Work in Progress
News, thoughts and opinions about the world of local independent online media in the UK and beyond.
Philip John
Founder
After the glut of yesterday’s newsletter, I give you a delightfully short read today.
The Morning Walk Podcast
Most weekday mornings I try to go for a walk and listen to media podcasts. This is what I like to call my stupid fucking walk for my stupid fucking mental health. While it works – which I hate to admit – I can’t convince myself to walk without reason so I listen to a collection of media-related podcasts to and from my favourite cafe. In this section I share what I’ve learned or found interesting.
Sometimes the morning podcast doesn’t correlate so well to the world of local independent, often non-profit, journalism that I tend to work in. The Rebooting Show is one of my consistent listens and tends to focus on larger, for-profit subscription business.
That was the case with this morning’s interview with The Juggernaut’s Snigda Sur. While the specifics of building a multi-million dollar subscription business aren’t always relevant to local indies I did take away the importance of analytics in making decisions. This should be obvious of course but I think many publishers overlook it. Understanding your audience is not only key to serving them but also to monetisation, whatever form that takes. It’s also critical for the experiments we must run as we look for sustainable models.
What’s Happening
State of Digital Publishing has performed an analysis of 16 small-scale publishers in Australia [PDF]. So far I’ve only skimmed it but I like how they’ve broken them down into size and looked at the context of each publisher when looking for opportunities. It might give you some ideas for your own publication.
With many of us doing more and more with email this recent article helps you to ensure your emails get through.
On a personal note…
In the last few hundred yards of my morning walk I spotted a cute little black kitten and decided to say hi. I was shunned. Nice reminder of why I’m a dog person 😆
Like and subscribe, like and subscribe
Well done, you’ve reached the obligatory promotional part.
If you enjoyed this newsletter maybe send it on to someone else who might like it.
If you didn’t like this newsletter maybe still send it to someone who might like it.
If you hated it maybe unsubscribe, or continue reading but tut and shake your head at every sentence.
I suppose if you have feedback you can email me too.
Until next time…
