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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When a media company tries to become a platform company
The media company Workweek has a Puck-like business model, partnering with a small group of B2B creators and providing them with marketing, technical, and even financial support to help them grow faster than they could on a platform like Substack. According to Adweek, “two of its top creators are banking over seven figures in revenue per year, while others can make five figures annually with just one send per week.” Much of its revenue comes from high-CPM sponsorships.
Now it just raised a new funding round that will allow it to offer its publishing platform to B2B creators outside of its core network — essentially making it a competitor to companies like Substack and Beehiiv. It’s unclear though what monetization features new creators will have access to. Will Workweek sell advertising for them? If so, how does it maintain quality control if anyone can join its network? [Adweek]
After I posted about this on social media, Mike Madarasz, Workweek’s VP of marketing, chimed in with a clarification. I’m keeping my original language above so that his clarification makes sense:
Hey Simon, just wanted to fact check you on the last part. Our communities are application-only, so only those who are verified in certain industries with certain seniority are full members. The acceptance is actually less than 50% in most cases.
Workweek founder Adam Ryan also chimed in:
Big fan of your work, but this is wrong analysis. You have to apply to every network. Our acceptance rate is 28% across the 5 networks … The gate of membership and verification is what makes it all work.
So basically, if I understand them correctly, Workweek has a vetting process for allowing members of a particular industry into its online communities, and only vetted community members are allowed to launch newsletters on its platform. I’m hoping to have Adam or Mike on the podcast soon so we can dive deeper into how this works.
ICYMI: How a government contractor built a media empire around his niche content
By the time Eric Coffie launched his YouTube channel in 2016, he was already one of the most successful federal government contractors in the US and employed an entire team that specialized in erecting steel buildings. The YouTube channel came out of his frustration of having to repeat the same advice over and over again to those wanting to break into the industry; he figured he could just record some video explainers and send them to people.
But the success of the channel led to him expanding into podcasts, and then before he knew it Eric was operating an entire media company that spanned across video, podcasts, online courses, coaching, events, and even a paid community.
In a recent interview, Eric explained how he found an audience by going extremely niche and why he wants to shut down most of his media revenue streams so he can regrow his contracting business.
Quick hits
The New York Times has a great profile of a once-popular lawncare YouTuber who became an internet villain after filming his daughters in increasingly unhinged videos. As it turned out, there were YouTube representatives behind the scenes who were egging him on, encouraging him to come up with new concepts based on what the platform’s child viewers were clicking on when their parents left them unmonitored. One of his videos reached over 600 million views. [NYT] (I used a gift link so you can access that article for free.)
I follow the Creator Economy closely and even I didn’t know most of the people who appear on this Rolling Stone list of the most influential creators. That’s not to demean their accomplishments — but rather to demonstrate how diverse and varied the Creator Economy truly is. Someone can have 5 million followers while remaining virtually unknown outside that group. [Rolling Stone]
Behind the paywall
Here’s what I have on deck for paid subscribers:
Why fashion influencers love tennis
Text-based reporters are being pulled into publishers’ video strategies.
The problem with media outlets adopting AI disclosure policies
Let’s jump into it…