The paywalls are coming
PLUS: The overlooked reason for why chat podcasts have won out against narrative podcasts
Welcome! I'm Simon Owens and this is my media industry newsletter. If you've received it, then you either subscribed or someone forwarded it to you.
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Let’s jump into it…
Quick hits
It turns out handing a 26-year-old YouTuber $100 million and promising no administrative oversight isn't a great idea. [Rolling Stone]
ESPN has always struggled to strike a balance between broadcasting live sports and producing sports journalism — two roles that can come into conflict when the journalism undermines the business goals of its league partners. Its recent firing of a star NBA journalist is an indication that ESPN's leadership has decided that going all in on live sports broadcasts is the key to survival in the post-cable-bundle era. [House of Strauss]
Vox Media has been one of the last major holdouts on digital paywalls. It inherited one when it acquired New York Magazine, but all of its other verticals have remained mostly free. Its decision to launch a paywall for The Verge could be considered an acknowledgement that it's incredibly difficult to fund high-quality journalism through advertising alone. [Status]
Taylor Lorenz left the Washington Post and is launching her own independent media business that's focused on covering online culture. She already has 33,000 free subscribers to her newsletter and over a million followers on social media. In her kickoff video announcing the move, she expressed frustration with how legacy media covers online communities — particularly that it doesn't take these communities seriously. [Taylor Lorenz]
The Onion used to produce great video content, and I think it'll perform even better in this age of shortform video platforms. Its articles are already short and concise, and they'll translate well for audiences on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. [WashPo]
How Andrew Curtin built Construction Wave, a B2B outlet covering the UK's construction industry
Most companies buy advertising to drive sales of their products, but Andrew Curtin’s first sponsor mostly bought out of pity. It was May 2022 and he had just launched Construction Wave, a B2B outlet that covers the UK’s construction industry. He had absolutely no audience, but a major crane manufacturing company bought a $10,000 sponsorship anyway.
That $10,000 allowed him to hire his first editor, and over the next two years they built Construction Wave up into one of the leading publications in its sector. Its website is mainly monetized through high-priced sponsorships, and this year it hosted its first conference geared toward construction CFOs.
In a recent interview, Andrew explained how he got interested in the sector, where he found his initial readers, and why he thinks there’s an opportunity to launch a subscription data product for his industry:
I'm not a journalist. I like writing and love copywriting, but I'm not a journalist. So I was just getting out there, just selling what I could. you know, just seeing what we could do. And for the first year, we made no money. Like, I don't know how we even survived, but we did just the odd webinar here and there, just something just to keep us going every few months. I think most media companies who are bootstrapping don't make any money for the first couple of years. But coming into this year, it's been quite strong.
More quick hits
CNN just launched its paywall, charging $3.99 a month. It's intentionally vague on how many free article views will trigger the paywall — probably because it's running various A/B tests on the best conversion strategy. I also wouldn't be surprised if it's utilizing a "smart" paywall that's optimized based on personal use. [CNN] One thing I'd be interested in knowing is whether the company is planning to expand its digital content team, or if it's just going to maintain the status quo and see if that's enough to drive subscriptions.
This is a great explainer of how a 55-year-old, disabled artist who was on the verge of homelessness managed to publish a hugely successful graphic novel. [matttt]
I think one overlooked reason that chat podcasts have won out against narrative podcasts is that the former doesn’t penalize you if your mind wanders for a bit. A narrative show requires 100% of your focus, but given that people often listen to podcasts when they're doing something else — driving, cleaning, working out — maintaining that level of focus can be extremely difficult. [Wired]
The major streamers are still trying to figure out when a movie should receive a theatrical release vs going straight to streaming. Some industry executives have claimed that a theatrical release only boosts streaming viewership, but the evidence offered to support this claim is largely anecdotal. [Bloomberg]
I’m looking for more media entrepreneurs to feature on my newsletter and podcast
One of the things I really pride myself on is that I don’t just focus this newsletter on covering the handful of mainstream media companies that every other industry outlet features. Instead, I go the extra mile to find and interview media entrepreneurs who have been quietly killing it behind the scenes. In most cases, the operators I feature have completely bootstrapped their outlets.
In that vein, I’m looking for even more entrepreneurs to feature. Specifically, I’m looking for people succeeding in these areas:
Niche news sites
Video channels like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram Reels
Podcasts
Newsletters
Affiliate/ecommerce
Interested in speaking to me? You can find my contact info over here. (please don’t simply hit reply to this newsletter because that’ll go to a different email address. )
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I recognize what you mentioned on podcasts: I listen to podcasts while doing something else and thus miss some of the information. So, I prefer chat above narrative since its low density content it is not a problem in a chat where conversations are structured to bridge gaps and repeat what you may have missed. However, when driving a car on a quiet highway, I need less attention for my driving and I prefer a higher density of content.