Simon Owens's Tech and Media - Was I too bullish on Substack Notes?
Was I too bullish on Substack Notes?PLUS: Twitter strikes back with new creator monetization features.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. If you fit into the latter camp and want to subscribe, then you can click on this handy little button: Let’s jump into it… My latest: The products that Alastair Budge, founder of Leonardo English, can’t do withoutIn 2019, Alastair Budge launched Leonardo English, a media brand that helps people improve their English. It started out as a podcast that eventually grew to over 250,000 downloads per month, and it’s projected to generate six figures in 2023 through a mixture of memberships, course sales, sponsorships, and affiliate deals. In the latest edition of The Entrepreneur’s Tech Stack, Alastair was kind enough to walk us through the products that are absolutely essential to running his business. Go here to check it out. BTW, I’m looking for more media entrepreneurs to feature in this series. Go here to contact me and tell me a little more about your business. Do you live in Washington, DC?About once a month, I organize a dinner with other media operators who live in the area. I keep these things pretty small and intimate — around six people max — and I’m looking for more people to add into the mix. I’ve already organized four of these things and the conversation has been incredible. Reach out if you want to receive a future invite. Quick hitsKudos to Bloomberg for leading the way in abandoning open programmatic advertising. More publishers need to recognize that programmatic adtech has triggered a race to the bottom in terms of both ad pricing and quality. [Marketing Brew] A newsletter is a great MVP for any newly-launched media brand, but eventually you'll want to expand into other mediums as you scale. [Digiday] The podcast company Luminary famously launched with a $100 million war chest with the aim of creating premium programming that's locked behind a paywall. This is the first major update on the company in a while, and unsurprisingly things aren't going well. [Bloomberg] Twitter is now letting its creators lock their content behind a paywall. The question is whether creators will trust their monetization to a platform that doesn't let them own their audience. Also, it’s worth noting that Twitter still doesn’t really share ad revenue with creators, so it’s still hoarding most of the value generated through their content. [Bloomberg] This is a more optimistic take on AI content creation that I mostly agree with -- that it'll take over the mindless copywriting that's meant solely for search engines and free up human writers to focus on more creatively-fulfilling work. [Slate] Was I too bullish on Substack Notes?Earlier this week I published a piece arguing that Substack Notes could actually be the Twitter killer that so many Musk-haters have been waiting for, mostly because it creates the right mix of incentives to lure high-profile creators onto the platform. While plenty of people agreed with my assessment, I also got lots of pushback from people who thought I’d gone too far out over my skis. Let’s jump into some of the best responses: Mark Little expresses skepticism that Substack Notes will attract non-creators
Adam Tinworth disagreed with my depiction of Mastodon as being too clunky for mainstream adoption:
worldweary also thought I was too harsh on Mastodon:
Ben May expressed skepticism that Notes would appeal to anyone outside the newsletter space:
Terrell Johnson thinks Musk will use his infinite resources to fight back:
Several people, including Paul Guinnessy, don’t necessarily enjoy the synergies between Notes and newsletters:
And finally, Vinny O'Hare thinks I live in a media bubble:
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Announcing my newest content series
Friday, April 7, 2023
PLUS: The growing shadow workforce that's fueling the Creator Economy boom.
Why some creators prefer selling online courses over subscriptions
Thursday, April 6, 2023
PLUS: Why a newsletter decided to launch its own investment fund
If AI destroys the media industry, then who will feed the chatbots?
Friday, March 31, 2023
PLUS: AI-written content is riddled with cliches.
Local newspapers have lost the plot
Thursday, March 30, 2023
...and what they can learn from the recent turnaround from Barnes & Noble.
The low-hanging fruit for newsletter publishers
Friday, March 24, 2023
PLUS: I'm looking to expand my brand partnerships
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