Articles
When Bundling Leads to a Greater Audience and the Birth of New Media Companies
It’s never been easier for an entrepreneurial writer to decide to go out on her own and own the means of her…
Shift to More Direct Revenue Models Will Only Accelerate
If you spend any time reading articles about advertising—including here on A Media Operator—much time is spent discussing ad spend contracting. This…
We’re Starting to Get Real Numbers on COVID-19’s Impact on Advertising and Subscriptions
We are beginning to see real numbers related to COVID-19’s impact on media businesses—in particular, how the advertising business has been hit…
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Survival Above All Else
Earlier this week, I wrote about how media companies that are feeling pressure to open their COVID-19 content might still be able…
Ungating Critical Content: Taking a Lesson From The Guardian & Skift
There’s a debate taking place online about whether or not media companies that rely on paywalls should open up content that is…
Using Video to Engage With a Work From Home Audience
Earlier this week, I wrote a thread on Twitter that investigated how The Athletic might be at risk with its first year…
Debt & Ad Cuts Will Hurt Some Media
Debt is interesting. On one hand, it’s appealing because it’s non-dilutive and, so long as cash flow is strong, the interest and…
Only a Tiny Number of Publishers Can Sell Technology
Media companies, in an effort to chase profitability, are looking at a wide variety of tactics. One of them is selling software…
The Two Use Cases For Popup Newsletters
When President Trump was being impeached, there were a slew of podcasts that popped up all offering information about the latest happenings…
Ben Smith is Half Right, But There’s a Hole in His Analysis
There must be something special about joining The New York Times and then writing a piece titled Why the Success of The…
Creating IP With Your Top Talent
Why do people choose to subscribe to specific publications? Is it because of the hard hitting news that they produce or is…
Trying to Grow Subscriptions With a Hard Paywall
When The Information launched, many in mainstream media looked at what the team were doing and scoffed. There was no way a…
Growing Audience Through Cross-Promotion and Partnerships
When I was a young teenager, I saw Field of Dreams for the first time. The main character played by Kevin Costner…
Oh Look, A Platform is Preparing to Dupe Pubs
It appears that European publishers are finally going to get their wish. According to The Wall Street Journal: Google is in talks…
The Most Successful Pubs Have Long Time Horizons and Require Repetitive Focus
When Axios broke the news last week that Dotdash had acquired two publishers, TreeHugger and Mother Nature Network, it got me thinking.…
Most of These Sports Betting Deals Are Going to Fail
According to The Wall Street Journal, William Hill, a bookmaker, and Viacom CBS have reached an agreement on a gambling deal. It…
A Different Way to Monetize Local Media
I’ve always had a soft spot for local media. When I was younger and first moved to Manhattan, I launched a media…
Is Less Actually More With Content?
For a long time, the narrative around content production was to produce as much as possible because it would result in overall…