A new way for newsletter creators to collaborate
Instead of launching bundles, some writers are collaborating on subscriber-only communities.
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Platformer: Announcing Sidechannel, a new community for Platformer subscribers
From the article:
Sidechannel is a Discord server that I’m running along with seven of my favorite people in media … If you are a paid customer of Platformer, or any of the publications in the channel, next week you’ll get an invitation to join. Once you arrive, you’ll find a range of channels organized by publication, along with some shared ones that may be of interest to all. (There is a lounge for chatting, for example, and a room to post jobs of interest.)
Over the past year, we’ve seen many indie writers team up together to cross pollinate their audiences so they can grow more quickly. In some cases, they launched bundled subscriptions at reduced prices. In other instances, they formed writer-owned cooperatives. The theory behind these experiments boils down to this: building an audience and business model by yourself is hard, so let’s team up to make it a little easier.
The problem with these types of cooperatives is that they entangle your business with someone else’s. What happens if you partner with someone on a bundled subscription and then, three months into it, they stop writing new content? Do they still get half the money? How do you account for the fact that some writers will bring in more paid subscribers than others?
To solve these issues, the cooperatives often install rules that use a bunch of complicated math to determine writer payouts. But not every indie newsletter creator is going to want to enter into these sophisticated agreements just so they can grow a little faster.
That’s what I love about this new experiment outlined in the link above: these writers aren’t offering a bundled subscription, but are rather launching a community forum that their existing subscribers can join. All the writers are sharing value without exposing their existing businesses to any sort of risk
Under this framework, a participating writer can leave the community without harming the rest of the group. It would also be easy to onboard new newsletter writers who want to participate.
I could see how this model could be especially beneficial for creators within narrow niches. Let’s say you have five writers who run crypto investing newsletters. It’s easy to imagine how their subscribers would benefit from joining a joint forum that’s much more intimate than Reddit or other massive community platforms. And as the community grows, it serves as a more enticing reason for crypto investors to subscribe to one of the participating newsletters so they can gain access.
I subscribe to Nick Quah’s Hot Pod, one of the participating newsletters, so I look forward to joining the Sidechannel Discord and seeing if it generates real value. Will it grow a thriving community or become a ghost town? I’ll report back when I have more information.
Speaking of cool online communities…
I have a private Facebook group that I only promote within this newsletter, which means the members are just as obsessed with media as I am. Join here if you want to participate in our daily discussions about the content industry. [Facebook]
My latest: How Law Insider monetized a massive database of legal documents
Law Insider has 5,000 subscribers who pay either $30 a month or $250 a year.
Axios: Graydon Carter's Air Mail outlines ambitious growth plans
From the article:
Former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter's new media venture, Air Mail, expects to employ 40 people by year's end, up from 30 today and 10 at launch in 2019, Axios has learned. It currently has over 75 editorial contributors.
…While some have criticized the outlet as a nostalgic attempt to recreate print online, its strategy has helped the company seamlessly transition into new revenue streams like e-commerce, where brand authority is important.
Air Mail is an interesting company to watch because it's essentially a newsletter that's trying its best to recreate the experience of an old-school, glossy print magazine.
Axios: Scoop: DraftKings readies major media push
From the article:
DraftKings has hired Brian Angiolet, former senior vice president and chief business officer at Verizon, as the company’s first-ever chief media officer.
Details: Angiolet will lead a team responsible for evaluating potential media acquisitions and content efforts, sources tell Axios. The team will help vet future deals and content partnerships that the company will use to help drive customer referrals to its sportsbook.
I'm beginning to think that sports media is entering a gambling-fueled bubble. Not a week goes by without either a major acquisition or VC investment predicated on the idea that relaxed gambling regulations will trigger a major boom in sports betting.
Will that boom actually happen? Almost certainly. But this rapid expansion reminds me of the early 2010s when media companies took their Facebook-fueled, hockeystick growth and used it to raise billions of dollars at sky-high valuations. As with most media business models, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
PodNews: Libsyn Acquires Podcast Monetization Platform Glow
From the article:
Liberated Syndication Inc., the industry’s leading podcast hosting platform, today announced the acquisition of Glow, a leading podcast monetization platform that enables podcasters to build membership programs and generate listener-supported revenue. Glow’s membership technology, which includes private feed distribution and subscription billing, will allow podcasters on Libsyn’s 75,000+ podcasts to benefit from new monetization features and tap into significant new revenue streams.
Libsyn acquired a podcast membership platform mere weeks after it acquired a podcast ad tech platform. It knows that if it's going to compete with Spotify's Anchor -- a free product -- it needs to start helping podcasters make money.
NYT: Why We’re Freaking Out About Substack
From the article:
Substack has captivated an anxious industry because it embodies larger forces and contradictions. For one, the new media economy promises both to make some writers rich and to turn others into the content-creation equivalent of Uber drivers, even as journalists turn increasingly to labor unions to level out pay scales.
The anxiety over Substack is really an anxiety about a massive shift in power within journalism. A small number of writers have been able to escape the harsh economics of digital journalism, leaving the rest of their colleagues behind.
Digiday: Google curbs publishers’ commerce plans with a product reviews update
From the article:
Google said it will prioritize product reviews that feature information gathered through hands-on evaluation of the product, rather than aggregated information about it. The move stands to hurt publishers, especially those that have found success in aggregating product reviews.
Most publishers have launched or expanded their ecommerce operations over the last few years in an effort to diversify their revenue streams and leverage their high SEO value. But there’s a wide range of quality among outlets.
Publishers like BuzzFeed and The New York Times have made pretty significant investments in their ecommerce content. BuzzFeed has actually rolled out its own custom-designed products and NYT extensively tests products before recommending them on Wirecutter.
Many other publishers, however, simply aggregate deals and reviews from outside platforms, providing little in additional value. But because their article pages rank high in search results, they’ve still benefited from the ecommerce boom caused by the pandemic lockdowns.
It looks like Google has caught on to their game, though, and the party’s about to be over. Deals roundups are no longer low hanging fruit.
Medium: How a blogger sold $72,000 in ebooks over a 3-day period
Alexis Grant bundled up $700 in information products and sold it for $79.
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Simon Owens is a tech and media journalist living in Washington, DC. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Email him at simonowens@gmail.com. For a full bio, go here.