John Kingston’s Post

Enjoyed this conversation at the Future of Supply Chain.

Excited to be here for Future of Supply Chain 2024 in Atlanta.

It was great to catch up last night with my old boss Paul Sheard, formerly the chief economist at S&P Global, as he discussed his book "The Power of Money." He was interviewed by Michelle Cabruso Cabrera of CNBC at The Korea Society. I was disappointed when I missed the book launch event last year; I was glad I could make this event.

Is this a far bigger story than the attention it's getting? Do generative AI providers know that unless they have good inputs, all the capabilities of AI are essentially wasted and they believe they have a role in making those inputs reliable and accurate? The old garbage in, garbage out problem. And if so, how does that ever trickle down to the news deserts, the counties whose newspaper has long since closed or the small cities whose paper still exists but maybe has four journalists? Whatever the outcome, the idea that AI is the final death knell for the news business is one that I think is grossly simplistic. It might be a savior. https://lnkd.in/eiYiTi4q

With the death of Herbert Hunt, I'd like to tell a story. I joined a publication called American Metal Market in December 1980. It was a daily publication that covered the steel and metals industry; I had a great time there for 4.5 years and that was my first step in a career of business journalism. I joined there from the Herald News, a daily newspaper in Passaic. And the move from general press to business press was sort of traumatic; I wasn't totally sure I was making the right move. Was it going to be interesting stuff to cover? Or would I find it boring? One of the first things they sent me out to cover was the annual luncheon of the Silver Users Association at the Waldorf Astoria because a CFTC commissioner was speaking. The Association consisted of companies that made silver-based products (like sterling silver, think Reed & Barton) or used silver in industrial applications, like electronics. And I thought as I went up to the meeting: oh, man, this is going to be a snoozer. The pricing of the manufacturers' products was set up to just pass through the price of silver. They didn't want to make money on the price of the metal and they didn't want to lose it either, sort of like the fuel surcharge in trucking. Their "value prop" was in the final product. What that meant is that in the prior year or two before this meeting, they watched as their products absolutely soared in price because of the Hunt brothers' attempt to corner the silver market. They didn't benefit at all. In fact, it hurt them because, for example, people stopped buying sterling silver given its insane price. Fifty bucks an ounce for silver was just devastating to their businesses. The speaker from the CFTC was lucky to get out of there alive. The members' view was that the CFTC was totally asleep at the switch, had let the Hunt Brothers manipulate the market at will and it was their businesses that took the hit. Seriously: I thought somebody might do physical violence to this poor guy whom I remember having no good arguments why this federal agency had so completely dropped the ball on doing its job. The audience was absolutely furious. I left there thinking that maybe covering business was not going to be boring at all. Almost 44 years later, I'm still at it. And that's what I was thinking when I saw that Herbert Hunt died.  (Turns out he went to W&L).

As many of you know, FreightWaves Media is now part of Firecrown Media, founded and owned by Craig Fuller, the founder and CEO of the legacy FreightWaves business of which data analytics dashboard SONAR is at the core. There is a 10-year "bear hug" between FreightWaves SONAR and FreightWaves Media, so although I work for Firecrown, I definitely feel like I at least have a toe still in there at FreightWaves SONAR. When the split occured in February, I was the sixth-longest serving employee at FreightWaves. So yes; I still have a deep affinity for my former colleagues who quite frankly I view as my current colleagues. But the focus today is on Firecrown, which has gotten bigger yet again: on the train tracks. https://lnkd.in/gtrbWzfW

Might have to check this out!!!

Thanks, Rick Larkin, for having me on BCB Live to talk about lots of trucking stuff in not a lot of time. Always a great conversation. https://lnkd.in/eV5QqE_w

I've gotten lots of questions and queries the last few days: hey, what's going on with FreightWaves? You guys sticking around? So now it can be told: the FreightWaves media operations are being sold to a company called Firecrown. But as The Who sang those many years ago: meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Craig Fuller, the founder and CEO of FreightWaves, is also the founder and CEO of Firecrown. Firecrown also consists of the private flying publications and services Craig has acquired in recent years separate from FreightWaves, as well as a suite of marine recreation titles purchased last year. I can assure you: he ain't done. (And he remains CEO of FreightWaves). There's a big bearhug agreement with FreightWaves. So we at Firecrown keep the FreightWaves name, the SaaS company that is now FreightWaves will eventually be rechristened SONAR (the name of our data dashboard product) and we'll move forward. Our content will still be pushed through SONAR, we will still have access to SONAR data for our articles, some FreightWaves media people will still host sessions at our big in-person events (see you in Atlanta in June!) and if you were an employee who was in position to eventually benefit from FreightWaves SONAR growth, you still will be. Excited for the future! Here is the story just published on FreightWaves. https://lnkd.in/ghfSi7vx