The media industry is undergoing one of the most significant transformations in its history. For decades, success was measured primarily by circulation, ratings, clicks, and audience scale. Media companies focused on distributing content as broadly as possible, competing for attention in increasingly crowded markets.
In a world where content is being created by artificial intelligence and is instantly accessible, storytelling alone is no longer enough. Audiences, particularly ones that are successful and influential, are looking for something deeper than headlines and commentary. They want access to trusted communities and meaningful engagement with the people shaping industries, culture, and the global economy.
The most successful media brands of the future will not simply be publishers, they will be conveners who create ecosystems where journalism, experiences, relationships, and community intersect. Increasingly, the value is not just in what is published, but in who is brought together around it.
That evolution was on full display recently at the Semafor World Economy Summit. What stood out most was not simply the quality of the journalism or even the caliber of the speakers, but the understanding that modern media is as much about connectivity as it is about content.
The formal programming was strong as were the speakers, but much of the real value came from the interactions surrounding it. Conversations over coffee, introductions between industries, private discussions after panels, and the ability to engage directly with thoughtful leaders from business, government, finance, and technology created an energy that extended far beyond the stage itself.
Personally, I found the experience both enjoyable and valuable. In many ways, it reinforced something we think about often at Worth Media Group, that content may start the conversation, but community is what sustains it.
At Worth, we have increasingly seen our role evolve beyond traditional publishing. Journalism remains at the center of what we do, but our events, dinners, and curated gatherings have become equally important extensions of the brand. Our goal is not only to report on conversations happening across business, finance, sports, technology, wellness, and culture. It is to help facilitate those conversations among the people driving them
That reality has become especially clear over the past several weeks. At the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix, Worth hosted the Beyond the Game Summit, bringing together athletes, investors, executives, and entrepreneurs to discuss the growing intersection of sports, business, and finance. The setting itself reflected how audiences are evolving. Formula 1 today is not simply a sporting event, it has become a global platform where business, luxury, entertainment, investment, and culture converge.
The same dynamic was evident during the Milken Institute Global Conference, where Worth hosted a series of dinners and gatherings convening leaders from finance, healthcare, technology, and media. On paper, Formula 1 Miami and Milken may appear to occupy very different worlds, but the audiences increasingly overlap.
The same executives, investors, entrepreneurs, and cultural leaders are moving fluidly between these environments because their interests no longer fit neatly into traditional categories. Successful audiences today are multidimensional and they are just as likely to engage with conversations about sports ownership, wellness, and culture as they are with private markets, artificial intelligence, or global economic policy.
Dinners, salons, summits, and intimate conversations create environments where nuance, trust, and authentic engagement can flourish in ways that social platforms and digital feeds simply cannot replicate. That is why thoughtfully curated gatherings have become so important.
In many ways, the Semafor World Economy Summit felt like a glimpse into where the media industry is heading, combining strong journalism with a sophisticated understanding that influence today comes not just from audience reach, but from the ability to convene high-value communities.
From my perspective, that is an exciting direction for the industry. It reflects a future where media companies do more than inform audiences. They help create the relationships, conversations, and communities that move industries and ideas forward.
Both of my Milken conversations landed on the same example. Menopause—a stage of life every woman in the world goes through—was treated as a non-market by venture capital for 50 years. In the last five years, it has become one of the fastest-growing segments in the entire healthcare investment landscape. PwC pegs the annual growth rate at 13%.
The companies that proved out the category are recognizable now. Midi Health has raised $100 million across its first three rounds, with Series B led by Emerson Collective. Evernow raised $28.5 million in a Series A round, backed by Gwyneth Paltrow, Drew Barrymore, and Cameron Diaz. Elektra Health, Maven Clinic, and Carrot Fertility expanded coverage. Corporate benefits packages added menopause as a line item.
Jenica Patterson, PhD, Senior Director of the Women’s Health Network at Milken, called the shift a stigma reduction that finally unlocked the spend. “Every woman goes through menopause at some point,” she told me. “We’re 51% of the population, and 100% of women go through this.”
Patterson pointed out that while venture funding for menopause has accelerated, the underlying science has yet to catch up. The category broke through commercially before fully understanding the biology. Supplements arrived first, but clinical trials are still catching up, highlighting a critical area for future research and investment.
The pattern is well documented. Silicon Valley Bank’s 2025 report put women’s health venture funding at $2.6 billion in 2024, a 55% jump from the prior year. The early-stage numbers look like a sector finally getting its due. The exits do not. Most women’s health companies hit a wall somewhere between Series A and the kind of late-stage round that requires a billion-dollar comp to justify itself. The digital health IPO window has tightened across the board—Hinge Health filed an S-1, then paused—and women’s health, with no clear pattern of large outcomes, gets hit harder than the rest of the digital health sector.
MacLean confirmed the diagnosis. “We’re hitting a billion dollars, but the later-stage capital market investment has stalled. It has not really seen its final potential.”
The mechanics underneath the stall are the cardiologist’s problem at scale. The buyers of women’s health products—health systems, employers, and insurers—lack the framework to evaluate them because their clinicians’ medical training didn’t include the underlying conditions. A company building a women-specific pathway faces a discount that a gender-neutral company does not. The fix isn’t more early-stage capital. It is a generation of clinicians, payers, and category infrastructure that doesn’t yet exist.
