Why B2B Marketers Need to Start Thinking Like Media Companies with Melissa Rosenthal

#388 | Dave sits down with Melissa Rosenthal, co-founder of Outlever and former CCO at ClickUp, CRO at Cheddar, and VP of Creative at BuzzFeed, to talk about why most B2B content strategies fail because they're measured like ad campaigns instead of built like an actual media outlet. Melissa breaks down how she trains writers to think like journalists instead of bloggers, why third-party trade publications tend to outperform company blogs, and what it actually takes to run a media operation instead of just posting content. They also get into her wild LinkedIn distribution playbook - five posts a day, no rules followed - and whether AI can ever replace real editorial judgment.Timestamps(00:00) - - Today's guest: Melissa Rosenthal, co-founder of Outlever (01:58) - - From Buzzfeed to Cheddar to ClickUp (06:33) - - Why most B2B content strategies get abandoned too soon (09:20) - - The B2B companies actually winning at content right now (10:32) - - What building a real media company looks like from the inside (12:22) - - Training writers to think like journalists, not bloggers (16:48) - - Should your content live on your own site or somewhere else (21:57) - - Why separating the newsroom from marketing makes content credible (24:55) - - Her LinkedIn playbook: five posts a day and breaking every rule (26:23) - - Why the biggest wins never show up in the analytics (28:36) - - The obvious question nobody in B2B wants to answer (32:18) - - Can AI ever replace real editorial judgment Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - the AI platform for marketers. Build your own AI agents or pull from a directory of 50+ pre-built ones for marketing use cases. Their new Virtual Teammates can join meetings, complete tasks, support campaigns, and keep your website optimized. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive.Webflow - A website platform built for the agentic web, letting modern marketing teams build fully custom sites that perform in AI search with no developer needed. Learn more at webflow.com/for/exitfive.Zoom Webinars & Events – The virtual event platform built to help B2B marketers run webinars that actually drive pipeline, with branded registration pages, live engagement features, and built-in tools to repurpose sessions into clips and content. Learn more at zoom.com/exitfive.Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand gen agency helping high-growth cybersecurity and enterprise software companies show up earlier in the buying journey, combining AEO, modern paid advertising, and a dedicated go-to-market engineering team. Podcast listeners get two free media planning sessions to find out what channels are driving the best ROI. Learn more at compoundgrowthmarketing.com/exitfive. ***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more