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The first day of the Code/Media conference is over, and it was stuffed with smart speakers talking about the media industry. Senior editor Peter Kafka, the event’s maestro, assembled a diverse group of speakers from both the creative and the business sides, ready to wrestle over what the future holds. Here’s what went down:
- We began the day with an uncompromising look at what this conference is all about: The good people at Defy Media made an Honest Trailer just for us, giving you a look at what attending Code/Media is really like.
- BuzzFeed Motion Pictures chief Ze Frank and screenwriter John August talked about foraging in various “gardens of content” (what makes TV different from the Internet) and how Facebook hasn’t quite beaten YouTube yet in the traffic wars.
- Ray Enterprises unveiled its product to the world — a touchscreen remote control it claims will completely change the way you watch TV.
- Before their discussion with New York Times CEO Mark Thompson, Kafka and Re/code Managing Editor Ed Lee took a few minutes to remember the late, great New York Times media critic David Carr. From Thompson, we learned that the Times is thinking about making its news digest app NYT Now available for free, and Thompson made a forceful case for why big-name individual brands stick around at the Gray Lady.
- Kurt Wagner liveblogged the session with Facebook Chief Product Officer Chris Cox, and we learned more about Facebook’s efforts to team up with publishers to host their content on the social network. Also, Facebook is working to make sure people like Beyonce will use its coming virtual reality apps, not just everyday users.
- Gawker Media founder and publisher Nick Denton told us why media companies need to interact with their readers and said there will be a Gawker mobile app in 2015, as well as more “bloggy” video content.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
