How Morning Brew Inc. replaced 3 tools with Iconik and cut annual costs by 69%

When Morning Brew Inc. 's podcast producers needed to review raw recordings to identify social media clips, someone had to manually navigate to on-premise storage, upload files to Frame.io, wait for processing, and then share with the producer. This process required multiple people and significant time investment…until Iconik changed everything.

Since implementing Iconik in early 2025, what used to take 30-45 minutes of someone's time per podcast episode now happens "near instantaneously—just basically as long as it takes for the viewing proxy to transcode," says Sam Wolf, Head of Post-Production at Morning Brew Inc..

With about 50 people using their asset management and collaboration platforms, it took a bit of convincing to transition to Iconik. But since then the team has seen:

• 69% savings in media asset management costs
• Reduced overhead:  Iconik replaced 3 separate software tools — Frame, Signiant Jet and Media Shuttle

The challenge: Simplicity at scale for a distributed team

Since its humble beginnings as an email newsletter written from a dorm room back in 2014, Morning Brew Inc. has grown steadily — and strategically — into a next-gen media empire. 

In addition to the core newsletter product, Morning Brew Inc.’s approximately 50-person media team now produces approximately 7-8 long-form videos per month (10-20 minutes each), 6 weekly podcast episodes, plus two daily podcasts, with each project involving 3-7 people in post-production. Projects typically range from 300GB to 1TB of media.

The team faced several interconnected challenges that were hampering their ability to scale efficiently:

• Tool fragmentation across multiple platforms. The team was juggling three separate tools to manage their media workflow: Frame.io for review and collaboration, Signiant Jet for cloud backups, and Media Shuttle for remote media management. This fragmentation created operational complexity and increased costs.
• Distributed team coordination. With 50 team members spread across New York, Connecticut, Texas, New Jersey, North Carolina, and California, plus frequent travel for shoots, Morning Brew Inc. needed a solution that could support truly flexible remote workflows.
• Learning curve concerns. As Sam explained: "We are a fairly young company, both in terms of how long the company's been around as well as the average and median age of the folks that we work with... We knew that if we continued with Frame.io, there wasn't any learning curve with it, but with Iconik being a new product to not just the post-production team, but to everyone, we were a little apprehensive."
• Inefficient handoffs between teams. Too often, media teams get stuck doing the file shuffle: finding a file, downloading it, uploading it to another platform, sharing for review, waiting for feedback, and then consolidating that feedback and applying it to the original file. Morning Brew Inc.’s podcast workflow exemplified this challenge. When producers needed to review raw recordings to identify social media clips, someone had to manually navigate to their on-premise storage, upload files to Frame.io, wait for processing, and then share with the producer. This process required multiple people and significant time investment.
• Growing content demands. Because Morning Brew Inc.’s team produces terabytes of media on a given week, they required robust storage and collaboration capabilities, including seamless remote workflows for their distributed team. 

The solution: A 3-phase transition

They looked around, but ultimately Morning Brew Inc. chose and implemented Iconik as their unified media asset management and collaboration platform because they saw how it could function with the technical depth needed for their core team of editors and the ease of sharing with a wider team of reviewers and producers. 

They took a strategic, phased approach to adoption:

• Phase 1: Frame.io replacement. The post-production team initially positioned Iconik as a direct Frame.io replacement, setting up ACLs to create a simple "reviews" folder. As Sam noted: "We initially just rolled this out as, hey, guys, this is the Frame.io replacement... just put your cuts that you want to get reviewed in this review folder, and it's exactly like Frame.io." By first replacing their review process, the team eliminated version confusion and approval delays that were slowing content publication schedules.
• Phase 2: Media management expansion. Once the team was comfortable with basic review functionality, they expanded to utilize Iconik's media asset management capabilities, replacing both Signiant Jet and Media Shuttle. This consolidation eliminated two additional vendor relationships, cut IT overhead, and streamlined their software budget into a single, predictable cost structure.
• Integrated storage approach. Morning Brew Inc. eliminated the bottleneck of having someone physically in the office to access files for remote team members by connecting their on-premise storage directly to Iconik through an ISG (Iconik Storage Gateway), while also integrating Wasabi cloud storage buckets. This hybrid approach provided immediate access to content regardless of location. Now, producers in Texas or California can instantly access the same content as editors in New York, accelerating project timelines and reducing dependency on location-based resources.
• User role optimization. The team set up approximately 50 users with different access levels: browse-only users who need digital interface access to on-premise storage, and standard users who regularly upload and collaborate on content.

Immediate impact: Morning Brew Inc.’s time and efficiency gains

The transition to Iconik delivered measurable improvements across multiple dimensions:

Operational efficiency gains. The most significant improvement came in podcast production workflow. Previously, sharing raw recordings with producers required manual intervention, file uploads, and waiting for processing. Now, with Iconik's ISG connection, "that turnaround time... is a workflow that has gotten shorter as a result of Iconik," Sam explained. "Now it's like a near instantaneous process, just basically as long as it takes for the viewing proxy to transcode." This acceleration enables Morning Brew Inc. to capitalize on trending topics and breaking news faster than competitors, directly supporting their mission to deliver timely business content to millennial audiences. 

Time savings quantified. The new workflow saves "maybe like 30, 45 minutes of someone's time that now no longer needs to be spent" per podcast episode. With several podcast recordings per week, this represents substantial time savings across the team. With 6 weekly episodes plus daily content, this efficiency gain frees up approximately 4-6 hours per week of productive time.

Reduced personnel dependencies. The streamlined workflow eliminated the need for one person to handle file uploads for remote producers. "That one person who would be doing it for them no longer needs to do it," Sam noted. Freelance producers and remote team members can now access content directly through designated folders in Iconik. Morning Brew Inc. can now maintain production schedules even when key team members are unavailable, ensuring consistent content delivery that advertisers and audiences depend on.

Cost consolidation. By replacing three separate tools with one platform, Morning Brew Inc. reduced their annual media management costs 69%. Beyond direct subscription savings, this consolidation reduces IT management overhead, simplifies budget planning, and reduces training costs for new hires and freelancers.

Enhanced remote workflow flexibility. The platform's accessibility translated directly to competitive advantage: Morning Brew's distributed team can respond to breaking news or trending topics within hours, regardless of who's available or where they're located. As Sam emphasized: "Something that we actually really liked about Iconik is the flexibility that it offers because that is something that we just need with how... different everyone's individual working situation is." This flexibility makes it easier for Morning Brew Inc. to expand their talent pool and quickly scale production around breaking news or trending topics, as their entire distributed team can get involved and bring a speed-to-market advantage.

Future roadmap

Morning Brew Inc.  has ambitious plans for expanding their Iconik implementation:

Deliverables tracking and tagging. The team plans to implement comprehensive metadata tagging for all deliverables, including video files, audio files, thumbnails, and SRT caption files. This will create a searchable repository of all published content organized by franchise.

Newsletter team integration. They're exploring using Iconik as a digital asset management system for their newsletter team, leveraging storage and tagging capabilities to populate images in newsletters and website articles.

Publishing workflow automation. The ultimate goal is to use Iconik as an intermediary for publishing to platforms like YouTube, eliminating direct uploads and ensuring all content flows through their tagged, organized system.

AI-powered metadata. With Iconik's AI tagging capabilities, Morning Brew Inc. plans to automate much of their metadata creation, making asset discovery and reuse more efficient.

The takeaways

For media teams considering new asset management platforms, they can take the following cues from Morning Brew.:

• Start simple: Roll out as a replacement for familiar tools first, then expand features gradually
• Go hybrid: Combine on-premise and cloud storage for maximum flexibility with distributed teams
• Focus on workflows, not features: Target manual handoffs and multi-person processes for biggest impact
• Consolidate tools: One platform beats three separate tools for training, costs, and operations
• Know your users: Not everyone needs advanced features—optimize for actual usage patterns

A sustainable solution for a fast-paced team

All in all, since switching to Iconik, Morning Brew Inc. was able to achieve: 

• Faster response to market opportunities
• Reduced operational risk
• A scalable foundation for ambitious growth plans (without drastic increases in overhead costs)

The efficiency gains enable Morning Brew Inc. to maintain their edge in the fast-paced digital media landscape while building sustainable operations for long-term growth.

By taking a thoughtful, phased approach to implementation and focusing on solving real workflow pain points rather than maximizing feature usage, they achieved meaningful time savings, cost reductions, and improved collaboration across their distributed team.

As they continue to scale their content production with new shows and growing headcount, Iconik provides the foundation for sustainable growth, proving that sometimes the best tool is the one that gets out of the way and lets creative teams focus on what they do best: creating compelling content for their audience.

For more information about how Iconik can streamline your media workflows, visit iconik.io.