Steven Rosenbaum

Last updated

Steven J. Rosenbaum
Steve Rosenbaum at SXSW 2025 (cropped).jpg
Born
Alma materBA Skidmore College, MA NYU Gallatin
OccupationsEntrepreneur, filmmaker, author
Employer Sustainable Media Center

Steven J. Rosenbaum is an American author, entrepreneur and filmmaker. He was a Resident at TED in New York City [1] and holds two patents in the areas of video curation and advertising technology. Rosenbaum is the co-founder and executive director of the Sustainable Media Center.

Contents

After the September 11, 2001, attacks, documentary filmmaker Steven Rosenbaum dispatched crews around the city and placed a classified ad in the Village Voice, inviting New Yorkers to contribute video footage as a way to "contribute to history.” He later chose the New York Public Library as the archive’s permanent home to ensure free, uncensored public access. Rosenbaum hopes future generations will continue to discover new and surprising meanings within it. [2]

He was an executive director of the NYC Media Lab from 2020 to 2022. [3]

Career

Rosenbaum founded Broadcast News Network (BNN). [4] He also acted as the company's executive producer for the company's main program Broadcast New York. [5] In 1991 the show was awarded a New York Regional Emmy for "Outstanding Magazine Format Programming", [6] and "Outstanding Issues Programming - Segments". Later, Rosenbaum was nominated for a national Emmy Award for "Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking" for the film With All Deliberate Speed' [7]

In 1995, he created MTV News: Unfiltered; a half-hour show on MTV featuring first-person stories provided by viewers and curated by the show's producers. The show would typically feature content not covered by traditional media and was the first commercial use of UGC, User-Generated Content. [8]

In 2001, while working on a shoot for Animal Planet, he witnessed the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. He directed his five film crews to Manhattan to capture the devastating aftermath of the attacks. This footage would later become the documentary "7 Days in September" [9] (winner of CINE Golden Eagle [10] and Telly Award [11] ) and go on to become a research archive of meticulously curated amateur video known as The CameraPlanet Archive The 500 Hours of 9/11 [12] ) which Rosenbaum donated [2] to the National 9/11 Memorial Museum. [13]

Later in 2001, he launched CameraPlanet.com; a web-based video shop that created television content and encouraged users to create their own content by providing them with tips on how to tell their own story. The site featured many categories like “beaches” and “pets” and each video featured about four minutes of footage created entirely by the users. [14]

In 2005, he was nominated for an Emmy Award for Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking for his work in "With All Deliberate Speed" for the Discovery Channel. The documentary, which was released to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling of 1954, examines via newsreel footage and interviews the events that led to the landmark decision. [15]

In 2006, he founded Magnify.net, a New York-based startup focused on developing a video aggregation and curation platform. The company spent seven years building a steady business providing tools to enterprise clients who wished to manage and curate their own channels of video content.

In 2013 Magnify acquired Waywire, a video-sharing website founded by the former mayor of Newark, Cory Booker. In April 2014, Magnify.net adopted the Waywire name for its existing enterprise software business. One of the main objectives of the acquisition was to build a consumer-facing business around the curation of videos online. [16]

In 2019, Rosenbaum joined the NYC Media Lab, a consortium of university partners focused on media innovation. He was promoted to executive firector in 2020. [17] In 2022 he founded The Sustainable Media Center, whose mission is to improve media sustainability. [18]

Rosenbaum has also acted as a Member of the Social Media Week: New York advisory board, [19] as a Member of the FASTPACK 200 and was also named the first-Ever Entrepreneur at Large for the New York City Economic Development Corporation, offering his expertise as an author and curator to help startup businesses in the New York Area grow and develop. [20]

Rosenbaum is a frequent writer for websites including MediaPost, Forbes, The Huffington Post and The Columbia Journalism Review.

Patents

Rosenbaum has two patents in the areas of video curation and advertising technology. A year after YouTube was founded, Rosenbaum filed Patent No. 8,117,545 "Hosted video discovery and publishing platform" which was granted in 2012. [21] And in 2014 Patent No. 208,812,956 "Video curation platform with pre-roll advertisements for discovered content"

Filmography

As a producer

As a director

Publications

References

  1. "Meet the Spring 2017 class of TED Residents | TED Blog". Ted.
  2. 1 2 "A Collective Video Diary of 9/11, in 500 Hours The New York Public Library has acquired what may be the largest collection of crowdsourced footage of the attacks and the shellshocked aftermath". The New York Times . Retrieved February 8, 2026.
  3. "The NYC Media Lab at NYU Tandon names Steven Rosenbaum Executive Director | NYU Tandon School of Engineering" (PDF).
  4. Walker, Rob (April 30, 1997). "He's Making News - for the Future". Fast Company. Retrieved June 28, 2016.
  5. Carter, Bill (September 21, 1992). "THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Company Tries to Fill Holes in Local TV News". Archived from the original on August 19, 2016. Retrieved June 26, 2016.
  6. "New York Emmy Award Winners 1990-1991" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on July 7, 2025.
  7. "With All Deliberate Speed". Emmys.
  8. "MTV News 'Unfiltered'". Variety. April 3, 1995. Archived from the original on August 18, 2016. Retrieved June 26, 2016.
  9. "7 Days in September". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on October 11, 2016. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
  10. "CINE Winner Directory" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on April 27, 2012. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
  11. "The 34th Annual TELLY Awards | Winners". Tellyawards.com. Retrieved November 18, 2012.
  12. Collins, Glenn (May 30, 2006). "The 500 Hours of 9/11". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 1, 2018. Retrieved July 7, 2016.
  13. "500 Hour Video Archive of 9/11 Related Footage Donated to the Museum". 911memorial. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 19, 2016. Retrieved July 7, 2016.
  14. Megna, Michelle. "VIDEO-VERITE Every family has a story to tell. Yours could end up on TV". New York Daily News . Archived from the original on August 17, 2016. Retrieved June 26, 2016.
  15. Kehr, Dave (May 14, 2004). "FILM IN REVIEW; 'With All Deliberate Speed'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 28, 2015. Retrieved June 26, 2016.
  16. Lawler, Ryan. "Magnify Is Buying Waywire To Build A Consumer-Facing Video Curation Powerhouse". Tech Crunch . Archived from the original on June 4, 2016. Retrieved June 26, 2016.
  17. "The NYC Media Lab at NYU Tandon names Steven Rosenbaum Executive Director". NYU Tandon School of Engineering. Archived from the original on May 25, 2022. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  18. "Mission Statement". The Sustainable Media Center. Archived from the original on July 7, 2022. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  19. Welsch, Michelle (February 2, 2012). "Our Advisory Board is Rock Solid. Meet Steven Rosenbaum". Social Media Week: New York. Archived from the original on August 29, 2016. Retrieved June 26, 2016.
  20. "NYCEDC Announces Steven Rosenbaum to Serve as First-Ever Entrepreneur at Large". NYCEDC. Archived from the original on June 10, 2016. Retrieved June 26, 2016.
  21. White, James. "United States Patent Office Issues Broad Content Curation Patent". Reuters. Archived from the original on August 17, 2016. Retrieved June 26, 2016.
  22. "Programming Profile: Casting the CBS Eye on People". Archived from the original on December 2, 2021. Retrieved December 2, 2021.
  23. Endrst, James. "CBS' Cable Channel on Outside Looking In". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
  24. "Strictly Personal: New York's Strangest New Show". The New York Observer . October 21, 2002. Archived from the original on December 2, 2021. Retrieved December 2, 2021.
  25. "WITH ALL DELIBERATE SPEED movie review (2004) | Roger Ebert".
  26. Rubin, Rebecca (June 16, 2021). "Abramorama Buys Documentary About Battle to Build 9/11 Memorial (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Archived from the original on June 26, 2021. Retrieved June 26, 2021.