There's a goldmine hiding in your content archives
PLUS: Why I'm happy to pay for a YouTube subscription
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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Minor tweaks make all the difference: lessons on breaking the subscription plateau from Forum Communications
A newspaper chain that uses a dynamic paywall discovered that a large share of its traffic was going to articles more than 30 days old. Readers who landed on those older stories also showed higher purchase intent than those visiting newly published content. In response, the company moved all articles older than 30 days behind a hard paywall—and immediately saw its conversion rate double. [Audiencers]
This is a theme I return to again and again in my newsletter: don’t overlook your evergreen archive. And don’t rely solely on Google to surface that content. You should have systems in place to regularly resurface and link to your archives through your newsletter and social media. For example, almost every issue of my newsletter includes a link to one of my evergreen case studies.
AI is changing sourcing. Are you prepared?
Audience trust is critical for every publisher, underpinning subscriptions, sponsorships, and long-term growth. In an increasingly fragmented media landscape, credibility is now business infrastructure.
And while AI can deliver newsroom efficiencies, it also poses real risks to sourcing and trust. AI-generated “experts” and fake commentary are making their way into journalists’ inboxes, as well as published stories. Verifying sources now takes more time, and the cost of getting it wrong is higher than ever.
Today’s sponsor, Qwoted, has built the trusted network needed to protect newsroom credibility, improve reporter efficiency, and elevate human story-telling so you can scale content that stands out in today’s attention economy.
Here’s how: Qwoted connects journalists with vetted experts, using AI to reduce inbox noise through highly relevant matches. Their human review team ensures real people with authentic expertise are behind every pitch. Journalists save time sourcing and vetting, while building a strong, reliable network of diverse, credible, real experts to support every story.
Qwoted is completely free for the media. Check out their free guide on how to spot AI fakes in the inbox, and connect with the Qwoted team to empower your newsroom to tell better stories, faster.
Mogul says it has tracked $1.5B in music royalties, raised $5M in funding
From Techcrunch:
Mogul, a platform founded by former SoundCloud head of creators Jeff Ponchick and former SoundCloud VP of engineering Joey Mason, announced Tuesday that it has helped artists track $1.5 billion in lost royalties since its launch last year.
Wow. The entire music recording industry generates $29 billion a year, so this one six-person startup was able to shake 5% of the entire market from the couch cushions.
YouTube beefs up its $7.99/month Lite subscription with offline downloads and background play
From Techcrunch:
YouTube is expanding its more affordable, $7.99 per month Premium Lite subscription service with new features, including the ability to download videos for offline access and watch videos in the background, even if the screen is off or you’re using other apps. These options were previously only available to customers on its full plan, which costs $13.99 per month.
YouTube has done an impressive job of annoying its users with ads until they finally convert into paid subscribers. I happily pay for a Lite plan — mainly for the ad-free experience, but also because I know that roughly half of my subscription fee goes to the creators I actually watch. In some ways, it’s a fairer revenue model, since subscription income is distributed based on watch time. By contrast, ad revenue can fluctuate depending on whether a video is deemed “brand safe,” meaning creators can be penalized for content that advertisers choose to avoid.
How a PR consultant launched a thriving tech news outlet
When Kevin Raposo launched KnowTechie in 2014, it wasn’t part of a master plan to build a media company. At the time, he was working as a PR consultant and figured that if he acted like a journalist, reporters would be more likely to answer his pitches. But what began as a side project to sharpen his writing and gain credibility among journalists eventually grew into a recognizable consumer tech news outlet with a loyal audience, multiple contributors, and a business model that has survived the upheavals of digital publishing.
In a wide-ranging conversation, Raposo shared how he stumbled into content marketing, scaled a blog into a sustainable business, and continues to balance publishing with his work in tech PR. [Simon Owens]
How Gen Alpha Stardom Became Big Business
Bloomberg profiled Salish Matter, a YouTuber who may be virtually unknown to anyone over 20 but is a bona fide megastar among teenage girls. When she launched a beauty product in partnership with Sephora, more than 87,000 fans showed up. Stories like that convince me that the Creator Economy will eventually eclipse traditional media — mostly because it's not confined to legacy media business models. [Bloomberg]
Dhar Mann Opens The Doors to His Studio—And More Brand Deals
From Scalable:
While sponsorship deals with brands tend to be the most common way creators earn money, those with [YouTuber Dhar Mann’s] scale can often rely purely on ad-revenue sharing programs from YouTube and other platforms to make a living.
Still, programs like AdSense can only get creators so far. Brand deals are highly lucrative and hard to resist forever. Now Mann is starting to dabble in them, announcing high-profile deals with the NFL and Old Navy in recent weeks.
Mann said he’s also open to brand takeovers of his many sets, which range from a courtroom and movie theater to a part of a real airplane and a Target-style supermarket stocked with fake fruit and other items.
What makes Dhar Mann’s media empire especially impressive is that he scaled it almost entirely on YouTube AdSense. Most large YouTubers earn the bulk of their revenue from custom brand deals, but his scripted dramas didn’t lend themselves to natural mid-roll ad reads or sponsorship integrations. That left him heavily reliant on AdSense, which typically commands relatively low CPMs. To make the economics work, he had to generate enormous scale. In other words, he built a full-fledged film studio while operating with one hand tied behind his back.
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