Introducing Futurum Media: Building for the AI Era

We are at the dawn of a new era. AI is changing what we can build, how we work and how we understand the world around us. For those of us in technology media, it is changing the industry we cover and the business we operate at the same time.

AI is the catalyst for Futurum Media.

Today, The Futurum Group is bringing Techstrong, Tech Field Day and Visible Impact together into a go-to-market execution business. Futurum Media becomes the umbrella for Futurum’s editorial properties and media services, including Techstrong.ai, backed by the broader organization’s research, intelligence and expertise.

I am happy to be one of the leaders of this team, alongside Lee Sellers of Visible Impact and Stephen Foskett of Tech Field Day. Just as important, we get to build Futurum Media with all the people across Techstrong, Tech Field Day, Visible Impact and Futurum who bring their knowledge, creativity and relationships to this work.

We have an opportunity to build a media business for the era we are entering. I am excited to get to work.

AI is Changing Our Business, Too

We spend a great deal of time covering how AI is changing other industries. We have to apply that same attention to our own.

AI is changing how people discover information, evaluate technology and decide whom to trust. It is changing how companies explain their products and reach prospective customers. It is also changing the work of researching, producing and distributing content.

Publishing more material has become easier. Earning someone’s attention still requires giving them something worth their time. Original research, technical understanding and informed judgment become especially valuable when everyone has access to tools that can produce a plausible explanation.

Our readers want to understand what is happening and what it means for them. They need help examining claims and connecting developments across an increasingly complicated industry. Our commercial partners need to communicate with those readers credibly and turn interest into meaningful engagement.

Futurum Media brings together capabilities that address both needs. AI gives us the reason to rethink how those capabilities work together, as well as new tools to help us do it.

The Tip of the Spear

Futurum Media is the tip of the spear for the full Futurum enterprise.

Techstrong brings specialist publications, journalism, video, events and community relationships. Tech Field Day brings experienced practitioners into direct conversation with technology developers, where they can examine what is being built and question the assumptions behind it. Visible Impact brings expertise in positioning, technical storytelling and sales activation.

Behind those businesses stands the broader Futurum organization. Futurum Research’s analysts examine markets and the decisions shaping them. ETR brings enterprise buyer and spending intelligence. Signal65 brings engineering and testing expertise. The Futurum Intelligence Platform provides access to proprietary research and market data, while Six Five Media brings executive and analyst perspectives into the conversation.

That breadth is particularly useful in AI. Understanding a model is only part of understanding the market. Silicon, infrastructure, software, data and security all affect what can be deployed and what it costs. Enterprise buying priorities determine whether technical progress becomes commercial adoption.

We can bring those perspectives together. For readers, that gives us a deeper foundation for coverage. For clients, it provides access to capabilities spanning research, content, engagement and demand generation, selected around what they need to accomplish.

Forward Analysts, Forward Media

The pace of AI makes looking ahead essential. People are making decisions now about investments and systems they expect to use for years, while the underlying technology continues to change.

Daniel Newman and the Futurum analyst team bring a forward-looking approach to that challenge. Where are buyers committing resources? Which advances could change the economics? What could make today’s assumptions obsolete?

Those questions require evidence, judgment and a willingness to revise a position when the facts change. They also need to be examined in public, where people with different experience can challenge the reasoning.

Forward Media brings that thinking into reporting, interviews and technical discussions. It connects research with practitioners who can explain what happens when technology encounters the realities of an enterprise.

The exchange works both ways. Our communities can identify problems that deserve investigation. Research can challenge an accepted narrative. Testing can establish a firmer basis for a claim.

AI can help us explore information and develop the work. The people involved remain responsible for the questions we ask and the conclusions we publish. Research integrity, independent practitioner opinions and editorial judgment are central to the trust we have built.

Building With People I Believe In

My career has spanned the commercial internet, hosting, managed infrastructure, security, DevOps, cloud native computing and platform engineering. Through each transition, I have been a builder and a leader. Now AI is giving more people the opportunity to build, and giving experienced builders new ways to work.

Writing The Indispensability Trap gave me room to examine the enormous bets being made on AI and the assumptions about where lasting value will reside. I can question those bets and still be enthusiastic about the technology’s possibilities. Both perspectives belong in our coverage and in how we think about our own business.

I didn’t expect, after all these years, to be building again quite like this. Doing it with Lee and Stephen makes the opportunity especially meaningful. Each of us brings a different perspective, and we have talented people across our organizations who will give Futurum Media its substance.

The editors, analysts, producers, marketers, salespeople and everyone supporting the work have helped build the relationships that make this possible. Our readers, contributors, practitioners and partners have given us their time, expertise and trust. We have a strong foundation because of them.

The dawn of a new era is a good time to ask what you want to help create. I want us to build a business that helps people understand AI, question its direction and put it to useful work.

I am happy to be one of the leaders of this team and excited about what we will build together.

Learn more about Futurum Media.

Forward analysts. Forward media. Forward, engage.