Darien resident explains how Reddit became the ‘anti-Facebook’
As former president and CEO of Condé Nast, Bob Sauerberg said his biggest challenge was overcoming a culture of perfection — and entitlement.
The Darien resident, who serves as a lead director of the social media platform Reddit, spoke to Jeff Hamill, executive vice president and chief media officer of Hearst Magazines, about shifts in the media landscape at a Darien Community Association lecture earlier this month. Hearst Magazines is part of Hearst Communications, which also owns Hearst Connecticut Media Group.
“Incredibly powerful people, interesting people, people that were creating great content. So the challenge for me was, how am I going to make this a business?” Sauerberg said of his tenure at Condé Nast, where he was responsible for a major leadership shake-up. “And how am I going to get people rally behind [that]?”
As head of Condé Nast from 2000 to 2019, Sauerberg oversaw the mass media conglomerate — the parent company of prominent media brands like the New Yorker and Vogue and which once had a large campus in Old Greenwich — as it made the transition into the digital landscape in the mid-2000s.
It was a rocky move for many traditional media companies, Sauerberg said, as they competed with burgeoning social media platforms and digital-only media ventures.
Sauerberg also prioritized the company’s video production, building that division from the ground up. Condé’s video arm would prove to be a profitable venture, Hamill said.
“It was very visionary of you, and I was very jealous,” Hamill told Sauerberg.
Sauerberg ultimately crossed paths with Reddit, a news aggregation and discussion website that bills itself as “the front page of the internet,” after Condé Nast purchased the company in 2007.
The transition from leader of Condé to one at Reddit was jarring, Sauerberg said.
“I’m coming from this place of perfection where editors are doing factchecking and all this work,” Sauerberg said. “And all of a sudden I’m now working in a place where it’s self-moderated.”
Founded in 2005 by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, Reddit quickly took off, growing exponentially yearly. From two employees in a back office, the company now boasts 1,400 employees and 500 million monthly users, Sauerberg said.
The popularity of the platform is due to several factors, Sauerberg said. For one, the site is communityoriented. It’s also pseudoanonymous.
In response to questions about social media feeding negativity, violence and extremism, Sauerberg said the site has had success in blocking hate content that violates Reddit’s policies.
He also said Reddit has positioned itself, successfully, as a place for more authentic interactions than the more curated interactions on sites like Instagram and Facebook.
“On Facebook, you’re working on your image; you’re posting with the right look on Instagram,” Sauerberg said. “Reddit is really that raw you, and your honest you and no one wants to tear it down. They want to support you, help you.”
Because of that, “Almost all of our investors are here because of they see us as the anti-Facebook,” Sauerberg said, “so I feel like we can really do some good.”
The company hopes to hit a global 1 billion user mark soon, he said. Also on the horizon: improved audio and video platforms.
Reddit has brought in video and artificial intelligence companies to help with the goal, Sauerberg said.
Sauerberg, who graduated from the University of Arkansas with a bachelor’s degree in finance, said looking back, he is still not sure how his ascension in the commerce and media worlds happened.
“I just kept doing my job, kept moving forward,” Sauerberg said. “I never tried to hurt anybody along the way. You know, I just do the right thing and things happen.”