Making Media · Colossus | Investing & Business Podcasts

The Evolution of FreightWaves with Craig Fuller

·1 hr 4 min·1 clip

A hurricane hit Houston and I realized we were on to something with media.

Craig Fuller discusses how FreightWaves evolved from a commodity futures market concept into a media and data business. He details the founding insight that building tradable instruments requires both real-time data and contextual news, the moment a hurricane validated the media strategy, and how hiring a $0 blogger instead of a $40K PR retainer became the catalyst for success. He then discusses Flying Magazine acquisition strategy, buying niche media assets at 2-5X EBITDA when institutional capital has written off media, and building adjacent services around audience segments like aircraft financing and e-commerce marketplaces.

As heard by us

A grounded look at why audience ownership beats rented reach.

Craig Fuller and Making Media frame media as something that only works when the audience is owned, not borrowed. The discussion moves from FreightWaves into software, data, and the niche magazine model behind Flying Magazine and related titles.

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Why you'd press play

You want a media-business story about audience ownership as the real asset.

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