Sammi Cohen has hundreds of thousands of followers who tune in to her podcast focused on the intersection of business, tech and culture — and she thinks they’re hungry for a live dose of her brand of news and analysis. Next month, Cohen is launching Social Commerce Network (SCN), a digital-first business news network livestreamed across YouTube, X, TikTok and Instagram. SCN will broadcast three times per week (on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays) from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The show will feature a mix of news and interviews with CEOs and other business folks spanning consumer businesses, tech and fintech, retail, CPG, beauty and the creator economy. Cohen will be joined as a co-host on SCN by Alaina Hartley, who is an ex-principal at VC firm Greycroft and a former Bain & Co. consultant who now heads her own consumer-brands consultancy, Santa Monica-based Dream Hunter. SCN will officially launch on Oct. 6.
The show will be shot in a new studio in Los Angeles’ Sawtelle neighborhood. She produces short-form video and hosts the weekly podcast “Social Currency,” in which she conducts interviews with CEOs. Cohen said she’s going to continue producing the weekly podcast as well along with the thrice-weekly SCN shows.
For each of SCN’s broadcasts, the plan is for the first half of the show to cover the latest breaking news, with the second half comprising short-form interviews with CEOs and decisionmakers, “the people in the conversations we’re talking about,” Cohen said. Another touchstone for Cohen is TBPN, the Technology Business Programming Network, which streams a daily talk show focused on Silicon Valley and Wall Street. TBPN was acquired this spring by OpenAI, whose execs see the show as promoting a “constructive” dialog with leaders about the future of AI.
To fund the launch of SCN, Cohen has lined up several sponsors — across tech, fintech, hospitality, creator media and marketing — but she declined to name them. Why is she launching SCN now? My take on the industry is, as all forms of communication become automated, people are yearning for a human touch in media, and there’s nothing more human than live,” she said, adding that SCN producers will incorporate live feedback and questions from viewers for the show’s hosts.
In addition, said Cohen, “we are seeing this incredible opportunity for creators like me to make their own media businesses.”
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