News Information and Media Site: Byers Market: Sheryl Sandberg exclusive; new 'Byers Market Podcast'

February 27, 2020

By DYLAN BYERS &

AHIZA GARCÍA-HODGES

in San Francisco

Good morning. 🎙️ Big news! The Byers Market Podcast, a new NBC News series featuring my interviews with the top executives and entrepreneurs in media and technology, launches today.

• The first episode, an exclusive conversation with Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, is available here.

Join the Market.

Bloomberg/Getty

🎙️ The Market Podcast

Exclusive: Sheryl Sandberg defends her reputation

Moving the Market: In her first interview since the publication of Steven Levy's "Facebook: The Inside Story," Sheryl Sandberg defends herself against claims that she's overly controlling, obsessed with her public image and prone to yelling at her employees.

• "I'm a demanding boss and I am a tough boss. I think I'm a very fair boss. But I am demanding and I have very high standards," Sandberg says in an interview with "Byers Market," the new NBC News podcast that debuts today.

The big picture: In the 50-minute conversation, recorded at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Sandberg also weighs in on her relationship with Mark Zuckerberg, addresses the damage that's been done to her public image — and whether or not she can rectify it — and says she's committed to staying at Facebook for the long term.

• "I wish so much that the world could see the Mark I know," Sandberg says. "Mark is an enormously, enormously talented guy. He has a great product sense. ... People think he doesn't understand people, that's just clearly wrong."

• "We don't spend that much time worrying about our public image," she adds. "The issue is not what people think of me or Mark personally. The issue is how are we doing as a company? How do we provide a great service and how do we prevent some of the harm?"

What's next: Sandberg also offers her most robust defense to date of Facebook's business model and its vast collection of personal data, and reveals that she will be publicly defending the company's business model in a speech later this year.

• "This is actually one of the most important things I want to do this year," Sandberg says. "I'm going to give a big speech next month. And I'm working on an op-ed. We need to go out and explain the business model clearly."

• "There is growing concern, which is based on a lack of understanding, that we are using people's information in a bad way. We are selling it. We are giving it away. We are violating it. None of that's true. We do not sell data," she says. "Here's what we do: We take your information and we show you personalized ads.... [to give you] a much better experience."

Plus: Sandberg addresses the biggest development that's taken place in her personal life: her engagement to her boyfriend, Tom Bernthal, as well as her experience overcoming the grief she felt after the loss of her late husband, Dave Goldberg, in 2015.

Listen to the first episode here and subscribe for free wherever you get your podcasts.

Michael KovacGetty

🎙️ The Market Calendar

Barry Diller, Adam Mosseri talk to The Market

What's next: New episodes of the Byers Market Podcast will be available every Wednesday. Here's the lineup:

• Mar. 4: IAC's Barry Diller

• Mar. 11: Uninterrupted's Maverick Carter

• Mar. 18: Hello Sunshine's Sarah Harden

• Mar. 25: The New York Times' Ben Smith

• Apr. 1: Instagram's Adam Mosseri

• Apr. 8: ESPN's Jimmy Pitaro

• Apr. 15: YouTube's Susan Wojcicki

🇺🇸 Talk of the Trail 🇺🇸

Losing Los Angeles: NYT's Thomas Kaplan and Katie Glueck visit a Joe Biden campaign office in East Los Angeles and find that it's been completely shuttered.

• The big picture: Biden's "lack of resources and thin campaign organization... present a daunting challenge to a candidacy already on precarious footing."

Bloomberg/Getty

Disney Succession

On Bob Chapek and Bob Iger

Talk of Tinseltown: Bob Chapek's ascent to the top of Disney has Hollywood insiders questioning whether the former theme parks chief will be able to fill the considerably large shoes of his predecessor, Bob Iger. But as NYT's Brooks Barnes writes, "comparing Mr. Chapek to Mr. Iger may be missing the point."

• The big picture: "No one can reasonably be expected to fill Mr. Iger's shoes, not only because he has a singular personality but because the company has changed so much during his tenure. ... Not even Mr. Iger can run Disney the way he has run it."

The buddy comedy: The two Bobs may be different — Iger is the iconic, charismatic CEO and Chapek is the quiet executive who prefers to stay out of the spotlight — but the two men are close and have learned a lot from one another.

• In his recent memoir, Iger commends Chapek for rising to several major challenges, including the opening of the Shanghai Disney Resort and his handling of both a secret security threat at Disney World and the death of a toddler at a Disney World lake.

• "The bond you form in high-stress moments like this, when you're sharing information that you can't discuss with anyone else, is a powerful one," Iger writes.

What's next: Chapek will report to Iger for at least another 22 months. The longtime CEO is staying on as executive chairman through 2021 and will spend a considerable amount of time grooming Chapek for the top post.

• Bonus: Over at WSJ, Joe Flint and R.T. Watson describe Chapek as a "number-crunching tactician" with "little time or interest in niceties." A departure from Iger indeed.

Market Links

• Rajeev Misra faces sabotage accusation at SoftBank (WSJ)

• Steve Huffman says TikTok is "fundamentally parasitic" (TC)

• Tim Cook hints at $40-billion wearables business (Bloomberg)

• Andreessen Horowitz makes a big bet on gaming (WSJ)

• Bob Bakish gets 15.3M viewers for chaotic CBS debate (THR)

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Virus Gone Viral

Facebook combats CONVID-19

Big in the Bay: Mark Zuckerberg is banning ads that promise to cure coronavirus or create a sense of urgency around it, a significant step for a company that has been reticent to impose restrictions on content or act as the arbiter of truth.

• The big picture: Stopping the spread of misinformation has been a big issue for Facebook since the 2016 election. But while it's taken steps to ban untrue ads about issues like vaccines, medical misinformation still abounds on the platform.

Noel Celis/Getty

Cost of Coronavirus

Chinese box office takes a hit

Big in Beijing: "China's booming box office — the second-largest on the planet behind the U.S., with more than $9 billion in ticket sales last year — could take a major hit this quarter amid the spread of the coronavirus," our colleague Daniel Arkin emails.

• "The outbreak has forced the closure of virtually every movie theater in the country, potentially postponing the release of Disney's live-action remake of 'Mulan.'"

• "The public health crisis has created 'a massive amount of uncertainty that is shared by every studio,' veteran box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian told me."

The big picture: The coronavirus threat "is a challenge for both the fast-growing Chinese film business and for Hollywood, which relies on overseas revenues to bolster its bottom line."

• What's next: Read Arkin's full report on how coronavirus is affecting China and Hollywood.

😷 What's next: Coronavirus briefings. The New York Times has launched a newsletter with "the latest developments and expert advice" on the global outbreak.

See you tomorrow.