Lessons from my first year of running a paid newsletter

FromThe Business of Content

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Lessons from my first year of running a paid newsletter

FromThe Business of Content

ratings:

Length:

15 minutes

Released:

Mar 9, 2021

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

https://simonowens.substack.com/ I just passed my one-year anniversary of launching my paid newsletter, so I decided to dive into some of the biggest lessons I learned during that time.

Released:

Mar 9, 2021

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (99)

The podcast about how publishers create, distribute, and monetize digital content.

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How newsletter writers are teaming up to bundle subscriptions: Over the past year, thousands of journalists have announced the launch of their paid newsletters, which are often hosted on platforms like Substack. Writers with already-existing large audiences have seen immense success with this strategy, pulling in... by The Business of Content
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This newspaper chain pivoted to digital subscriptions, and it's working: The last 15 years have not been kind to the local news industry, with thousands of newspapers either reducing staff or closing down entirely. But not all newspapers have been affected equally, and some of the hardest hit chains were owned by hedge... by The Business of Content
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He created a finance-focused newsletter that has 1 million subscribers: Max Rofagha didn’t have a background in media prior to launching Finimize. He also didn’t have a background in finance for that matter. It was while conducting research on how to manage his own investments that he saw an opportunity for a daily... by The Business of Content
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He writes one of Hollywood's most influential newsletters: By the time Richard Rushfield launched his newsletter The Ankler in 2017, he had held journalism jobs at several major media companies that included The Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed, and Gawker. But because he served as a behind-the-scenes editor in... by The Business of Content
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His daily podcast got 5 million downloads in its first year: If you’re in the media, then you’re probably aware of The Daily, the massively successful podcast produced by The New York Times. It now receives over 4 million downloads a day and generates eight figures in revenue for the newspaper. But is it... by The Business of Content
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This site built a huge audience by mining legal documents from government websites: There’s a common misperception that many non-lawyers have about how legal contracts are written. Most people probably assume that a lawyer writes each contract from scratch, but in reality the lawyer is most likely copy and pasting clauses and... by The Business of Content
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He's building a media empire in Sweden around explainer journalism: Per Grankvist had the kind of media career most journalists only dream of. He was a high-profile columnist for a leading newspaper and a regular face on one of Sweden’s top broadcast networks. But over time he grew disillusioned with mainstream... by The Business of Content
30 min listen
Spotify is the newly crowned king of podcasting: Over the past several weeks, Spotify made several major announcements in the podcast space. It opened up its advertising ecosystem to anyone who hosts their podcasts on Anchor. It launched the ability for podcast hosts to create video versions of its... by The Business of Content
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How much this podcast grew in 2020: Subscribe to my newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ by The Business of Content
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How to form a podcast collective: If you look at the Apple and Spotify podcast charts that track the most downloaded shows every week, you’ll notice that many of the most popular podcasts belong to large networks. Organizations like Gimlet Media, Wondery, and NPR are able to pool... by The Business of Content
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Content creators are charging their fans for text messages: Most subscription strategies have a pretty straightforward value exchange: in exchange for a monthly payment, the subscriber gains access to premium content that’s locked behind some kind of paywall. But what if you want to keep all your best... by The Business of Content
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This company scaled local newsletters to five cities: Every morning, tens of thousands of people who live in cities like Miami, Portland, and Pittsburg receive a conversational email that updates them on the latest news within their city. These newsletters don’t often contain any original reporting,... by The Business of Content
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His site covering streaming TV attracts millions of visitors a month: Over the past year, dozens of writers have left their mainstream media jobs to launch their own standalone newsletters and publications. In almost every case, the writer monetized his content through paid subscriptions, usually with a tool like... by The Business of Content
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How MEL Magazine reimagined the men's magazine for the 21st century: Peruse a newsstand full of men’s magazines and you’ll probably notice a few common themes. The cover either features a bikini model or a suit-clad male celebrity. Inside, you’ll find stories meant to appeal to what many in the mid-20th century... by The Business of Content
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How Mental Floss evolved over its 20-year history: In the spirit of Mental Floss’s 20th anniversary, let me give you a few pieces of trivia about the magazine. It made a cameo in two episodes of Friends and an episode of Netflix’s The OA. It started as a print magazine but discontinued its print... by The Business of Content
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The Juggernaut is hyper focused on an underrepresented market: Snigdha Sur’s first idea for a media startup was a kind of Netflix-for-Bollywood streaming service, but when she spoke to investors about the idea, they all pointed out that it would be too easy for Netflix to simply copy her strategy. Though she... by The Business of Content
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He used crowdfunding to launch a progressive media startup in Canada: Like a lot of people on the political Left, Geoff Sharpe grew frustrated by how successful conservatives were on Facebook. For years, he watched as right leaning conservative groups built huge Facebook followings, which allowed them to promote their... by The Business of Content
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Can the mainstream media compete with Substack?: Over the past few years, dozens of star journalists at mainstream media outlets announced that they were quitting their jobs to launch their own ventures, usually on platforms like Substack. As a result, some have drastically increased their income,... by The Business of Content
23 min listen
Inside The Information's paywall strategy: These days, nearly every digital publisher utilizes some kind of reader revenue strategy, but when Jessica Lessin quit her Wall Street Journal job and launched The Information in 2013, it was still a novel concept. At that time, the paywalls that... by The Business of Content
48 min listen
He transformed a B2B sports magazine into a thriving media company: Visit Video Husky: When Nick Meacham first joined SportsPro in 2010, it mainly existed as a B2B print magazine that monetized through advertising. The editorial staff was tiny and it didn’t have much of a web presence. But after... by The Business of Content
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This BuzzFeed-like site has become a cultural powerhouse in Nigeria: Daniel Orubo had no intention of becoming a media personality when he graduated with an engineering degree in 2013, but his funny tweets just happened to catch the eye of a Nigerian publishing executive who planned to launch a BuzzFeed-like website... by The Business of Content
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How publishers can drive more subscription revenue: Get a 10% discount on a subscription: It’s incredibly difficult to convert your audience from free readers/viewers/listeners into paying subscribers. In this meeting, we’re going to discuss all of the optimization strategies that increase... by The Business of Content
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How the Art of Manliness monetizes its loyal audience: Most major media companies are focused on scale. They want to reach ever larger audiences and then leverage that reach to drive more revenue. To accomplish this, they invest time and resources to create content across all major social platforms, from... by The Business of Content
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Are paywalls overrated?: The Guardian recently announced it reached 1 million paying digital subscribers. What's most incredible about the accomplishment is that the newspaper reached that number without using a paywall. Does that mean that paywalls are overrated? I sat down... by The Business of Content
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Do people want longform Twitter content?: Visit SparkLoop: If there’s one thing Twitter’s known for, it’s character limits. It famously only allowed 140 of them and then later expanded to 280. In some ways, that forced brevity made Twitter what it is today: a real-time commentary on... by The Business of Content
54 min listen
His sports podcast network manages over 100 shows: If you review Kevin Jones’s resume on LinkedIn, it’s easy to see why he ended up founding a sports podcast network. He’s worked in virtually every sector of the sports media industry, from creating content for pro football teams to reporting for... by The Business of Content
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How Google collaborates with news publishers: Google has a long and complicated relationship with news publishers. On the one hand, it sends billions of visitors to their websites every year through its main search engine, Google News, and other products. On the other hand, some publishers... by The Business of Content
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He helped invent the modern content marketing industry: According to some estimates, corporations across the world spend upwards of $42 billion a year on content marketing, and they do so with the philosophy that by acting like media companies, they can engender trust with potential customers and drive... by The Business of Content
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This writer and podcaster amassed a huge audience of comic book fans: David Harper wrote hundreds of thousands of words over a five-year period without making a single penny from his comic book criticism. In 2009, he and a couple friends launched Multiversity Comics, a fan website that went on to be nominated for an... by The Business of Content
45 min listen

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Lessons from my first year of running a paid newsletter

Lessons from my first year of running a paid newsletter

Description

Titles in the series (99)

More Episodes from The Business of Content