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Understanding the Media: A Conversation with Bubba Atkinson

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Rodha Sheikh
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March 30, 2021

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The Summary

Media veteran Bubba Atkinson shared industry insights and career advice with Free the Facts Ambassadors last week

Media veteran Bubba Atkinson shared industry insights and career advice with Free the Facts Ambassadors at last week's event.

Bubba Atkinson, former head of video and social media at Axios and former editor-in-chief at Independent Journal Review, joined Free the Facts last Tuesday to kick off its 2021 Master Class Series. He walked Ambassadors through his career experiences and shared some gems of wisdom about the ever-changing media landscape.

Atkinson began the conversation by explaining that his career grew from a very unconventional start. “I just had a lot of trouble getting a job as an accounting major from the College of Charleston,” Atkinson shared, “I really didn’t know what to do.”

So in 2012, he created an online blog to track his job hunt called “Bubba Finds A Job” and shared it on his social media channels.

“Suddenly,” he explained, “it went viral within my network.”

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It was after seeing this blog that a colleague reached out to Atkinson with the opportunity to help build an innovative, social media-driven news platform. A few years later, this platform—which started out as a small Facebook page—grew to become Independent Journal Review (IJR), an online media outlet with millions of readers across the country. Atkinson took on the role of editor-in-chief there.

In 2016, Atkinson was recruited to help build the now-famous news outlet Axios—at the time just a fledgling startup from the creators of Politico. While there, he pioneered the “smart gravity format” that helped Axios garner the highest social media engagement rates in the news industry.

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After explaining his career path, Atkinson dove into the history behind the digital media boom and explained how his ability to leverage key pieces of this new landscape contributed to his success in the industry.

“You have to learn to utilize it properly,” he said.

The most successful news agencies of the 2010s understood the sudden demand for digital content, used new data to pick up on their audience’s interests, and curated their content accordingly.

But that method of success, Atkinson said, came with certain downsides. In a metric-driven industry, there was a tendency for outlets to produce content that simply boosted their engagement rates instead of providing relevant news coverage. Atkinson noted that quality content is not always reflected in high metrics. Clickbait-style articles, for example, drove unprecedented traffic and changed the industry standard for article production during their heyday. But they were not focused on providing informative, high-quality content and experienced major drop-offs in engagement once the public caught on.

Thus, according to Atkinson, “The model of the future is not ‘bigger is better.’ It’s ‘better engagement is better.’”

Atkinson then shared some tips for successful content production. The first was a rubric that contained 3 options: Good, Cheap, and Fast.

In general, when creating digital content, “You can only pick two,” he explained. “You can’t have all three.”

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Creativity can also be distilled into a simple equation, Atkinson said. If you combine Format + Risk + Access + Entertainment, you end up with a recipe for content that can captivate audiences across the Internet.

A real-life example of that equation was applied by Atkinson’s team at IJR in 2015. After Donald Trump broadcasted Senator Lindsey Graham’s cell phone number to audiences during a live primary debate, the IJR team reached out to Graham with an idea.

Taking a risk by combining their access to Senator Graham with an entertaining video format, Atkinson’s team produced a viral video where the senator destroyed his cell phone in several creative ways, including with a golf club and blender.

The video was an instant success, gaining millions of views and shares almost overnight. The risk they took in asking a presidential candidate to record such a silly video had paid off.

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Atkinson wound down the Master Class Series event with a Q&A session. The event attendees, all Free the Facts Ambassadors, had several questions for him on topics ranging from professional advice to media industry insights.

During the Q&A, Atkinson had one last gem to share about creating digital content. In a highly-saturated market where news articles are a dime a dozen, he advised Free the Facts Ambassadors with an interest in media to carefully consider their future audience’s content consumption habits.

“There’s two types of consumption,” Atkinson said. “Active consumption, where the audience seeks it out to consume it, and passive consumption, where it appears right in their face and they can choose to consume it or not. Active is more valuable.”

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For more professional insights, networking opportunities, and career guidance, Ambassadors can join Free the Facts tomorrow, March 31st, for its second Master Class Series event featuring New York Times bestselling author David Murray.

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The federal budget is the itemized plan for public expenditures of the federal government. This includes mandatory and discretionary spending. The budget is compiled annually and is named after the proceeding fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. If a budget is not agreed upon by the start of the fiscal year, a government shutdown will be triggered unless Congress passes a continuing resoultion, which provides funding at existing levels for a period of time to allow for negotiations to continue.
Federal Budget
This ratio compares the federal government debt of a country to the country's gross domestic product (GDP), in other words, what it owes to what it produces. Expressed as a percentage, the higher the debt-to-GDP ratio of a country the more likely it is that a country will face economic challenges due to its debt.
Debt-to-GDP Ratio
The federal debt is the cumulative amount the federal government owes to bondholders, both foreign and domestic. This represents the total, historical difference between federal spending and revenue.
National Debt
The federal budget deficit is the annual difference between the federal government’s revenue and how much it spends.
Budget Deficit
GDP is the total monetary value of consumer goods and services within a country's economy. This calculation considers consumer spending, government spending, private domestic investment, and a country's imports and exports.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
The U.S. federal government's sole source of income is tax revenue, which is primarily composed of individual income taxes, corporate income taxes, and payroll taxes. Other sources of tax revenue include excise taxes and estate taxes.
Tax Revenue
These bills provide and place limits on an agency's budget authority, the ability to spend government funds. There are 12 annual appropriations bills and occasional supplementary appropriations bills that obligate federal funds for specific purposes.
Appropriations Bills
Authorizing legislation is a prerequisite for Congress to appropriate budget authority, or the ability to spend government funds for various programs. Authorization laws also act as guidance on the appropriate level of funding to be set aside for specific programs. This might be in setting a limit, or it may simply authorize “such sums as may be necessary.”
Budget Authorizations
A congressional budget resolution establishes topline spending and deficit limits for the following fiscal year. Although not law, because it's not signed by the president, budget resolutions are enforceale using the rules of either chamber. By law, a budget resolution is to pass the House and Senate by April 15 of each year, which rarely happens.
Budget Resolution
The president's budget request kicks off the annual budget process and provides a breakdown of how the president would like Congress to enact tax and spending laws. This request is due on the first Monday in Feburary but is normally provided late.
Budget Request
Discretionary spending is the portion of the federal budget that Congress debates every year. There are 12 components of discretionary spending, and these are usually broken down into defense and non-defense spending.
Discretionary Spending
The programs that Congress is required to fund make up mandatory spending. This includes programs like Social Security, Medicare, and interest payments on the debt.
Mandatory Spending
What you pay for your own medical care.
Out-of-pocket Payments
Within the context of the Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund, insolvency means that Medicare is unable to cover the full cost of Part A (hospital care) benefits.
HI Trust Fund Involvency
Chronic conditions are diseases and conditions that usually last for 3 months or longer, such as diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and cancer.
Chronic Diseases
The percentage of the costs of a healthcare service that you pay (e.g., 20%). Coinsurance kicks in after you've paid your deductible.
Coinsurance
The amount you pay for healthcare services before your insurance begins to cover expenses.
Deductibles
Examples include disabilities that qualify the individual for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits (i.e., unable to engage in “substantial gainful activity” because of a medically-determined physical or mental impairment expected to last at least 12 months or until death), end-stage renal disease (ESRD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Long-term Disabilities
For every current recipient of Social Security, there are several active workers whose taxes are transferred directly to retirees. When Social Security began, there were dozens of workers per every recipient. That number has shrunk to just under three workers for every active Social Security recipient.
Worker-to-Beneficiary Ratio
As a covered worker, you pay Social Security taxes up to the taxable maximum. In 2024, that amount is $168,600. Since Social Security was never meant to function as a retirement program, wages subject to taxation were capped so that high-income individuals did not end up with Social Security payments many times what would be necessary to prevent poverty in old age.
Taxable Maximum
As the spouse of a Social Security recipient, you are entitled to additional benefits of up to one-half of their full benefits. You do not have to have a work history to receive this payment. If you have worked and are owed Social Security benefits, you get the maximum of what you are owed or your calculated spousal benefit.
Spousal Benefit
All funds in the OASDI trust funds are invested in "special issue securities" specifically created for Social Security. In effect, they are IOUs that the government pays to itself.
Special Issue Securities
In the context of Social Security, the "replacement rate" or "replacement ratio" is the percent of pre-retirement earnings that Social Security recipients can expect to receive. Median-income retirees typically expect around a mid-thirty percent replacement rate, low-income retirees get closer to fifty percent, and high-income retirees typically receive a mid-twenty percent replacement rate.
Replacement Rate
Every covered worker pays a payroll tax that includes a combined 12.4% up to the taxable maximum.
Payroll Tax
The primary insurance amount is the sum of three separate percentages of the AIME. It is the initial benefit a retiree receives, and it increases with any future COLA.
PIA
The Old Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund is what most people picture when they hear "Social Security." This trust fund pays benefits to retired workers and their spouses and dependents. It also pays benefits to the survivors of deceased retirees.
OASI
OASDI stands for Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance. It encompasses both the retirement portion of Social Security (OASI) and the disability insurance program (DI).
OASDI
The full retirement age began at 65 but is slowly increasing to the final age of 67 for those born in 1960 or later.
Full Retirement Age
Employers whose workers pay into Social Security also contribute 6.2% of each worker's payroll taxes. While it may seem like employers pay for half of all benefits, economists typically assume that any taxes paid by employers are in effect paid by employees, since in absence of the mandatory taxes, the employees would have higher wages by roughly the same amount.
Employer Contribution
Every covered worker contributes 6.2% of their paycheck in OASDI payroll taxes, which constitutes the "employee contribution" toward Social Security.
Employee Contribution
Future Social Security recipients can elect to retire early at 62 and receive reduced benefit payments. For more, click here.
Early Retirement Age
DI stands for Disability Insurance. While most people associate Social Security with retirement, it also technically encompasses disability insurance payments to almost nine million Americans.
DI
The total amount of any employee's pay that is taxed by Social Security payroll taxes. All wages below the taxable maximum are covered earnings. About 94% of workers fall under the taxable maximum every year.
Covered Earnings
The cost of living adjustment (COLA) is an annual adjustment for Social Security benefits designed to prevent losses in beneficiaries' purchasing power due to inflation.
COLA
Social Security recipients are not limited to retirees. In the OASI system, spouses are entitled to a spousal benefit, as are dependents of beneficiaries who are under the age of 19.
Beneficiary
Stands for average indexed monthly earnings. When a worker retires, the Social Security Administration summarizes up to 35 years of the worker's lifetime earnings and adjusts them for wage inflation. This number is then used to calculate the retiree's "PIA" or primary insurance amount.
AIME