A lively panel discussion on Day One of MediaPost's TV & Video Insider Summit heard a pet food marketer and two agency operatives acknowledge the difficulty in planning during uncertainty.

On the first day of MediaPost's TV & Video Insider Summit, we heard from Skullcandy CMO Jessica Klodnicki, who outlined how the brand developed a successful content-to-commerce model.

Tim Hill, EVP, Integrated Investment at UM, foresaw a smaller scene. "Flexibility will be generated by negotiations but some clients will want more than upfront can provide and may decide to opt out."

Discussions seem to be all the rage. Gibbs Haljun, managing director, media investment at GroupM, agreed, adding that one of the benefits is that "it has allowed us to be more thoughtful."

Nick Johnson, Vice President and Head of Advertising at McClatchy, said the sales team moved to a "full-court press on educating advertisers why a pause made more sense" than a cancellation.

"The essential mission of Slate is to help people understand what's important," said CRO Charlie Kammerer. Since there has been a lot going on with the pandemic, Slate is seeing big increases in podcasting and web traffic.

"Age 8 or 9 is the pivot point, where children become interested in the world that is wider than their families," said The Week's Kerin O'Connor, adding frankly, "There is also a lot of money in it."

Already struggling under digital pressures, media companies faced the COVID-19 epidemic head on and, in some ways outlined by our Publishing Insider Summit panelists on Thursday, actually are coming out on top.

A slide from Thursday's keynote presentation by Catherine Levene, President, Chief Digital Officer at Meredith's National Media Group (inset). Read any good magazines lately? If so, they likely came from Meredith, the nation's largest publisher. If not, you probably will do so soon. Catherine Levene, president, chief digital officer at Meredith's National Media Group, told our virtual Publishing Insider Summit audience on Thursday about the publications that it has just launched — Sweet July, Reveal, Magnolia Journal, and Millie. How, during this pandemic, does anyone launch a new print product? It starts with data, a treasure …

As a direct-to-consumer bra and underwear company, 2020 was going to be ThirdLove's brand awareness year. Well, that got put on the back burner when COVID hit.