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

Even as the advertising sector slows down, newsletter publishers are still reporting strong growth in ad sales. [Digiday]

You should be focusing less on acquiring new readers and more on getting your existing readers to stick around longer. [The Audiencers]

"What I am interested in is the high engagement but low traffic quadrant, the niche quadrant. Because what we find in our analysis is that this is the quadrant where there are people that are most likely to convert to a subscription.” [INMA]

"Many of these news publishers who are whining for a bailout from Google and Meta spent many years focused on gaming Google and Facebook’s algorithms for clicks rather than building a loyal audience who recognized and valued their journalism." [Techdirt]

Beehiiv launched some new analytics dashboards that make it easier for its newsletter creators to measure the value of their subscribers and the ROI on acquiring new subscribers. [Beehiiv]

I’m looking to expand my brand partnerships

Longtime readers know that I sell sponsorships for my Wednesday newsletter, but I’m looking to expand on the kinds of collaborations I do with brands. Specifically, I want to work with them to create high-value content in the form of webinars and interviews — the kind of stuff my audience would really find value from.

So if you sell a product or service in the marketing, media, or Creator Economy space, then don’t hesitate to reach out. Even if a collaboration doesn’t come out of the conversation, I’d still like to hear your opinion for how I could drive real value for brand partners.

The low-hanging fruit for newsletter publishers

When it comes to running a successful editorial newsletter, there’s probably no better authority than Dan Oshinsky. In 2012, he joined BuzzFeed to launch its entire newsletter operations. In 2017, he was hired away by The New Yorker to build and grow its newsletters.

Today, Dan runs Inbox Collective, a consultancy that works with news organizations, non-profits, and brands to grow audiences, build relationships, and convert readers to subscribers, members, donors, or customers via email.

This week, Dan was kind enough to appear on a Zoom call with me and my readers, and he allowed us to pepper him with questions about running a newsletter business. We covered a lot of topics in the discussion, but one of the most powerful messages he drove home was that there is so much low-hanging fruit that newsletter publishers aren’t prioritizing — things like a/b testing, creating a series of automated welcome emails, and optimizing their landing pages. These small things can drive up conversions and growth considerably.

I always know it’s a great interview when I find myself learning new things on the call. You can find the video recording embedded below:...