Today on the mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast we’re joined by Ben Lerer, CEO of Thrillist.

Lerer has turned Thrillist, an email newsletter geared toward guys, into a brand that covers more than a dozen cities. We talk to him about being a young CEO, and how to make money in these tough economic times. “We want every sentence and everything we write about to feature both some element of service that someone really gets information they can use while at the same time keeping them engaged by being funny,” he said.

He is also a speaker at the Mediabistro Circus, tomorrow and Wednesday in New York City. The panel will “discuss the media business, and how to plan successfully for what’s ahead.” Said Lerer: “I think that one of the big reasons we’ve been successful is we’ve stayed incredibly focused on our core business, and we haven’t gotten distracted…We decided we’d be great at email, and what that’s allowed us to do is be one of the leaders in a space that has a lot of value.”

Also discussed: a “revolution” in prime time with Jay Leno’s upcoming 10pm show.

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.

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