The New Rules of Media | Marc Andreessen & Ben Horowitz

**Ben Horowitz** (0:00)
One rule of old media is don't be interested. Like, that's the worst thing you can do.

**Marc Andreessen** (0:05)
There is no way to get to anything resembling a story that you're going to like through the traditional media anymore. Like, it's just basically not possible.

**Ben Horowitz** (0:11)
Old media, you have very restricted channels with very restricted formats. New media is unlimited formats, unlimited channels, and the brand is now the person. The grand wizard of this is Alex Karp. If you watch his interviews, he never talks about Palantir.

**Marc Andreessen** (0:31)
Everybody just naturally thinks inside out, me and my company and my product out into the world. Don't think that way. Think in terms of like, what are the most interesting things happening in the world, and then how do those things relate to us?

**Erik Torenberg** (0:39)
Old media is defense-oriented, new media is offense. Talk more about why that is.

**Marc Andreessen** (0:44)
There's still this anxiety that people have, which is legacy media somehow is like where the respectability is, the thesis is. I don't believe that anymore, and I think it's very important for people to get that out of their system.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:54)
For decades, most public communication has flowed through a small number of institutions. Television networks, newspapers, magazines and a handful of gatekeepers determined which stories were told and who got to tell them. That world is changing. Today, founders, creators, investors and operators can communicate directly with audiences through social media platforms, newsletters, podcasts and video. The result is a new set of rules for how ideas spread, how brands are built and how influence works.
Recorded live at the New Media Summit, this conversation explores the rise of direct communication, the decline of traditional gatekeepers, and what founders can learn from the people who have successfully built audiences in the Internet era.

**Erik Torenberg** (1:40)
So first, I just want to say it's Gaby's birthday today. Welcome back to the firm.
I'm so excited the next one in five for many reasons. But one is that Ben had four seats to Game 6 and wasn't going to make it today. And so we're so lucky that we get to have Ben here. And Marc, not a huge basketball guy, but he did tweet about how Jalen Brunson, he had a comment that he operates purely on instinct, not on introspection. And Marc appreciates that.

**Ben Horowitz** (2:07)
Retard Maxing.

**Marc Andreessen** (2:08)
Obviously working.

**Erik Torenberg** (2:09)
Exactly. Many people are saying across industries. And so I actually think that's a pretty interesting segue because one of the rules of new media, Marc, that we were talking about with the CEO last week in our growth portfolio is authenticity. And sort of being able to have the same conversations on camera that you would have in person behind closed doors. Why don't you talk about that a bit more and why that's so important to really nail in terms of nailing your voice and how to build that presence. Because a lot of mistakes that founders will make is trying to be too buttoned up, trying to be too media trained, etc. As we uncover the rules of new media when you start there.

**Ben Horowitz** (2:43)
Yeah.

**Marc Andreessen** (2:43)
So I had this really formative experience when I was younger. So in the 90s, when Ben and I were coming up, you know, pre blogs, pre YouTube, all this stuff. And so in those days, the assumption was 100% of what you did, if you were running a company or doing anything, was you're going to have to work through established media, legacy media.
And then everybody would get, of course, media trained in how to do it.

**Ben Horowitz** (3:00)
And most painful experience in the world.

**Marc Andreessen** (3:02)
Oh, yeah. So for people who haven't been through media training, it's actually-

**Ben Horowitz** (3:05)
Watch yourself on TV.

**Marc Andreessen** (3:07)
Yeah. So, okay. So here's how media training works. I don't really still do it, but do they still do it? You guys still do it? Okay. Okay. So for people who haven't been through it, yeah. So it's like you get put in front of a camera in your face, and then somebody like who you think is your friend, they do the full 60 minutes interview with you for like an hour, and then they literally make you sit there and watch it, which is just like the meanest thing you could do to somebody.

**Ben Horowitz** (3:25)
And critique you, and you're looking at yourself, fuck it up, and they're going, you see how you fucked that up? And you're like, wow, I'm really uncomfortable now. I'm never going on TV.