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Let’s jump into it…

The declining need for commoditized content

Neha-Tamara Patel, an executive at British GQ, spoke to Press Gazette about why the magazine has significantly reduced its content output:

She said: “It was apparent to me that we were doing a lot of what I call ‘feeding the algorithm content’: lots of short-form news, a lot of quick fashion news, all of which was still within GQ’s world but from an audience perspective wasn’t really serving us long term.

“It meant that we had a lot of churn, a lot of people coming in for that quickfire content and then leaving again without really accessing the broader spectrum of what we do as a brand.

Now that the big tech platforms are sending a lot less traffic, publishers are slowly getting off the hamster wheel that required them to pump out large volumes of low-quality content. Instead, they're becoming more focused on serving their core audiences.

How the Hollywood studios are responding to YouTube’s dominance

I’ve written recently about why YouTube is out-competing nearly every major Hollywood studio when it comes to TV viewership time. CNBC published a follow-up piece about how each studio is responding to this dominance; some view it as only a competitor, while others are starting to strategize on how to better leverage its massive reach:

Disney is also considering putting more full episodes of Disney+ and Hulu series geared to older kids and adults directly on YouTube to entice an audience that isn’t currently subscribing to its streaming platforms, said a person familiar with the matter.

This is a strategy Disney has done with kids content for years, helping amplify hit animated series such as “Bluey,” “Spidey and his Amazing Friends” and “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.”

Media conglomerates don’t even value their own IP

While some media conglomerates are trying to figure out how to post more of their videos on free channels, others are wiping out their content archives completely:

Because a merger failed to go through, [Paramount] needed to make an immense number of immediate cuts, totaling $500 million. Those cuts apparently include gutting the free content archives on the company’s websites—including information that is hugely culturally relevant for research purposes, like the archives of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Future entertainers can’t easily pull up old episodes of Key & Peele to see how the masters do it. All because they need to cut massively now.

These companies keep trying to engage in bigger and bigger mergers, justifying it with the claim that they need more IP to reach profitability. But they don't even properly use the IP they already have.

How the Daily Upside grew to over 1 million subscribers

One of the best insights Patrick Trousdale had when growing his finance newsletter The Daily Upside was that he didn’t need to go it alone. With his deep background in the finance industry, he knew he could create a high quality editorial product, and he also knew he’d have a much easier time growing it if he teamed up with an outlet that had an already-existing audience.

That’s how he ended up partnering with The Motley Fool, a venerable media brand that was looking to diversify its portfolio. After the Motley Fool started promoting The Daily Upside to its email list, the latter was able to quickly scale up its operations and revenue. Today, it has over 1 million email subscribers and employs an entire editorial team.

In a recent interview, Patrick walked through all his growth strategies, including:

• How he convinced The Motley Fool to partner with him

• How he works with finance influencers to drive signups

• Where he invests in paid acquisition

• How he collects first party data to measure the value of his audience

You can find the interview over here.

Substack wants to play nice with the mainstream media

Substack's co-founder thinks traditional media outlets should experiment more with using Substack to reach new audiences:

I have always been a bit sad about how traditional media has responded to the arrival of Substack, which has ranged from cheery optimism to measured skepticism to outright hostility. But it’s the behind-the-scenes stuff where I think there is most room for movement. Some news outlets have barred their reporters from having substacks, even if they are allowed to be on X. No traditional news organizations have set up Substack publications of their own. Sometimes, these outlets refuse to link to, or even name, Substack in their articles.

Renting distribution vs owning distribution

CJR published a fascinating Q&A with the founders of Meidas Touch, a left-leaning media company that’s now generating hundreds of millions of YouTube views every month. This quote really jumped out at me:

Is spending money airing an advertisement on a network like Fox worth it when they spend the rest of the day using that money to spread the same propaganda and lies that you were trying to push back against? We quickly realized that it was necessary to control our own distribution and our own network to confront the problems we are facing.

How influential is the Vogue brand?

Puck wrote about the third-annual Vogue World, an event that’s mainly attended by members of “the Vogue 100—the private club that costs at least $100,000 a year to join.” It seems clear that the magazine is testing the limits of how much money people will pay to merely be associated with its brand:

Vogue World—made possible by Wintour, yes, but also her army, including mastermind Mark Guiducci and his team, as well as France’s content head, Eugénie Trochu—did make money. I’m told revenues were more than last year’s $10 million. Factor in the charity component, and you’re left with a modest profit, enough for Lynch to show the Condé Nast board that these sorts of productions matter … Vogue is probably the second-most-important brand in the industry after Chanel, which made $20 billion last year. Vogue World: Paris is a measurable success, but it’s hard not to wonder whether this event, and the brand, could become so much more.

I’m looking for more media entrepreneurs to feature on my newsletter and podcast

One of the things I really pride myself on is that I don’t just focus this newsletter on covering the handful of mainstream media companies that every other industry outlet features. Instead, I go the extra mile to find and interview media entrepreneurs who have been quietly killing it behind the scenes. In most cases, the operators I feature have completely bootstrapped their outlets.

In that vein, I’m looking for even more entrepreneurs to feature. Specifically, I’m looking for people succeeding in these areas:

• Niche news sites

• Video channels like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram Reels

• Podcasts

• Newsletters

• Affiliate/ecommerce

Interested in speaking to me? You can find my contact info over here. (please don’t simply hit reply to this newsletter because that’ll go to a different email address. )

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