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Today I’m talking to the WSJ’s Director of Newsroom SEO for the podcast. Is there anything you’d like me to ask him? Just reply to this email (by 7pm BST!)
We’ve already had some brilliant entries in for the second year of our Publisher Newsletter Awards. See the categories and enter (for free) before the 3rd May deadline.
This is a fascinating piece from Media Makers Meet’s recent Barcelona conference featuring Kritasha Gupta, head of business development at the Financial Times. She talks about the mini-brands the FT has developed, which feature a newsletter, online content, and sometimes a podcast on topics from cryptocurrency, due diligence, Brexit, and climate change.
Going deep into certain topics, even with target audiences of less than 100 global executives, is a smart move that publishers of pretty much any shape and size can do.
What I’m curious about here is why the FT hasn’t looked at slicing up their subscription pricing as part of this. Their media reporting is excellent, but not frequent enough to justify the high overall FT subscription price, which gives me access to the other 99% of their content which, frankly, I’m just not interested in.
There has got to be a better way of monetising niches like this. Come debate in our community forum!
Common sense has, for once, prevailed in the UK, and publishers will no longer be faced with the threat of having to process subscription cancellation requests sent via carrier pigeon. We’re getting a similar set of rules to those coming in over the pond where if you sign up online, you should be able to cancel online. Just a small reminder, though, that making cancellation easier actually leads to better retention.
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The Verge’s media reporters are in a savage mood this week (this on Vice if you missed it yesterday). “The Podcasts app is just the latest product to go through a process I’ve come to call The Google Cycle,” writes David Pierce. “It always goes the same way: the company launches a new service…immediately seems to forget it exists, eventually launches a competitor out of some other part of the company, obviously begins to deprecate it and shift focus to the new competitor, and then, years later, finally shuts it down for real.”
I’m not sure I’d want every Audiencers article written like this, but as a way of scanning down lots of case studies from the WSJ’s TikTok strategy, this is a neat way of seeing why a clip was successful and how the chances of success were maximised. They’ve also included some questions (and answers) from the audience at the event.
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