ECONOMICS OF MEDIA
Where attention
becomes a market.
A student field guide to the podcasts, books, and sources that explain how media businesses compete, create, and capture value.
Explore the library ↓THE RESOURCE LIBRARY
The media economy is not just about hits. It is about incentives, distribution, scarcity, and the changing question of who captures value.
01
Listen
Smart conversations about creative work, platforms, deals, and the people who make media markets move.
Matthew Belloni · The Ringer
The Town
The power, money, and negotiations behind Hollywood.
Dan Runcie
Trapital
Music, culture, technology, artist economics, and AI.
Brian Morrissey
The Rebooting Show
Publisher and creator business models beyond the pageview.
KCRW · Kim Masters
The Business
Film and TV labor, studios, and the industry’s daily decisions.
Ben Gilbert & David Rosenthal
Acquired
Deep company histories, including especially useful episodes on media platforms.
Ben Thompson & Andrew Sharp
Sharp Tech
Platforms, aggregation, distribution, and strategic power.
Colin & Samir
The Colin and Samir Show
Creator incentives, platform payouts, and audience-building.
Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway
Pivot
Opinionated, accessible technology and media news.
Jacobin
The Dig
A critical counterpoint on monopoly, labor, and political economy.
Pushkin
The Economics of Everyday Things
Short, elegant explanations of the markets hidden inside familiar products.
03
Read
Books for the concepts behind the headlines—and for seeing familiar media markets with fresh eyes.
START HERE · 2016
The Content Trap by Bharat Anand
Start with Anand’s short course reading, then come here for the larger framework: in a digital world, value comes from the connections among users, products, and strategic choices.
2019 · BOOK
Rockonomics
Alan B. Krueger
Concerts, ticket pricing, touring, and why superstar markets produce such unequal returns.
03
2022 · BOOK
Chokepoint Capitalism
Rebecca Giblin & Cory Doctorow
Creators, platforms, bargaining power, and the bottlenecks that capture value.
04
2016 · BOOK
The Attention Merchants
Tim Wu
The history of advertising-supported media and the business of selling attention.
05
2017 · BOOK
Hit Makers
Derek Thompson
Why some ideas, products, and songs catch on while others disappear.
06
2015 · BOOK
The Song Machine
John Seabrook
Inside the hit-songwriting factory: supply, production, collaboration, and creative labor.
07
2022 · BOOK
The Chaos Machine
Max Fisher
Engagement incentives and the social consequences of platform design.
08
2022 · BOOK
Binge Times
Dade Hayes & Dawn Chmielewski
A highly readable narrative of the streaming wars and their aftermath.
09
2021 · BOOK
The Platform Delusion
Jonathan A. Knee
A skeptical guide to what actually drives advantage in the platform economy.
10
2011 · BOOK
The Curse of the Mogul
Jonathan A. Knee, Bruce C. Greenwald & Ava Seave
A contrarian economic history of the entertainment industry and its enduring myths.
02
Follow
Use these sources to keep the course connected to the business as it changes.
Platform strategy
Stratechery
The essential source for aggregation, distribution, and technology strategy.
Hollywood & streaming
The Ankler
Sharp reporting on entertainment power, decision-makers, and the streaming business.
Media business models
The Rebooting
Audience revenue, publishing, and the reinvention of media.
Streaming strategy
Entertainment Strategy Guy
Rigorous, data-aware analysis of the business of entertainment.
Journalism & news
Nieman Lab
Free reporting on journalism innovation and the economics of news.
Industry briefing
Axios Media Trends
A concise weekly view of the changing media ecosystem.
Platforms & policy
Platformer
Social platforms, creators, and the policy choices shaping them.
Music & attention
The Honest Broker
Ted Gioia’s distinctive writing on music, technology, and attention.
Independent media
Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter
Newsletters, independent media, and creator monetization.
04
Take
Build a fuller pathway through entertainment, media, technology, and economics at Stern.
ENTERTAINMENT, MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY
Explore the industry.
A foundational economics lens for media and entertainment.
Industry structure, dealmaking, and competitive advantage.
Audiences, platforms, advertising, and brands.
Creative teams, talent, and the organizations around them.
ECONOMICS
Strengthen the toolkit.
Innovation, intellectual property, and technological change.
How rules, platforms, and markets are built.
A close relative of media economics, with great market applications.
The essential toolkit: incentives, competition, and market power.
Use this page to follow your curiosity. The best entry point is the medium you already care about.