Colby Hall
The rules for how stories travel have changed.
I help companies, founders, and creators win attention in the media ecosystem that actually exists in 2026 — not the one most strategists are still optimizing for.
I’m Colby Hall. I founded Mediaite in 2009 and ran it as Founding Editor for fifteen years — building one of the outlets that decides what breaks through in American political and media coverage. . Before that, I spent a decade running content operations at iHeartMedia and HBO. My work has been recognized with a Peabody Award and an Emmy nomination. I’ve also appeared as an on-air contributor across every major cable news network, including three years as media contributor at NewsNation. I’m co-founder of NarrativePrism, the narrative intelligence platform.
The ecosystem that shapes attention today doesn’t look like the one most companies still organize around. Discovery has fragmented across platforms. Short-form clips travel further than press releases. Companies still optimize announcements for press release pickup when the audience is already on YouTube. Executives still wait for journalists to surface them when journalists are increasingly reacting to creator ecosystems that pre-shape their coverage. Organizations produce enormous volumes of content built for campaigns rather than circulation — and most of it goes unused. The opportunity is closing for companies that wait to see how the new ecosystem settles before adapting to it.
What I do
Narrative intelligence: knowing where the conversation is heading.
Narratives form, spread, and harden across the media ecosystem in patterns most companies can’t see in real time. I work with clients to identify which framings are gaining purchase, which voices are driving them, and which outlets are amplifying which arguments — then position accordingly. This work draws on NarrativePrism, the narrative intelligence platform I co-founded. NarrativePrism surveys thousands of outlets in real time and produces a continuously updating editorial brief on the emerging frames, claims, and voices shaping any conversation. In practice, this means an advisory engagement can spot a regulatory framing gaining traction in trade press weeks before it breaks into mainstream coverage — and use that lead time to position accordingly.
Short-form video and editorial content built for how attention actually moves.
Long before the clip economy became its own category, I built Mediaite on the editorial premise that a well-cut clip with sharp framing could shape national conversation. That logic now drives most of the political and cultural discourse on YouTube, podcasts, social, and the networks that depend on them. I help organizations build clip and short-form strategies that work the way the modern ecosystem rewards: editorial judgment about which moments deserve amplification, format expertise about how to cut and frame them, and infrastructure for turning long-form content into a continuous stream of clips that travel. This applies whether you’re a podcast trying to break out of your own feed, a company sitting on hours of executive content nobody sees, or a creator building an archive into a brand.
Discovery in the AI era: what comes after SEO.
Search optimization was the discipline that determined whether a brand or executive could be found. That surface is now shifting toward AI tools that synthesize answers rather than return links. The category of “AI optimization” is real, growing, and nobody yet knows what it actually is. What I bring to it is editorial judgment about how narrative authority forms in distributed information systems — applied to the new discovery infrastructure where AI is increasingly the surface readers first encounter. I work with clients on what’s becoming visible: which voices get cited across topics, how narrative framing reinforces itself across sources, how to build the editorial position that makes you present in the answers people are actually receiving. This is early-stage work and I’m honest about it. But the organizations that take it seriously now will be the ones with the editorial authority when the category settles.
Senior editorial advisory and content optimization.
Most companies producing content aren’t getting returns because of editorial judgment problems, not volume problems. I work with organizations to audit what they’re publishing, identify what’s working and what isn’t, and rebuild content programs that earn attention. Engagements range from focused content-program reviews to ongoing editorial counsel embedded in the operation.
Design announcements and launches for maximum pickup.
When the moment matters — a product launch, a news beat, a campaign — I help shape it before it goes out the door, with an eye on how it will actually be received, covered, and shared in the current media landscape.
Past work includes branded content and content strategy for iHeartRadio, Google, Jeep, Fiat, Snapple, Airbnb, and Jet.com. Detailed portfolio available on request.
The companies that learn how this ecosystem actually works will set the cycles others react to. The ones still running 2015 playbooks won’t.
Selectively taking on new engagements. Based in New York.