MOVE THE GOALPOSTS

How Angel Studios Redefines Media Success

Happy Monday Peaceniks. Ready for success?

A confession: The first time I heard the term “KPI,” I had to google the definition. I do not have a college degree, let alone an MBA. So, when I started working in commercial television - in my thirties, much later than all my peers - I found the widely shared business-speak both cryptic and intimidating. I came to corporate media from theater and guerrilla marketing, so the language of “professional TV” seemed utterly foreign, full of odd sounding idioms like “let’s put a pin in it” or “open kimono,” and rife with a secret code of endless and sometimes contradictory acronyms such as AOCF and EBITDA.

For what it’s worth, the term EBITDA is not as old as business itself, but rather was invented by John Malone in the late ‘70s because he was frustrated that his cable companies didn’t show enough profit due to the enormous amount of cash they spent building out cable infrastructure. One view is that looking at Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, De…