Last year, I wrote about the shifting dynamics of the media landscape. One of the headwinds I saw coming was more and more reporters leaving traditional media outlets to start Substacks to pursue the topics that interest them most and be their own bosses.
I had the opportunity to speak to one of the most prominent voices in the "new media," Alex Kantrowitz, the founder of Big Technology. The transcript from that conversation is below. Alex left BuzzFeed News in 2020 to start Big Technology. What began as a newsletter/podcast created to keep the momentum of his book, Always Day One, alive during COVID has morphed into a powerhouse news engine, breaking stories from Aaron Levie of Box, Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind, and many others. Today, Alex has a thriving community of 150K+ loyal SubStack subscribers who had to encourage him back in 2023 to charge them money for all the incredible content he puts out regularly.
I'm sure a blog post exists about it online, but I want to start at the beginning with you and those reading this. Why start Big Technology?
I released my book, Always Day One in April 2020. After that, amid all the craziness of the COVID news cycle, I wanted to spend my time focused on the topics I covered in that book. Looking at things like how the tech giants operate, their strategies, and most importantly, how they use AI in their processes. I felt I’d be much more effective if I tackled these questions as an independent reporter working on my own than as a reporter within a newsroom. So in May 2020, I gave my notice at BuzzFeed and published the first story a few weeks later. It’s almost been five years to the day. It doesn't feel like five years. But it's been such a cool, cool journey.
When did you know it was the right time for you in your career to leave BuzzFeed and start your own thing? I'm sure it wasn't an easy decision.
It would’ve been harder to say no. If I didn’t leave I would’ve been laid off. I spent two years putting my heart into this book and my options were to sort of allow it to disappear in a very busy news cycle, or put everything I had into talking more about it, continuing to write on the same themes, and sinking or swimming based off of the success or failure of that next project. The only option I felt I had was to go out and do everything I could to continue to keep it in people's minds. And so, the Big Technology experiment really started as a way to keep the book alive, an extension of the book, and then it became a real media company.
What early challenges were you forced to navigate? Was building a subscriber base the toughest? Do you have any idea how many of your Buzzfeed readers followed you?
For the podcast, a lot of my early energy was put into figuring out how to set up a podcast and finding the right partners. I was really excited about the opportunity, and I wanted to make sure that, when it launched, I did it right. On the audience, it's a great question. It turned out that wasn't a major issue. I had a pretty good, built-in audience right away. That’s for two reasons: 1) I was lucky that BuzzFeed let me take my email newsletter list with me when I left. I really can't say enough good things about BuzzFeed. And so I started with a list of 5K engaged subscribers right away. I was still doing the book tour when I launched Big Technology, and the best way to build a podcast is to go on other podcasts and tell listeners you have a show as well. The tail end of the book tour helped seed the audience for the podcast, and so I felt comfortable bringing guests on in the early days and knowing that there would be people listening to it, as opposed to just us talking to a ghost town.
What factors influenced your decision to launch a paid subscriber option?
I launched paid subscriptions on Big Technology in October 2023, more than three years after the publication got off the ground. I did it largely out of encouragement from friends, readers, and Substack itself. I think there's a desire out there among people to support publications, especially if you’re valuable and they want to read more. Until that point, I'd mostly relied on advertising, and I wanted to make that option available to readers only at the right time. It took me a long time to figure out exactly what I wanted to offer at a price I felt was fair. Eventually, I thought it was time to launch a premium tier that would give readers more access to each other. Part of the paid subscription tier now is the ability to participate in a private Discord. The signal-to-noise ratio there is incredibly good. It also enabled me to bring some guest writers on and pay them a fair wage for their work.
What other mediums do you have on your radar to explore?
I'm very active on Linkedin, and the community there is fantastic. I published stuff from my page and the Big Technology page, and I'm investing heavily in video there. A couple of years ago, I wrote this story about how it's the one good social network. That was before I worked with them on the podcast network, and I stand by that today.
What advice do you have for brands who are interested in pursuing opportunities with "new media" but are unsure of the value or where to get started?
I would say ignore [new media] at your own risk. If someone is asking those questions, you're already behind. We also know what happened in the "Podcast Election." Smart executives and smart companies know the value of working with individual creators. There's a reason why Google DeepMind's CEO Demis Hassabis, Salesforce's CEO Marc Benioff, and AWS' CEO Matt Garman all came through Big Technology over the past few months. You're not too late, but you are late.
I heard from colleagues that you attended re:Invent last year. How often are you able to travel to conferences and meet with new sources in an introductory format?
I am a one-person publication, so I have to be very selective when I go to things. It’s not only a financial investment, but a time investment, so I need to make sure it's worth spending the time if I go. I think the long and short of it is I’ll go to something if I can be pretty sure I'll be able to bring a great interview to the podcast audience and write something based on that. AWS reinvent was a no-brainer for me. I was lucky enough to be able to interview Matt Garman and publish the transcript, then publish a reaction piece at the end of the week as well.
Quickly on AI, what themes interest you most? Or, what do you see yourself exploring more beyond AI in 2025?
I'm obsessed with two things. 1) Where the industry is going. We talk about that every Friday on the podcast. 2) The weirder things. I, for whatever reason, care a lot about people falling in love with AI bots and believing they’re real, or AI with potentially emergent behaviors. I'm working on a story about AI working to deceive its evaluators [published on February 21]. This stuff is crazy, this technology is mind-blowing in so many different ways. Five years from now, that's anyone's guess. There's going to be a lot that's going to happen between now and then. The AI labs have to pay off these record-breaking investments they're taking in the battle between open-source and proprietary models. I think, most importantly, there’s the big question of whether there will be applications beyond ChatGPT that’ll take off with consumers.
You recently did a subscriber Q&A with Box CEO Aaron Levie. What can you tell me about that and are there plans to do another executive Q&A soon? Was that a paid activation or someone your subscribers wanted to hear from?
In-person will be a bigger part of my strategy moving forward. Aaron Levie had been on the show several times already. Every time he was on, it seemed like something crazy was happening in the AI world. He was a natural first guest for the public in-person event. We brought everybody together like an old-school New York Tech meetup style – pizza and beer night at a company in the tech scene. Getting a chance to chat with Aaron about the latest in AI and open up the floor for Q&A was very cool.
Have you thought about adding to your team (other reporters or producers) at Big Technology? How might that work?
We've been really lucky to have Kristi Coulter, an ex-Amazon employee who was there for more than a decade, and she writes about not only her experiences at Amazon but the current slate of Amazon news through her perspective as a former insider. She was able to, for instance, break down the changes in the leadership organization chart and give a sense of where the company was going. This week, Mike Shields, former AdWeek editor, former Wall Street Journal reporter, and a current fellow Substacker at Next In Media, is doing a story that I've always wanted to reel in, but just didn't have the time or the chops necessarily to do it. It's a look at how Meta circumvented Apple's anti-tracking restrictions and built an even stronger ad business than it had before Apple cracked down on it. These types of stories are wins for everybody. It’s more reporting and better reporting.
How about full-timers under the Big Technology umbrella?
It's always possible. I'm comfortable running a one-person publication now, but if I'm in a position to hire somebody, that’d be amazing. I just brought on a second intern or fellow. The first person I had in that role helped me with reporting and co-bylined pieces with me. We syndicated one of those in the Boston Globe. They’re currently a full-time reporter, so that system has worked well for me. I could see it expanding over time, potentially.
I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with me. What are some things you're working on now that people should be aware of?
Come on board with Big Technology. Subscribe to the newsletter, sign up to be a paid subscriber, and join our Discord. At the very least, check out our twice-weekly podcast episodes. I'm having fun, and our audience is having fun. You can also enjoy yourself and learn something as you do it.
We’re eager to hear about new Substacks and podcasts you’re excited to learn more about or partner with in 2025. Please contact us at hi@highwirepr.com. And, subscribe to Big Technology!
