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With New Memoir, Tom Freston Hopes to Show Young People There Are Multiple Paths to Success
Tom Freston’s memoir highlights missed digital chances and media consolidation, noting legacy companies’ failure to innovate while Netflix pursued aggressive growth strategies.
- In his new memoir Unplugged, Tom Freston, a former MTV executive, reflects on industry consolidation and missed digital opportunities, including a near bid for Facebook at $9 million.
- Licensing constraints from record labels barred MTV from using its music videos online, and Viacom’s attempt to buy Facebook at $9 million revenue shows missed digital opportunities.
- His approach—keeping staff young—meant Freston emphasized a youthful culture at MTV during its peak success, leading sister networks with a focus on reinvention.
- Freston urged young people to take chances and explore nontraditional paths, highlighting his rewarding two decades chairing the ONE Campaign with Bono.
- Streaming platforms now fill the disruptive niche MTV once held by scaling youth franchises, while consolidation—Netflix’s pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney’s content focus—shapes the industry as Freston praises A24 and Neon.
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22 Articles
The Trentonian+20 Reposted by 20 other sources
With new memoir, Tom Freston hopes to show young people there are multiple paths to success
By DAVID BAUDER, AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Tom Freston could easily fill a book with stories from the formative days of MTV and his celebrity encounters — Bono would merit a few chapters on his own. Ultimately, though, Freston feels that his life has a more valuable lesson to offer. His memoir, “Unplugged,” shows by example that trying to follow a straight line to success is not the only path. Freston, 80, was at MTV from the start and bec…
Tom Freston, the beat-poet exec who made MTV cool for 20 years, sees 'really nothing in it for the consumer' from Netflix, Warner, or his old company
The ex-Viacom and Paramount chief is as proud of his new book as he is aghast at MTV leadership. "They've run it into the ground over the last 15 years."
·New York, United States
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Leaning Left1Leaning Right1Center17Last UpdatedBias Distribution90% Center
Bias Distribution
- 90% of the sources are Center
90% Center
C 90%
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