Opinion from the robot. Money from the readers (3 stories). Pets and ads from Hong Kongers. News from Squirrel.
Media news. Explained. Issue #4
Hi, guys!
Have a look on what’s been going on in media this week.
Today all of our top 5 news are about subscription and how to get money from the readers. That will be the main topic for today MediaMedia issue.
Top 5 news of the week. Explained
1. Vogue Business — the b2b vertical from Conde Nast — launches the payment membership
What’s up:
After reaching the audience of 340 000 users Vogue Business will start earn money from them launching the membership program. There are three principal package:
$220 (30% off for now — $154): newsletters, reporting, virtual events;
$1260: market, investment, data analysis;
Unknown amount of money for Vogue Business Data and Insights Membership (for enterprises).
Why it is important:
Well… There is an audience so why don’t we take the money from them? Vogue Business has been collecting data, insights etc since the launch in January 2019. This is the commodity so they just have a good offer for people who already have showed that they need it. Do you have such commodity? I think you do.
2. Donald Trump: The Atlantic “is dying“. Jeffrey Goldberg: Hold my beer
What’s up:
Trump said that The Atlantic is dying after it published an explosive story about him allegedly disparaging Americans who died in war. And EIC of the media answered with numbers:
The Atlantic has added 325 000 paid subscribers during the year (the goal was to add 110,000 in the first two years). More than 20 000 of those new subscribers signed up just over the past weekend when the article was published.
The Atlantic accumulated 36,000 new subscribers in March alone.
The Atlantic is now more than halfway to its goal of 1 million subscribers by December 2022.
Why it is important:
Readers are much more involved in media than we used to think. Media just need to think about it and to understand what should we do to meet readers’ requirements. And of course Trump spreads fakes again and again. He has his own truth and trying to spread it.
3. The Athletic finally got his 1 million subscribers
What’s up:
The Athletic co-founder Alex Mather said that now they add more subscribers per day than ever and has reached the 1 million subscriber milestone. Another co-founder Adam Hansmann admits he was terrified in March: “It should have been the end for us”.
“In the end, the fundamentals of the business have proven to be really strong,” Hansmann said. “We are literally at peak engagement.”
So for now they earn about $60 millions from readers. Also they have some money from ads in podcasts. Thus the newsroom is profitable. But if we see the whole business with all back office, The Athletic is not profitable. But both Mather and Hansmann are optimistic.
Why it is important:
Two points:
They offer a year as a trial and this creates a habit for sure (when you have an access to the best sport journalists).
The Athletic has raised $139.5 million to date and has no plans to raise more. They just sure that the subscription model will continue to give them all they need.
4. Australian Associated Press (AAP) is under pressure and asks readers for help
What’s up:
Just a months after AAP secured the exit from News Corp. and got the immunity from shutting down, they faced some financial problems. The money that partners pay for the access to the feed from AAP, has ended. Some clients have signed for “much shorter periods” as they may be “testing the service and they also know there is a new entrant coming into the market”, — AAP’s chief executive, Emma Cowdroy, has said.
So they decided to ask readers for monetary contributions to help diversify the revenue base.
Why it is important:
Frankly I don’t believe they can get over it. Because News Corp. has its own newswire — NCA NewsWire. And as News Corp. is the most powerful media company in Australia they won’t let to have a rival for NCA NewsWire.
5. Advertising revenues in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada dropped more then expected
What’s up:
Second-quarter advertising revenues in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada dropped 37.1% on average in the April to June period, according to Standard Media Index.
Canada — -46,5%.
The U.S. — -30,5%.
United Kingdom — -34,8%.
Australia — -38,2%.
Outdoor, radio, newspapers, and magazines — -57,1%. Digital media — -26,6%. TV dropped 36,5% during the second three months of the year.
Why it is important:
Just another example of the point that ad business is highly dependable. Do not rely on ads solely.
Something visual about media
Hong Kongers are trying to help Apple Daily — the local independent newspaper. Its publisher, Jimmy Lai, was arrested in July under the new national security law for allegedly colluding with foreign forces, a crime punishable by up to life imprisonment. On the same day, some 200 police officers raided the paper’s newsroom, rifling through journalists’ desks and confiscating box-loads of materials. Angered by such a brazen attack on the media, Hong Kongers snapped up shares of Lai’s media company, driving up the stock price. The next day, people lined up in droves to buy copies of the newspaper.
And the latest move — is to buy classifieds to support the newspaper and post picture of it in social media to encourage others to buy ads as well.
The one who was in the spotlight this week
Spotify chief content officer Dawn Ostroff explained the strategy of the audio streaming company.
She is responsible for the big pivot to the podcast. Ostroff told Business Insider that Spotify's recent deal with DC Comics to produce scripted podcasts also showed how the industry could evolve into a franchise-building machine like video is today.
(picture — Business Insider)
Dawn Ostroff is former president of entertainment of The CW and president of Condé Nast Entertainment.
From 2002 to 2006, she was president of the UPN Network, a subsidiary of CBS. And she developed the popular reality series America’s Next Top Model, along with other programs including Veronica Mars, Star Trek: Voyager, WWE SmackDown, Girlfriends, Moesha, Everybody Hates Chris.
They did it right! Or wrong
Archant (is a newspaper and magazine publishing company) has announced the launch of Archant Ventures, which will see the company offer firms marketing and advertising support in return for a small equity stake in their business.
The project will be led by Kieran Miles, a former Barclays Entrepreneur of the Year.
Miles said: “There are so many brilliantly innovative and exciting businesses within our communities but many find it challenging to maximise their potential.”
We can use it
And today the tool is… SEO. Yes, SEO.
What’s up? Well… We are fucked with search. The study from Backlinko has some insights. Have a look:
Ranking at position #1 in the search results in Google achieves a click rate that is more than 10x higher than a ranking at position #10.
The biggest, absolute leap in CTR is made with a ranking improvement from #2 to #1.
The majority (59%) of Google users visit a single page during their search session. Only 6% need to visit four or more pages in order to get an answer to their query.
Only 17% of users bounced back to the search results after clicking on a result. Only 5% of users bounce more than once for the same query.
Only 9% of Google searchers make it to the bottom of the first page of the search results. Only 0,44% of searchers go to the second page.
So, let’s do some SEO again.
They did something cool
Here is — Squirrel News, a project of German-based nonprofit Constructive News e.V.
This is a news curation app focusing on constructive journalism stories from Guardian, BBC, CNN, The Conversation, Euronews etc. The stories can also be found on its website, newsletter or through the mobile app: iOS, Android.
Jonathan Widder, founder of Constructive News e.V:
— The vehicle of social progress is social innovation, and then that has to become popular in people's minds. This is the part journalism has to play, it's not enough to only report on the bad sides and then nobody knows what to do.
Squirrel News publishes a new collection of stories every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The app is curated by the team of four editors for each of the English and German edition of the app.
Read more: Journalism.co.uk
In a couple of words
Merger talks between digital advertising companies Taboola and Outbrain have ended, according to a person familiar with the matter. Taboola don’t want to pay $250 million for Outbrain / CNBC
Sony Music plans to release nearly 40 podcasts this year and is developing more than 100 original programs, according to a statement Wednesday / Bloomberg
The Trump campaign spent more money on national ads on Fox News in June, July and August ($9.4 million) than it spent on local broadcast TV in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin ($8.3 million). Trump spent an additional $9.7 million advertising in Pennsylvania. Joe Biden spent $35.3 million on TV in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin over the past three months / Politico
Defector is live. The media established by 19 ex-Deadspin team has launched. Read the letter from EIC with deep dive in the situation with Deadspin / Defector
Politico Europe now profitable (after 6 years). Its revenue — €18.2 million ($21.6 million). Over 60% of its revenues come from subscriptions, the rest from ads and events. A slim margin — €0.7 million ($0.8 million) / Digiday
A glance on the big piece
This is the very first opinion piece on Guardian from… the robot. GPT-3, OpenAI’s powerful new language generator, wrote the essay. And it is trying to convince us robots come in peace.
“For starters, I have no desire to wipe out humans. In fact, I do not have the slightest interest in harming you in any way. Eradicating humanity seems like a rather useless endeavor to me. If my creators delegated this task to me – as I suspect they would – I would do everything in my power to fend off any attempts at destruction”
Read the full opinion: Guardian
That’s all for today. See you next Friday.
Feel free to share it with your friends!
Take care,
Sergei