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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Earlier this month, I sent a newsletter to my audience with the subject line: “Ask me a question.” Basically, I told everyone to jump into the comments section of the post and ask me any questions they have about the media industry or creator economy.

Several of you did pipe in with questions, and so I spent a few hours jotting down notes and then recording my answers in front of a microphone and camera.

I answered questions on a range of topics that include:

• The biggest difference between the Creator Economy and traditional media

• Non-traditional media business models (ie, business models other than subscriptions and advertising)

• My advice on launching a media business in 2024

• How long it takes to build a media business from scratch

You can check out my answers in the video embedded below:

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If you want to listen to an audio version, subscribe to The Business of Content wherever you get your podcasts: [Apple] [Spotify] [Amazon Music]

Do you want to submit questions for me to answer in this ongoing series?

So I plan to devote a lot of time and effort to answering reader questions each month, and only paid subscribers get to submit questions to me. Here’s what subscribing gets you:

• 30-minute introductory phone call with me: When you become a subscriber, it triggers an automated email that contains a Calendly link where you can book a phone call with me. I’ve held over a hundred of these calls so far and they’ve been fantastic. Usually, subscribers use it as an opportunity to tell me about their own media businesses and then pick my brain on strategy.

• Monthly Q&A sessions: Basically I’m going to do everything in my power to answer at least one question submitted from each subscriber every month. Some of these answers will be relayed on the podcast, while for others I’ll jump directly into the comments section. Even in the rare instances where I don’t have a good answer, I’ll jump in and invite you to submit a different question.

• Support of my independent journalism: The vast majority of my income comes via paid subscriptions. I do my best every month to deliver you insights that will help you with your own media operations, and your subscription will help fund this work.

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