Jacob Donnelly

Decades of 'Free’ News Has Publishers Scrambling to Find Revenue - A Media Operator Consumers have been trained to expect news for free. But smart publishers can probably charge a whole lot more than they think for their products.

Publishers have spent decades giving news away for free. Now? They need to start charging for it.

The good news? They can probably charge more than they think.

www.amediaoperator.com/analysis/dec...

With regard to building on Substack?

Absolutely. Someone I know used to refer to it as digital sharecropping. Dangerous, dangerous game. It's good to start out, but at some point, you need to protect yourself—and the way you do that is with your own platform.

"Down with the billionaire class and let's hold them accountable" is marketing... same as "Democracy dies in darkness."

How about: We're going to serve our audience with great information that will either delight them and help them make better decisions? Or both?

Because Substack has a growth engine perfectly built for political publications. The recommendations will be flawless.

The Era of Media Arbitrage Is Dead - A Media Operator Digital media has been an arbitrage game for upwards of 30 years. Now that era is dead and pubs need to refocus. But some just won't get the message.

Media companies need a new strategy because what they've done for the last few decades won't work going forward.

www.amediaoperator.com/analysis/the...

What many of these publishers are realizing is that their businesses will just be smaller for a while as they recalibrate and get to true sustainability.

I must be on someone’s starter kit because I can’t imagine many of these random people actually care about the founder of a small b2b media company…

Can confirm.

Any reason you can think why they’d shut down versus trying to sell?

People getting rugged day after day and they always come back hoping that this time, it'll be different.

Just have to keep showing up, doing the work, and when people say no, figuring out ways to get them to yes. It’s exhausting, but rewarding.

Future Expects Accelerating Growth After Strong H2; 2024 Revenue Comes in Flat  - A Media Operator Future PLC said company revenue is set to grow after a year of flat sales. It signed a deal with OpenAI that’s “not financially material.”

Future is hoping for a bigger 2025 after a flat 2024, but is the company doing enough to prepare for bigger drops in traffic?

www.amediaoperator.com/analysis/fut...

Yeah — I can behind that logic.

We all use growth hacks. You had LinkedIn Groups IRRC, Morning Brew had $0.05 per subscriber Instagram ads, and I'm sure others have their own strategies.

The hacks come *after* the value proposition.

When I spoke at the newsletter conference in May, someone asked if we were in a newsletter bubble. I said, "we're in a shitty newsletter bubble... many of you in the crowd will be dead in a year."

I was feeling morbid that day.

Did I? Whoops. Rectified.

UK Publisher Mill Media Grows & Profits Amid Shrinking Local News Market - A Media Operator Four-year old local news publisher Mill Media is building a news empire that’s at least partially profitable in the UK with plenty of competition and a market that’s often characterized as dying.

The local media market in the UK is shrinking, but the founding team of Mill Media are charting a path forward.

www.amediaoperator.com/profile/uk-p...

To say what you said in a different way:

Morning Brew/The Skimm knew who they were and what they were doing for the audience before they supercharged the growth hacks to get to mass scale.

Many of these newsletters are growth hack first, value proposition second.

How dare you insult our bagels, Scott.

I’ve never really believed an ad free experience was the reason someone would pay for a digital subscription.

If they cared that much, they’d use Brave or an ad blocker.

Now if the only way to read was to first watch a 30 second video ad… that’s why I pay for ad free streaming.

Working in an actual office tomorrow with AMO's first employee. That's kind of cool.

Congrats! Always nice to have a sponsor before you've even launched.

I wasn't all that great on Twitter either to be fair...

But I suspect it boils down to a few things:
1. Commenting on other people's stuff
2. Quote tweeting other people's stuff
3. Posting unique stuff either as one off posts or threads

I don't know how else to grow on social.

Craig Fuller continues his strategy of acquiring enthusiast media brands.

Just depends on what your objectives are. I’m still on X because I’ve got friends there, but if this will send traffic to AMO, I’m going to build here too.

This is very publisher friendly. I’m logged into many publications through my main browser, but not each app’s unique browser. So, when I click a link from Bluesky, I’m able to access articles without needing to login again.

How does the publisher verify that OpenAI is only using it for RAG and not for general training? Admittedly not very advanced with this technology.

It’s only been a week since I wrote that piece and I’m increasingly thinking pubs should spend a bit more time over here. Some are seeing legit traffic numbers compared to other platforms.

I asked ChatGPT. Only the first one is a good example, I think.

Happy Thanksgiving, Scott!