deloitte, and Meta before landing in media • The story behind one of media's rarest roles: Chief of Staff at a major digital publisher • The real reasons publisher traffic is declining beyond Google Zero • The growing pressure on publishers to diversify beyond a single traffic channel • How Ziff Davis thinks about blocking AI bots, and when that strategy backfires • AI scraping as a business model threat, not just a content problem • The enduring value of authoritative brands in a world of AI-generated answers • The duality every publisher is living: fighting AI scraping while using AI every day • The case for one-on-one aha moments as the key to internal AI adoption And more. New episodes of The Community Exchange Podcast are released each week. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts to get the latest right in your feed.

On this episode of The Community Exchange Podcast, we welcome Vineet Khosla, Chief Technology Officer at The Washington Post, to discuss: — Building Siri, Uber Maps, and now the Washington Post’s AI strategy — How AI is reshaping news creation, distribution, and consumption — Why journalism remains essential in a world of AI-generated answers — The growing importance of first-party audience, trust, and community — Reimagining comments, conversations, and source transparency in news — How AI can make engineers, journalists, and product teams more effective — Why publishers need to move faster on product, personalization, and habit formation — The case for protecting journalism as both a public good and a real business And more. New episodes of The Community Exchange Podcast are released each week. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts to get the latest right in your feed.