Channels with Peter Kafka cover art

Channels with Peter Kafka

Channels with Peter Kafka

By: Vox Media Podcast Network
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About this listen

 Media and tech aren’t just intersecting — they’re fully intertwined. And to understand how those worlds work, and what they mean for you, veteran journalist Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers - and gets them to spell it out in plain, BS-free English. Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.© 2019 Vox Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved Art Politics & Government
Episodes
  • Why the Guardian Doesn't Need a Billionaire to Thrive

    Why the Guardian Doesn't Need a Billionaire to Thrive
    Oct 8 2025
    In lots of ways Guardian Media Group is facing the same problems as every other news publisher: A tricky ad environment, platform problems, looming AI threats.One big difference: The Guardian also has a $1.5 billion trust backing the non-profit - which seems way, way better than being owned by a run-of-the-mill billionaire who might want to meddle with the paper.But CEO Anna Bateson says the Guardian needs to be a self-sustaining publisher. So it has been steadily, and successfully, getting readers to shoulder the load, via donations, which now account for 40% of the company's revenue.We talk about how and why the Guardian switched its business model; why it still wants ad money; how the British, lefty news shop is trying to break into America yet again - and why asking readers for donations is, and isn't, like asking them to pay for subscriptions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    39 mins
  • Almost Everyone is Taking Money from OpenAI. Why is Ziff Davis suing them?

    Almost Everyone is Taking Money from OpenAI. Why is Ziff Davis suing them?
    Oct 1 2025
    In the future, digital publishers could get run over by AI. In the present, they are deeply concerned about Google, and the prospect that the search giant is going to choke off their last reliable traffic stream.That may explain why lots of publishers are making deals with OpenAI now -- and doing a lot of grousing about Google.Ziff Davis CEO Vivek Shah is going the other way: he's one of only two big publishers to sue OpenAI (the other one is the New York Times) and he says his portfolio of sites would like more traffic from Google, but is confident things will work out.Shah and Ziff Davis never got the attention some of their digital peers did a decade ago. On the flip side, they're still standing in 2025. So this is a POV worth paying attention to. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    34 mins
  • The Future of Late Night TV, Jimmy Kimmel, and The First Amendment

    The Future of Late Night TV, Jimmy Kimmel, and The First Amendment
    Sep 24 2025
    When’s the last time you stayed up to watch a late night TV monologue? Months? Years? Decades? I’m not sure, either. But I stayed up Tuesday night to watch Jimmy Kimmel’s return. James Poniewozik, who covers TV for the New York Times, just caught up with it the next day on YouTube. Which underscores one of the odder parts of the Trump v. Kimmel fight - it revolves around a time slot and a format that has been on its way out for a long time. So how did late night TV become a flashpoint in a crucial First Amendment fight? And how long is it going to stick around? James is the perfect person for this discussion: Not only does he watch TV (or YouTube) for a living, he’s also become a professional Trump-watcher, because Trump is a TV character. (Trump and TV are the subject of James’ excellent 2019 book). But make no mistake: the threats he’s making — on his own and with the help of his regulators – are very real. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    27 mins
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