How to leverage live audio to drive paid subscriptions
How to leverage live audio to drive paid subscriptionsPLUS: How Richard Rushfield built The Ankler into a thriving industry newsletterWelcome! 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 Jared Newman, the tech journalist behind Cord Cutter Weekly, can’t do withoutJared is a longtime tech journalist who’s written for Fast Company, PCWorld, and TechHive, the latter for which he’s written a weekly column about cord cutting since 2014. In 2016, he launched Cord Cutter Weekly, a weekly newsletter that helps people learn how to ditch cable TV and maximize their savings on streaming services. It now has more than 30,000 free subscribers, with weekly open rates above 50%. In 2018, he launched Advisorator, a newsletter that offers the kind of tech advice you’d hope to get from a geeky friend. Each newsletter has an in-depth advice column, some quick news hits, new apps to try, and deals. It now has over 1,000 paying subscribers. Jared walked us through the products that are absolutely essential to his business. You can find our interview over here. BTW, I’m still looking for creators and media entrepreneurs to feature in this series. Each interview is heavily featured in front of my 14,247 newsletter subscribers, and I share it out to my 70,472 social media subscribers. Go here if you’re interested. Do you live in the Washington, DC area?Each month I organize a dinner with other media operators in the area. I keep these pretty small and intimate — around six people max — and they’ve been incredibly fun so far. They’re completely free to attend (you just have to pay for your own meal). If you’re interested in being invited to a future dinner, reach out to me. Quick hitsNow THIS is a great way to leverage live audio. I especially liked this part: "Anyone can listen in, but only subscribers can ask questions using the chat-like text box or being invited to speak by one of the hosts." [Nieman Lab] "James Daunt, the CEO of Barnes & Noble and of British bookstore chain Waterstones, told Insider last year that BookTok created a phenomenon unlike any other he'd seen in 35 years as a bookseller." [Insider] I think this is probably a smart way about approaching VC investments for media companies: specialize in a specific content vertical and inject small amounts of money into promising ventures to help take them to the next level. [Axios] Music blogs were incredibly influential in the mid 2000s. I remember being able to surf these blogs and then download all sorts of songs to my iPod. They embedded the mp3s directly into their posts so all you had to do was right click and download. [NYT] Wow. YouTube is now a much bigger business than Netflix. And a lot of that revenue is flowing directly toward creators. [Bloomberg] Did I give bad advice about delaying a paid subscription launch?Earlier this week, I published a piece on the perils of launching a paid subscription product too early. I argued that doing so could limit your audience growth, decrease your paid conversions, and blind you to other monetization opportunities. I got plenty of pushback on my thesis. Ari argued that there’s a path to launching a compelling subscription product without hindering audience growth:
Suw Charman-Anderson says that delaying a subscription launch would prevent your audience from supporting your work:
Pete Ericson offered a way to keep your content free but also build up a large list size that you can sell to once you’re ready to launch a paid product:
And finally media analyst Thomas Baekdal thinks a paid subscription keeps you focused on the metrics that matter:
How Richard Rushfield built The Ankler into a thriving industry newsletterIn the world of media startups, The Ankler is one of the most exciting outlets to watch. What started out as a single newsletter authored by entertainment journalist Richard Rushfield has morphed into a full-fledged trade outlet. In the last year or so, it’s raised $1.5 million in seed funding, recruited a former editor from The Hollywood Reporter, and launched a bevy of talent-led newsletters. In 2022, it brought in seven figures in just sponsorship revenue alone. In a Zoom call earlier this week, Richard walked us through how he launched his business, what drove conversions for his paid product, and why he decided to take VC investment to scale up the business. You can watch our conversation in the video embedded below:... Keep reading with a 7-day free trialSubscribe to Simon Owens's Media Newsletter to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives. A subscription gets you:
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The perils of launching a subscription product too early
Thursday, May 18, 2023
PLUS: How a veteran journalist built a thriving local news outlet
Let's talk to Richard Rushfield about building The Ankler
Tuesday, May 16, 2023
Richard kindly agreed to answer questions from us about everything related to running and growing a B2B media company.
Testing out new paid subscription perks
Friday, May 12, 2023
PLUS: How to build a successful local news outlet
In praise of outside-the-box media business models
Friday, May 12, 2023
PLUS: How to take your subscription business to the next level
The alternate universe where Gawker Media is still thriving
Friday, May 5, 2023
PLUS: How to build a thriving online community
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