Putting Time in Web3

Keith Grossman is bullish on bringing Web3 to mainstream media.

Having served as chief operating officer of Engine, chief revenue officer at Bloomberg Media, and a publisher at Wired, he joined Time Magazine as president in July 2019, making significant strides to bring the 99-year-old publication into the Web3 space.

After releasing TIMEPieces in September 2021, a non-fungible token, or NFT, collection featuring magazine issues, historical moments and works of art that has amassed over 60,000 community members and a 14,504 ETH trading volume, about $18,414,133, Grossman sought to expand beyond NFTs to build out Time’s greater Web3 strategy in 2022.

This past year, he helped create an Intellectual Property (IP) division within Time Studios, focused on Web3 entertainment strategy. In July, it forged a partnership with kids entertainment studio Nelvana to produce two new shows featuring the work of NFT artists Pablo Stanley and Wil Lee.

Read more: Presenting CoinDesk's Most Influential 2022

Grossman also helped launch Time’s B2B wing, targeted towards supporting businesses making the transition from Web2 to Web3.

In its first initiative, the publication announced a partnership with Miami Mayor Francis Suarez in July to help onboard the Florida city to Web3 through a 5,000 unit NFT collection created by local Miami artists. Additionally, Time partnered with fintech firm Salesforce to facilitate the minting, and credit card company Mastercard to provide exclusive event benefits for token holders through its Priceless Miami program.

Time also supported crypto firm Galaxy Digital in releasing its first NFT collection, releasing a 3,000-unit collection inspired by the firm’s logo in October.

Outside of Time, Grossman has taken Web3 to other facets of his life. He has served as a board member of nonprofit New York Cares since 2018 and helped raise $200,000 for the organization through an NFT sale in October that featured AI-generated works.

In late November, shortly before this feature went to press, Grossman announced he would be leaving Time to become president of crypto payments company Moonpay beginning in 2023. Grossman will not be president when Time turns 100 this coming year, but he told CoinDesk he’s confident the publication will continue to lead mainstream media brands as it expands its Web3 initiatives.