 Gus Wenner built his career straddling the line between old and new media. He’s the chairman of Rolling Stone, the print magazine his father founded almost 60 years ago, and spent years as its CEO, ushering it through ownership changes and into the digital age. But now he’s ready to make a name for himself outside the shadow of the media company his larger-than-life father built. Last month, he announced he was launching Wenner Media Ventures, a new holding company that would acquire, invest, and scale promising new media companies. Its first “major” investment was the company behind the hit web series Track Star, in which host Jack Coyne corners celebrities (and the occasional civilian) on a New York City sidewalk and tests whether they can recognize snippets of famous tunes. The throughline there, Wenner said on Semafor’s Mixed Signals podcast, is that music fans are tired of being served content on social media that appeals to the “lowest common denominator,” rather than broadening their tastes and introducing them to new artists and sounds — the function Rolling Stone served before algorithmic feeds took over our lives. “One of the most powerful things about Rolling Stone was the idea that if an artist was there, they’d made it. There was this sort of stamp of approval. … I don’t think anyone’s kind of stepped in and really built something new in its place with a different kind of thinking.” Not yet, at least — though that’s what he hopes to accomplish with Track Star and other new ventures. Track Star, he went on, “started as just asking people questions on the street and just having a really high bar of respect for the audience. And that resonated. I think algorithms just inherently don’t respect you. They’re just telling you what you might like, because they’re smarter than you.” The investment in Track Star is just the first move for Wenner. While he did not disclose details, he said he expects to announce another major media investment from his new holding company in April. Wenner also talked about defending Rolling Stone’s most provocative journalism, recounted what it was like running a prestige magazine in his 20s, and said what he’s been listening to lately. You can listen to the full interview on Mixed Signals from Semafor Media wherever you get your podcasts. | 
