In this episode of our "Five Questions With..." Michelle Ciciyasvili, Senior Director of Communications at Betches Media, (the multiplatform destination targeting millennial and Gen Z women) shares insights on strategy, leadership and life beyond the office.
Drawing on a career that spans Disney Theatrical Group, the History Channel, Bravo and Authentic Brands Group, Ciciyasvili discusses what it takes to build lasting media relationships, adapt to a rapidly shifting digital environment and champion a brand you genuinely love.
Key Topics Covered:
The Betches Origin Story: Founded 15 years ago as an anonymous WordPress blog, Betches has grown into a full-scale entertainment platform offering video, editorial, podcasts, social content and live in-person events—all powered by an in-house team of creators, long before creator became a buzzword.
The Long Game of Media Relations: Ciciyasvili spent years cultivating a relationship with a contact at Variety before it resulted in a feature story and podcast appearance for Betches' CEO.
Staying Power in a Shaky Media Landscape: Unlike some of its digital-native peers, Betches was built slowly and sustainably without outside investors. That discipline—combined with a willingness to hire Gen Z creators rather than simply chase Gen Z audiences—has kept the brand culturally relevant while others have faded.
Platform Voice as a Strategy: Betches has maintained a consistent voice and point of view across every channel, from Instagram to TikTok to Substack. The brand's identity, not its distribution, is what ties everything together.
Personal Insights: Ciciyasvili shares advice for her college-age self—reflecting on the importance of staying a fan of the things you love, even after you've made them your career.
Nicole Schuman is Managing Editor at PRNEWS.
Transcript:
Nicole Schuman: Hi everybody, Nicole Schuman, managing editor at PR News here with another five questions, and today we are with Michelle Ciciyasvili, senior director of communications at Betches Media. Thank you for joining us.
Michelle Ciciyasvili: Thank you for having me.
Nicole Schuman: Awesome. So first off, for everyone that isn't familiar with Betches, can you explain the focus on the audience?
Michelle Ciciyasvili: Yeah, absolutely. So Betches is a multiplatform entertainment destination, really transcending digital media and our core audience is millennial and Gen Z women. We offer a full suite of premium content across video, editorial, podcast and social and we also do immersive IRL events — we call them events worth leaving the house for. Our foundation is built on creators. We have a team of in-house really brilliant creators that do everything from our memes, our videos, our sketches and our podcasts. Everything is done in-house.
Nicole Schuman: So many people are using creators now and I think especially for a brand like yours that just makes sense.
Michelle Ciciyasvili: Yeah, and we've had that as part of the backbone of this business for many years before the creator economy was even a buzzword and part of the lexicon. This year is Betches' 15th anniversary. The co-founders started as an anonymous blog on WordPress and it really grew into this major empire.
Nicole Schuman: I remember — I feel like I've pretty much grown up with it and I think a lot of other young women and maybe men too feel the same.
Michelle Ciciyasvili: Definitely. It's pretty cool.
Nicole Schuman: I know you have a background in entertainment. How did that translate to bringing you to a media site like Betches?
Michelle Ciciyasvili: Yeah, I have always dreamed of being in entertainment. I had my first internship at Disney Theatrical Group in college and it was in PR. I always knew I wanted to be in entertainment and then I finally found that industry and I never looked back, for better or for worse. I started as a network publicist at the History Channel and then moved on to Bravo, spending about half my career as a television network publicist which really taught me the ins and outs of working with talent, with the entertainment industry at large — upfronts and all. I developed a Rolodex that I still work with many of those reporters from to this day. But right before 2019, so right before the pandemic, I was feeling like television was not going to enable me to grow as a publicist in the way I wanted to. I landed at Authentic Brands Group, which is a massive licensing company with a portfolio of some of the most iconic brands in the world, and I was tapped to head up their entertainment portfolio which included brands like Elvis Presley's estate, Marilyn Monroe's estate, Muhammad Ali's estate, Shaquille O'Neal's business and Neil Lane, among many others. They had also just expanded into media and acquired Sports Illustrated from Meredith — RIP Meredith. So I stepped away from that network publicity into a business of entertainment role that spanned lifestyle, fashion and events. It expanded my Rolodex in a way that I'm so grateful for. My work with Sports Illustrated enabled me to connect with a lot of media and advertising folks — the B2B side of things.
Transparently, Betches was always my dream job. When I was working at Bravo, I would bring my talent to Betches to do press tours, before new media was even popular. I just knew that's where my peers were spending their time — on sites like Betches and listening to podcasts. I remember coming here with my talent in 2016, so ten years ago, and I said if I ever had the opportunity to work at Betches, that would be the dream job. Lo and behold, a role opened up. It was my next step in my career and that was three years ago.
They knew me as Michelle from Bravo, but that doesn't necessarily mean I'm capable of handling the reputation of a brand like Betches, which is so multifaceted and offers so much. It's millennial and Gen Z women, but some people listen to the podcast, some people read the website and some people follow on social. Pairing that television background with the licensing and business of entertainment background, plus my passion and love for the brand — and truly being a diehard Betch since day one — I think put me in a unique position where I was really uniquely qualified to handle this business and take it to the next level. I just celebrated three years here.
Nicole Schuman: Congratulations. I always think it's so fun when the person managing the reputation of a brand and working in PR for it is already a fan. That just makes it that much better.
Michelle Ciciyasvili: It does. It makes the storytelling — it makes not easier to tell the story, but when I'm talking to reporters there's a real passion behind what I'm sharing and that kind of authenticity can't be fabricated.
Nicole Schuman: That leads me to my next question. What caught my eye to bring you on was a LinkedIn post you shared where you talked about spending three years building relationships to finally land an interview and a story with Variety. That is a long game. Can you do a quick overview of how that happened and any tips you have for our audience when it comes to that kind of media relations long game?
Michelle Ciciyasvili: Absolutely. I've had placements in Variety before, and Betches has been in Variety before too — we had an NFL announcement. But when I first joined, I was the first in-house comms person here. There was no structure, it was very choose-your-own-adventure and it was really up to me. I had no systems, no tools. It was me and my wits and my Google Sheets and my Rolodex against the world.
I took advantage of that time to connect with reporters — both friendlies and new folks I wanted to work with — because this is something I really strongly believe: the best media relations is done when you don't need something from a reporter. That is kind of my foundation. Of course there are times where you have to pitch a story to someone you might not know, and it's about whether it's newsworthy and whether it's something they might want to cover. But when you have the opportunity to meet — not just phone calls, but coffees, lunches and breakfasts, just reconnecting and having real conversations — and you serve as someone who asks "how can I make your job easier?" because you have a great brand and you would love to work together, that's been how I've operated.
Media relations, I think, is a dish best served when you don't need something, because it makes it less transactional and makes the storytelling more appealing and more authentic. I connected with a friendly of mine, Suzanne Alt at Variety. She does the events over there and lo and behold, she was a fan of Betches. She ended up being a super advocate for me. But that didn't necessarily translate into coverage immediately. So when there were opportunities to reach out to her and connect, I always took them. I think last year or the year before, I made sure she met the people on site at Betches as well. We're here in New York and Variety is mostly out in LA.
Again, this was the first in-house comms role — I was the first one to do this and I didn't exactly have a budget to fly to LA and take meetings at the time. And you shouldn't need that. Of course it would be great to have in-person meetings, but virtual coffees, any time a reporter gives you — they're being very generous with their time, they don't have a lot of it. So making sure you don't necessarily need something from them and that you keep in touch, say hello and engage on LinkedIn — keep it warm. It's very similar to sales in that sellers and clients have relationships and trust, and that is something editors, journalists, bookers and publicists also have. Trust takes a long time, a really long time.
We've been in this world where people expect immediate results and attention spans are so much shorter. Staying in touch with Suzanne enabled me, a couple of years later, to get a meeting between my CEO and the editor-in-chief at Variety. There was no story promised when that happened, but that was the domino effect. They met, they connected and I was able to get my CEO on Variety's editor-in-chief Strictly Business podcast, which was a double whammy — a podcast hit and an online piece too. And that piece was really about Betches and the brand itself, not a launch-specific story, which enabled a really meaty, deep conversation.
Part of my MO this year has been trying to shift the narrative from "digital success story" or "social media pioneer" to "entertainment platform." Everything is television now and you see brands like Gap getting into entertainment. With Betches, we really did lay the groundwork for the distributed creator model that exists right now that everyone is adopting. With the 15-year anniversary, the timing was really right for that big, juicy Variety story. It was one of those stories that struck a nerve and meant something. You can have a hundred press hits and it sometimes feels like empty calories. One really solid press story can be the domino effect for the next era of Betches, which is entertainment-focused.
Nicole Schuman: Yeah, that's my background so it's perfect. It all connects. That leads into my next question — the media environment is kind of wacky right now. There are a lot of mergers, layoffs and all kinds of stuff. It's been tough on journalists and on media in general. But Betches really seems to be holding it down, especially when similar culturally driven media like BuzzFeed has lost that cultural pull. What stories are you guys telling to stay relevant in this environment?
Michelle Ciciyasvili: I think something that Betches did differently from a lot of that early millennial digital boom era is that Betches was bootstrapped. The three co-founders built it slowly and sustainably and they always put the brand first. They didn't take outside investors. They were really methodical and the brand was the gold standard. So they poured everything into the brand, built community around it and they didn't try to turn into a Gen Z brand. They hired Gen Z creators. They launched a Gen Z vertical and brought on Gen Z creators to make the content. Gen Z women were probably reading Betches in middle school and high school, which is crazy to think about. But there are nuances to the way Gen Z and millennials consume content. Gen Z knows when they're being marketed to — these kids can sniff out an advertisement online. They have their own language. So instead of millennials trying to learn that language, Betches brought on Gen Z creators to refine that language as part of the Betches ecosystem. That really helped because we also weren't holding on to an internet that didn't exist anymore.
The co-founders also weren't afraid to try new platforms. They were one of the first to start a podcast network. I remember one of them telling me how they'd met with a legacy media executive who said podcasting was never going to be a thing. They went on instinct and gut and that really proved successful because we're still standing here. They were never afraid to pivot and never relied on one platform to keep it all together.
So yes, there's a website, an Instagram, Twitter, Threads, YouTube and TikTok. But all of them have the throughline of the Betches language and the brand is the heartbeat — it's not platform dependent. Making Betches work meant not trying to turn Betches into a Gen Z brand, having a Gen Z spin-off with Gen Z creators making the content and being essentially platform agnostic. I'll never forget the day Instagram went down in 2019 — the first time it went down for more than an hour — and everyone was hanging out on Twitter. We're seeing that still today with the looming threat of a TikTok ban and creators migrating over to Substack. We've also migrated to Substack. We're not afraid to change, not afraid to pivot. But one thing stays the same and that is the voice. The brand is built on a very specific voice and point of view. Whether it's sports, style or Bravo, it still has the Betches flair and you always know when something was created by Betches.
Nicole Schuman: Yeah, I think that's really smart. Audiences are fragmented now and they're on different platforms, but as long as your voice stays intact you can talk to millennials, Gen Z or whoever.
Michelle Ciciyasvili: Absolutely. My mom sends me memes from Betches now. I will also add — we were acquired in 2023 by Ladbible Group. It was not an acquisition out of necessity but an opportunity to accelerate growth in a way that has really powered us. We now have Betches UK and we're a global brand. The founders had a lot of suitors over the years, but there was an opportunity with the right parent company and they took it. Since then that has been a really important factor in us pivoting into a more entertainment-focused brand and a global one at that.
Nicole Schuman: That's awesome. You always hear about acquisitions and you have to make sure it's the right fit and that they have the right intentions in mind. So that's good to hear. We're already at question five — I always try to ask a fun one for the last one. Graduation season is here. If you think back to that college senior you were, what would you tell your younger self fresh out of college?
Michelle Ciciyasvili: Your dreams are going to come true. You're going to work with some of the biggest names in the world and you're going to be in love with your career. But I would also tell her that there's no such thing as a dream job. Your job can't be the only thing that makes you happy. We grew up watching 13 Going on 30 and The Devil Wears Prada — this kind of mirage of a glossy world of media — and you're going to get to experience that. But things change and work cannot be the only thing that makes you happy. It can be a really amazing part of your life and it will fulfill you in the ways you want, but don't just focus on work.
Nicole Schuman: What are some of the things outside of work that fulfill you?
Michelle Ciciyasvili: I've always been so passionate about entertainment and then I made it my job. Working at Bravo was also a dream job, but now I just love being a fan. It's okay to just be a fan of art and be a consumer of art. You don't have to compare yourself to other people who maybe have something that looks cooler on Instagram. Your life — you did it, you made it. But also don't forget to watch a movie you love or start a new series. It doesn't always have to be work-focused.
Nicole Schuman: So next time we're at BravoCon, we'll keep an eye out for you.
Michelle Ciciyasvili: You never know. I haven't been to BravoCon yet, but my old team is amazing — I admire them immensely.
Nicole Schuman: Awesome. Well thank you so much, Michelle, for joining us today and recording with us, and we wish you the best.
Michelle Ciciyasvili: Thank you so much.