Can the Open Web Survive the Al Age? Kurt Donnell on Publisher Economics, Radical Transparency, and pubOS

Podcast: Signal & Noise · Signal and Noise

Opublikowano: 2026-10-02

The open web has survived search, social media, programmatic advertising, privacy regulation, and the rise of the walled gardens. But does generative AI represent a fundamentally different threat? In this episode of Signal & Noise, Rio Longacre sits down one-on-one with Kurt Donnell, President & CEO of Freestar, while Brett House is away. Kurt brings an unusual perspective. He began his career as an M&A attorney, moved into media and operations, helped take YogaWorks public, and eventually joined Freestar as its first CEO. Under his leadership, Freestar says it has grown sevenfold, expanded to 185 employees across 15...