This week on The Publisher Podcast we hear from Tim Huelskamp, CEO and co-founder of 1440, a daily curated newsletter that now reaches over 4 million daily readers. He tells us about finding white space in the newsletter market, the forecast for newsletter advertising, whether the claim to be ‘unbiased’ is a selling point for audiences, and what it means to be an employee-owned media organisation.

Tim was involved in the private equity game for around a decade prior to founding 1440, spending time as co-founder of venture philanthropic funds and as an angel investor. In this episode Tim takes a very nuanced view – some might say pleasantly cynical at times – of the subject. He was very honest and forthright about when private equity works for the media, and why it often doesn’t.

Here are just a few episode highlights, edited for clarity:

The USP of a curation-based newsletter

The way we think about that is we’re trying to be the connective tissue between the knowledge seeker and the incredible knowledge that’s already on the internet, or on media properties that they can’t find.

We have really smart people on our editorial team that are reading the entire internet every day, and they’re looking for fascinating insights or updates on what’s happening in the Middle East, and then they’re basically summarising it. They’re saying, ‘This piece of content is the best thing we found on the internet. And you should read if you’re going to invest 10 minutes of your time learning about the topic’.

If you’re a consumer, there isn’t one media company that can deliver everything to you. So what we think the opportunity really is on the consumer side is to be that connective tissue, be that curation layer that goes around and says, ‘Okay, there’s all these wonderful pieces from all these journalists, and we’re going to put them in front of you so you can rapidly find them’.”

On ‘decacorns’ and when private equity breaks down

I used to be in venture capital, it’s very important for the world. But when it’s used wrong, it can lead to some pretty bad things at companies.

Oftentimes with media companies, because of the lower margins and businesses in the media businesses, if it’s misused, that’s where you see stories like ‘80% of the company was laid off over two years’. You see a lot with these startups.

One of the benefits of not raising venture capital is that independent businesses get to control their own destiny. And I think that’s really beautiful. If you sign up for the venture capital train, you’re on a route and you need to keep raising funding, because that’s just how the model works.

How tech giants impact newsletter advertising potential

We think about this all the time. We’re just a small newsletter, and our partners have access to Facebook and Google as well. So we have to constantly be thinking, ‘How can we outdeliver and optimise our ads to stay on at least the same level as our customers?’ They like us, and we’re friends with them and everything. But as soon as the returns go away, they’re gone [too]. Because this is capitalism and how it works.

[It’s the same] with brand awareness. If they can get more awareness in the right audience at a different place, with a different solution that’s more tech focused… it’s very easy for them to leave to other places. So I think that’s the big driver in a lot of this degradation of the revenues.”


This season of The Publisher Podcast & Newsletter is sponsored by Memberful, a best-in-class membership solution for independent publishers and journalists who want to diversify their revenue stream and connect with their audience. 

Memberful lets you offer membership perks and exclusive content to your loyal audience, giving you full control over who has access to your articles, newsletters, podcast episodes, private community chats, and more.

Take control of your publishing business this new year with Memberful. Visit memberful.com/publisherpod and get started with a free trial.

 

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