The Office Hours Interview is a blunt and enlightening conversation with the people who power the cultural industries. For more Office Hours Mag, sign up for the newsletter at OfficeHoursMag.com or follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn @OfficeHoursMag.

The Office Hours Interview is a blunt and enlightening conversation with the people who power the cultural industries. For more Office Hours Mag, sign up for the newsletter at OfficeHoursMag.com or follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn @OfficeHoursMag

Maria Cristina Sherman is a music writer and culture critic currently living in Brooklyn, NY. She has worked as a senior writer at Jezebel, managing editor at Gizmodo Media Group, senior correspondent at Fuse TV, and contributor at BuzzFeed Music. You may have seen her work at NPR and in Billboard, SPIN, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly and many other quality publications. Her debut book, LARGER THAN LIFE: A History of Boy Bands, NKOTB to BTS, was published by Hachette imprint Black Dog and Leventhal in July 2020. If she were in a boy band, she’d be the bad boy. 

This one is an absolute hoot. I reveal the story of the time I met Harry Styles, we talk all about Maria's amazing book, masculinity, criticism, and what we want young writers to know. This episode also contains the only Baldwin/Buckley-style debate about B2K EVER. 

Folu Akinkuotu is a home cook, prolific baker and rare snack aficionado. Her newsletter Unsnackable features rare snacks, drinks and fast food from around the world and has been in The New Yorker, SBS Australia and The Face Magazine.

Folu is one of those world-class talents that manages to hide in plain sight. With one tweet almost a year ago, she’s influenced some of the biggest names in the cultural industry of food and drink media, despite you likely never hearing her name until now.

Simon Owens covers the media industry for his Substack newsletter and podcast The Business of Content. He writes about how publishers create, distribute, and monetize their digital content. There's this misconception that the average newsletter reader is clamoring to pay for content, when in reality converting a free reader into a paid subscriber is like pulling teeth. We discuss this, tactics that newsletter operaters should think about, where we think Substack is going, and the state of the newsletter business in 2021.

Jarrod Dicker is currently the commercial chief at the Washington Post. There, he oversees the business of The Post across advertising, subscriptions and R&D as well as new ventures (like WaPo’s Zeus, which we discuss in-depth during this interview) and is a former CEO/founder in the crypto space (po.et). Prior to his days at the Post, he ran product, engineering and business teams at RebelMouse, The Huffington Post and Time Inc.

Before his current media role, he started his career as a music journalist and photographer, amassing over 100 interviews with musicians/bands/artists. When he’s not doing everything I just shared, he writes on the creator economy and the application of it for independents and existing media companies.

WARNING: If you’re expecting a “professional” (aka boring) chat about media and the creator economy, you’re going to be disappointed with this one. Jarrod and I go DEEP on newsletters, Substack (duh), how journalists are the new rock stars and how THAT makes newspapers the new record labels.

We also talk about the media landscape in 2021 and beyond, why all journalists should learn the business side of media and I reveal why I have 0% interest of partnering this newsletter with a legacy media brand (Not gonna lie, this might be the take that kills the remaining dreams I had of ever getting a fawning profile in the NYT, lol).

If you’re a media operator, publisher, writer, editor, advertising person, suit, C-suite person looking to get more in tune or you’re just someone who is really really really nerdy about this stuff, today’s episode is for you.

Brand New A Collective is an enlightened think-tank that translates ideas into actionable, memorable and exciting experiences, which come to life in live events, partnerships, and digital/social content. Let Clubhouse tell it, marketing across cultural industries is a series of tactics or sheer luck that can only be manifested in a reactive way — say, your brand goes viral because a guy did a Tiktok while drinking your product on a skateboard while listening to Fleetwood Mac — versus what it actually is, understanding people in your culture and moving with intention to serve their wants and needs. These two not only understand that, but they leverage a community-focused strategy that allows them to make major moves, like the 1800 Seconds campaigns they did in collaboration with 1800 Tequila, Pusha T, and Future. 

These two are the best and have so much insight and I lowkey want them to run for office? 

 
Office Hours with Ernest Wilkins is written and curated by Ernest Wilkins in Chicago, IL. For more, check out officehoursnewsletter.com

Office Hours with Ernest Wilkins is written and curated by Ernest Wilkins in Chicago, IL. For more, check out officehoursnewsletter.com