Will The Information team up with indie newsletter writers?
The tech publication isn’t the only media company that’s thinking about ways to partner with independent newsletter writers.
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Hey there! I’m back from my vacation in Texas Hill Country and excited about firing up the printing press. I have several longform articles in the works and hope to publish a new one early next week.
In the meantime, here are a few items that came across my desk…
Will The Information team up with indie newsletter writers?
Axios reports The Information is launching a standalone publication that will be sold separately from its $400 annual content bundle. It’ll focus on batteries and electric cars, and it’ll be led by a longtime reporter on this beat.
What’s the logic behind this decision? Axios doesn’t have many details, but I could certainly see some upsides. By creating a separate brand, The Information can more effectively market its electric car coverage and transform it into an industry leader. A spinoff publication might also give The Information more flexibility in terms of monetization, especially if it wants to introduce advertising, a revenue stream that doesn’t exist on its main site. Finally, the new vertical presents the opportunity to upsell already-existing Information subscribers.
Of course, the risk with spinoff verticals is that they potentially subtract from the value of the core bundle. The reason why Netflix launches hundreds of new shows and movies a year is to create lots of reasons for subscribers to stick around each month. That’s the same reason why outlets like The New York Times and WashPo keep hiring more and more reporters. A huge bundle makes users feel like they’re getting more value for the price they pay.
Another interesting tidbit from the Axios piece is that The Information is considering partnerships with indie newsletter writers:
Lessin also confirmed that the company is in talks with independent newsletter writers and publications about striking partnerships in which the writers could get access to The Information's tech and audience development tools in exchange for possible co-bundling or cross-promotional opportunities for The Information …
… Lessin says that she's trying to figure out which tools her team has developed on the audience growth and business retention side that can make it easier for independent newsletters to develop more sustainable, long-term businesses.
Again, there aren’t many specific details, but The Information isn’t the only media company that’s thinking about ways to partner with independent newsletter writers. There’s a big opportunity for a news outlet to provide marketing and financial support in exchange for a longterm cut of earnings. Forbes is already dabbling in these kinds of partnerships, and I think many more publishers will follow.
REMINDER: I interviewed The Information’s Jessica Lessin earlier this year about her subscriber conversion strategies.
Interesting stat on political podcasts
From Axios: "Of the top 50 political podcasts on Apple podcasts today, about 60% come from personalities that don't work at mainstream news companies."
Netflix continues to make interesting moves in the podcast space
Bloomberg reports that Netflix just hired a veteran from NPR and Apple to head up its podcast operations.
When Netflix first started dabbling in podcasts, it seemed like mainly a marketing vehicle to promote its original content. After all, most of its podcasts at the time served as companion pieces to its TV shows.
But I think the company now has much grander podcast ambitions. Back in 2019, it announced that it was teaming up with Spotify to develop its first standalone fiction podcast, and earlier this year it started actively soliciting pitches from podcast producers.
Why? Well, for one, this could be a way of developing an IP pipeline in which cheap-to-produce hit podcasts are adapted into TV shows and movies. Hollywood is already investing in audio IP, so it makes since for Netflix to bring those operations in-house.
But also I wouldn’t be surprised if Netflix incorporates audio into its paid bundle. It recently launched functionality within its app to stream audio-only versions of its TV shows and movies, and it wouldn’t be a stretch for it to offer similar functionality for podcasts. Not only would this strengthen its bundle, but it’ll allow Netflix to reach customers when they’re driving their cars, exercising, and doing other menial tasks that make watching a screen difficult.
Why isn’t Gannett bundling USA Today and local newspaper subscriptions?
USA Today announced that it’s rolling out a paywall after years spent as one of the last remaining holdouts on the reader revenue model. Nieman Lab argues there’s a huge missed opportunity for parent company Gannett to bundle local and national news:
Personally, I would have argued for a tie-up between local and USA Today subs. People’s attachment to their local daily is far stronger than to the paper they used to read at the airport La Quinta, and local digital subs are the single most important factor in Gannett’s future success or failure. Make access to USA Today an incentive for local subscribers — “Subscribe to The Advertiser and get USA Today’s great coverage from across the nation for free!” — and you might be able to reduce churn and make it harder for readers looking to cut their monthly subscription bills.
Why does Joe Rogan stand out?
The New York Times profiles Joe Rogan and attempts to answer how he became the most influential voice in podcasting.
How are newsletters different?
Why are we suddenly experiencing a newsletter renaissance years after they went out of vogue? Is it simply because of their decentralized distribution, or is there something romantic and intimate about a piece of writing that lands in your inbox? The Cut tried to parse out what makes newsletters different than other written mediums like blog posts and articles:
The great hope of newsletter writers seems to be some escape from the internet as it exists now — escape into nostalgia for a bygone era of blogs or into a past when liberalism reigned.
One would think, given my profession, that I lean toward the more romantic interpretation of newsletter boom, but I’m actually one of those people who will often open a newsletter in my browser tab and then save it to Instapaper to read later. In other words, I read most newsletters the same way I consume any other web article.
Do I have any that I actually read within the inbox? Sure. I like newsletters that respect my time and don’t try to hit me with a 3,000-word wall of text every time I open them. Recently, I’ve been especially fond of an entertainment newsletter called Dirt; most of the essays clock in at around 600 words and they provide this brief window into this world that’s not familiar to me.
This is the reason that, several months ago, I stopped sending my longform articles out as newsletters. Instead, I publish them to the web and then link to them within the newsletter with a short teaser.
If you scroll up through this newsletter you’re reading now, you’ll notice that I try to keep each item at only a few hundred words. That way you can quickly peruse the headlines and dive into the topics that interest you. I also use a much more informal style compared to the one I apply to my longform articles.
Writing a 3,000-word narrative piece can be an intense process, so I like how this approach allows me to loosen up and be more conversational. The best newsletters, I think, are the ones where the writer feels free to let their hair down.