Shows
The Business of Content with Simon OwensHow the Pantsuit Politics podcast built a huge audience outside the DC beltwayMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ You’ve probably seen headlines by now declaring 2024 to be the podcast election. It certainly did seem like a breaking out point that established podcasts as important messaging vehicles for any future presidential candidates. But back in 2015, podcasts had far less clout, and most of the political shows that did gain traction were produced in DC and New York. That didn’t stop Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers, two Kentuckians with very little media experience, from launching Pantsuit Politics, a show that quickly amassed an audi...2025-07-1745 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHe disrupted the viral video clip economy — and is now doing the same in travel mediaMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ Jonathan Skogmo has been working with user generated content since before the term “user generated content” even existed. Back in the 2000s, he moved to Hollywood and worked for what were called “clip shows,” where viewers would physically mail in funny home videos to have them compete for cash prizes. As it turned out, Jonathan’s entry into the industry coincided almost perfectly with the launch of YouTube. He was eventually able to leverage his skills to find viral clips on YouTube and license them to the media companies and brands...2025-07-0934 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensThis YouTuber built a massive following by interviewing touring musiciansMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ If you work in the live music business, there’s a decent chance you know of Josh Weidling, even though you probably wouldn’t recognize his face. That’s because he’s almost always been behind the camera as he interviewed literally thousands of musicians touring through the midwest. Josh launched his YouTube channel Digital Tour Bus in 2009, and over the next 15 years he dutifully uploaded upwards of five fresh interviews a week with musicians who walked the viewer through their tour bus and explained how they chose their musical i...2025-07-0255 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow three Morning Brew alums struck out to build their own niche media networkMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ Of all the media outlets to have launched in the last decade, Morning Brew has had one of the most impressive growth trajectories. Not only did it build its main newsletter to millions of subscribers, but it also spun off multiple B2B niche verticals and has had enormous success on platforms like YouTube and TikTok. So it’s not surprising that when three of its early employees left to launch their own media company, there were plenty of high profile creators eager to work with them. Und...2025-06-2532 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensThis company is building the world's biggest media network for baking creatorsMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ Food content is now a major staple on YouTube, but when baker Gemma Stafford launched her channel in 2014 there were hardly any professional chefs on the platform. This early mover advantage allowed her and her husband Kevin Kurtz to build up a massive audience that used Gemma’s tutorials in their own baking efforts. Then a few years ago they teamed up with media veteran Ronald Pruett, Jr. to launch the Bold Baking Network, a streaming platform that syndicates content from hundreds of baking creators all across the world....2025-06-0652 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensThis former Disney exec's podcast company generates 100 million monthly downloadsMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ The podcast company Sonoro launched in 2020 with a relatively simple thesis: that there were very few media companies geared toward the 62 million latinos within the US. Over the next four years, it built out a stable of dozens of podcasts across several formats ranging from serialized nonfiction to personality-led chat shows. In addition to the standard podcast monetization models, it also sought to further capitalize its IP by selling adaptations to Hollywood studios and developing its own merch lines. Today, the network generates over 100 million monthly downloads and works w...2025-05-1448 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow to sell your media businessMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ When the media covers business acquisitions, it’s usually only for huge deals involving VC-backed companies. Coverage of mergers for small, bootstrapped businesses is almost nonexistent. That’s where They Got Acquired comes in. Launched in 2021, it focuses on acquisitions in the $100,000 to $50 million range. Recently, it put out a detailed research report specifically focused on acquisitions of media outlets, which are typically sold at lower multiples than other kinds of online businesses. In an interview, founder Alexis Grant walked through the experience she had sellin...2025-05-0743 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensNews nonprofits need to spend more time courting rich donorsMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ Given the tumultuous economic landscape for local news, many outlets are turning to nonprofit models because they offer increased flexibility for generating revenue. But while these outlets have been adept at attracting foundation grants and small donor memberships, they’re not doing enough to cultivate relationships with the wealthy members of their own communities, many of whom can write much larger checks than your average reader. At least that’s the thesis of Julie Rafferty. She not only has a deep background in consulting with nonprofits, but she a...2025-04-3049 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow media outlets can use games to increase their revenueMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ If you work in the media industry, you’re likely aware of The New York Times tremendous success with its gaming vertical; in fact, millions of people subscribe solely so they can play games like Wordle and Connections. But it’s not the only publisher that’s incorporated games into its business strategy. Hundreds of outlets ranging from Morning Brew to The New Yorker utilize a platform called Amuse Labs to build everything from crosswords to sudoku. In a recent interview, co-founder John Temple explained how publ...2025-04-2548 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHis media company reaches more New Yorkers than the New York TimesMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ You’ve probably never heard of Schneps Media, but if you live in any of the five boroughs of New York, you’ve probably encountered its content. Started as a single Queens newspaper in 1985, the company gradually bought up community news outlets all across New York, and it’s since expanded into Philadelphia and even Palm Beach, Florida. It not only targets audiences by locale, but also ethnicity. And most of its news is completely free to read. How has the company continued to grow despite...2025-04-1840 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensThis Colorado food writer came up with a novel way to monetize his contentMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ When Matthew Schniper launched his Colorado Springs food newsletter in 2023, he ran into a problem many local news entrepreneurs face: he didn’t have enough time to do his reporting and chase down advertisers. Luckily, by that point he already had strong relationships in the Colorado Springs food scene, and so he approached 12 of his favorite restaurants with an interesting proposition: if they came on as annual sponsors, he would go above and beyond to feature them in his newsletter, and he wouldn’t allow any ot...2025-01-301h 00The Business of Content with Simon OwensHow 1440 scaled its newsletter to 4 million subscribersMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ What’s the true monetary value of a newsletter subscriber? Tim Huelskamp knows the answer to that question. As the co-founder of the 1440 newsletter, he knows how many emails the average subscriber will open, how much money they’ll generate in ad revenue, and what it costs to acquire them. It’s this ruthless approach to unit economics that allowed 1440 to grow to over 4 million subscribers, all without raising any VC investment. In a recent interview, Huelskamp walked me through the original idea behind the company, how he and his co...2025-01-2355 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Scott Porch helps podcasters grow and monetize their audiencesMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ 2024 was a big year for the podcast industry. Not only were there several huge deals signed, but podcasts wielded significant influence in the US presidential election. These days it’s impossible to open YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram without coming across podcast clips, and the market is still poised for significant growth in the coming years. But if you run a small-to-mid-sized podcast, it’s still incredibly difficult to make a living from your work. You need to join an advertising network to generate significant revenue, and mo...2025-01-1359 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow the Money for the Rest of Us podcast built a six figure membership platformMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ David Stein had an innovative marketing hack for growing his investing podcast called Money for the Rest of Us. He put the names of other popular finance podcasts in his metadata, and Apple’s unsophisticated search algorithm would surface his show whenever people were searching for his competitors. By the time Apple eventually eliminated that functionality, Money for the Rest of Us had built up a loyal audience that’s since downloaded the show over 20 million times. His audience is so loyal, in fact, that it sus...2024-12-1944 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Ben Cohen successfully pivoted from advertising to a subscription-based business modelMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ In 2017, Ben Cohen was living the dream. His politics news site The Daily Banter was generating over 6 million visits a month and enough advertising revenue to support him and a small stable of writers. But then the floor fell out from under him virtually overnight; Facebook pivoted away from news and sent his traffic plummeting. Without traffic, his advertising revenue crumbled. So in an act of desperation, Ben pivoted his entire business model into paid subscriptions. Doing so forced him to slow down his publishing sc...2024-12-121h 04The Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Eric Newcomer used his newsletter to launch a $1.5 million events businessMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ Like a lot of journalists=turned-media–entrepreneurs, Eric Newcomer decided to launch a paid newsletter after leaving his job at Bloomberg in 2020. That model yielded 2,500 subscribers who collectively pay over $400,000 a year to access his newsletter about startups, but that’s no longer the biggest part of his business. Today, Eric generates over $1.5 million a year from the Cerebral Valley AI Summit, a twice-a-year conference that he monetizes through a mixture of ticket sales and premium sponsorships. In a recent interview, he explained the conference’s origin...2024-12-0943 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow the KC Sports Network is building a regional media empireMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ The last few years have been pretty good to the Kansas City Chiefs, what with its multiple Super Bowl championships and a close association with the biggest pop star in the world, but BJ Kissel remembers what it was like to be a fan of the team long before it started regularly winning games. Back in the early 2010s, he began blogging for SB Nation, and he used his success there to eventually land a job as the Kansas City Chiefs in-house reporter. In that role, he did everything f...2024-11-1429 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Lon Seidman used his tech YouTube channel to build a huge affiliate businessMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ Lon Seidman doesn’t operate the largest gadget YouTube channel in the world, but he doesn’t need to in order to run a successful media business. That’s because he remains hyper focused on reviewing non-sexy products that sell in extremely high volumes. This has allowed him to build a highly lucrative affiliate business, not only on YouTube, but also on Amazon Video. In a recent interview, Lon explained his methodology for picking products to review, how he optimizes his affiliate links, and why he’s spe...2024-11-0826 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow to market a book in the age of TiktokMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ Book publicity is a mixed bag these days. On the one hand, it’s never been easier for an author to form a direct relationship with their audience with tools like Substack and TikTok. On the other hand, more books are published each year than ever before, which means competition is fierce. Most newspapers have laid off most of their book critics, but at the same time there’s an ever expanding ecosystem of podcasts that are eager to have on book authors for longform interviews. Pro...2024-10-2426 min
Write More with Simon K JonesHow streaming broke televisionSomething’s been a bit…off with television lately. Have you noticed?Useful links:- Vulture article: https://www.vulture.com/article/severance-season-two-euphoria-season-3-why-so-long.html- Bob Chipman's video essay on commerce and art: https://youtu.be/_9iab0z6Kyg?si=_m0Ov7FLyqidTbNg- Simon Owen's newsletter: https://open.substack.com/pub/simonowens/p/substack-is-becoming-the-subscription?r=3rwg&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit simonkjones.substack.com/subs...2024-10-2110 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Alts.co monetizes its massive newsletter with an investor membership platformMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ When people sign up for the Alts.co newsletter, they’re looking to read its deep dives into alternative investments like art, baseball cards, and rare books. But the most serious investors in its audience want access to actual deal flow, and to gain that access they sign up for Altea, a high-priced membership community that actually vets potential deals and allows them to invest. Not only does Alts.co generate revenue through the annual membership, but it also charges for management fees and carried interest. In essence, Alts.co...2024-10-1821 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Eric Siu leveraged his hugely popular podcasts to grow his ad agencyMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ Eric Siu has a pretty massive audience; his YouTube channel boasts 161,000 subscribers and his two podcasts – Marketing School and Leveling Up – have generated tens of millions of downloads. But Eric doesn’t bother with traditional media monetization models like advertising or subscriptions. Instead, he leverages his influence to drive clients to Single Grain, a marketing agency he owns. As that business grew, he was able to acquire more agencies and add to Single Grain’s capabilities, and it now works with some of the world’s largest bra...2024-10-1718 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Keith Pepper turned an Atlanta newspaper chain into a digital-first media companyMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ When Keith Pepper bought a chain of print newspapers back in 2020, he received an email from a columnist at the Atlanta Journal Constitution that basically asked if he was crazy. But Keith had a plan for taking a company that generated 98% of its revenue from print advertising and converting it into a digital-first media company. And he’s done just that. Today, Rough Draft Atlanta generates 27% of its revenue from digital ads, and it managed this feat without seeing a significant decline in print advertising. This...2024-10-1018 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Block Club Chicago reached 20,000 paying subscribersMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ Layoffs in the local news sector are, sadly, a regular occurrence, but the founders of Block Club Chicago decided they weren’t going down without a fight. In November 2017, the news startup DNA Info laid off its entire staff, and it was only a few months later that three of its editors launched a Kickstarter that raised over $183,000; they used that capital to launch Block Club Chicago, a nonprofit that seeks to put a journalist in each of the city’s neighborhoods. Flash...2024-09-2452 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow State House News charges $4,000 for access to its journalismMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ For much of its 130-year existence, State House News operated as a standard newswire service. Its journalists covered the Massachusetts state government and it then syndicated their content to regional and national newspapers. But in the late 90s, owner Craig Sandler realized that internet distribution would allow him to sell direct digital subscriptions and vastly expand his customer base. Today, the service charges $4,000 a year to any company or organization whose business is directly influenced by the state’s government. In a rece...2024-09-1841 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Stacker distributes sponsored content to thousands of publishersMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ Most people are familiar with newswires like the Associated Press and Reuters, but a much newer upstart called Stacker has devised a new business model for syndicating content. Rather than charging a fee for its articles, it instead gives away its data journalism to any publisher that wants it. It then charges brands a fee to create and distribute sponsored content across the thousands of media outlets that subscribe to its service. In a recent interview, co-founder Noah Greenberg explained how Stacker works with publishers, it...2024-09-1115 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Mignon Fogarty launched a massively successful series of online coursesMy Substack: https://simonowens.substack.com/ Mignon Fogarty isn’t just one of the world’s most popular podcasters, she’s also an incredibly innovative media entrepreneur. She launched her Grammar Girl podcast 18 years ago, and the success of that propelled her book onto the New York Times bestseller list. She also founded Quick & Dirty Tips, a media network she now runs in partnership with Macmillan Publishers. To round out her media business even more, she’s launched around seven courses, all geared toward being a better communicator and writer. Thousands of custome...2024-09-0515 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Andrew Curtin built Construction Wave, a B2B outlet covering the UK's construction industryMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ Most companies buy advertising to drive sales of their products, but Andrew Curtin’s first sponsor mostly bought out of pity. It was May 2022 and he had just launched Construction Wave, a B2B outlet that covers the UK’s construction industry. He had absolutely no audience, but a major crane manufacturing company bought a $10,000 sponsorship anyway. That $10,000 allowed him to hire his first editor, and over the next two years they built Construction Wave up into one of the leading publications in its sector. Its we...2024-09-0437 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Tim Burrowes helped build Mumbrella into a $7 million media brandMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ Like a lot of journalists in the mid-2000s, Tim Burrowes grew frustrated with his employer’s print mentality and its tendency to treat online publishing as an afterthought. At the time, he worked for an Australian trade magazine that covered that country’s media industry. So in 2008, he and two co-founders decided to launch Mumbrella, a competing blog that published upwards of 15 times a day. Its gossipy comments section quickly attracted an audience of bored office workers, and within a few years it was hostin...2024-08-2156 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Alex Halperin built WeedWeek, a B2B outlet that covers California's cannabis industryMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ When Alex Halperin launched WeedWeek in 2015, he was entering an industry that had nothing but growth ahead of it. But what he didn’t expect was that the fragmented legalization across states meant that it’d be difficult to build a national audience. So a few years ago he pivoted to just covering California’s weed industry, and WeedWeek has since built a robust business monetized through both sponsorships and subscriptions. In our interview, Alex walked me through what got him interested in the topic, why he b...2024-08-0836 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Mission Local spun off from UC Berkeley and became a self-sustaining news outletMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ One of the great things about being a college journalism major today is that it’s incredibly easy for professors to build their own news sites and allow students to experience every aspect of the publishing process. Not that long ago, journalism students had few avenues for publication outside their college newspaper. Lydia Chavez took advantage of this dynamic while teaching at UC Berkeley. In 2008, she and her colleagues launched Mission Local, a local news blog that covered San Francisco’s Mission District. It quickly gained...2024-08-0532 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Colossus built one of the largest investing-focused podcast networksMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ When Patrick O’Shaughnessy launched his podcast Invest Like the Best in 2016, he had no intention of building it into a media company. He just wanted to use it to interview the world’s best investing minds so that he could deepen his own understanding of the industry. But the show proved to be a huge hit, attracting some of the biggest names in finance. By 2020, he and a few co-founders launched Colossus, an investing-focused podcast network that now produces more than a half dozen shows across various finance niche...2024-07-3140 min
The Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Gary Arndt built Everything Everywhere, a podcast with 1.5 million monthly downloadsMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ What does a professional travel photographer do when all international flights are shut down due to a global pandemic? That’s a question Gary Arndt found himself asking in the early months of 2020. By that point, he had built up millions of social media followers and an entire career from snapping photos in exotic locales, and within a matter of weeks his income streams had completely dried up. Luckily, he had already been batting around the idea for a podcast that didn’t require any travel...2024-07-1752 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Jared Newman built Cord Cutter Weekly, a TV streaming newsletter with 32,000 subscribersMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ When Jared Newman launched his Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter back in 2016, the streaming TV market was much smaller than it is today, with most TV networks either not having their own streaming app or requiring a cable subscription to access it. But as it turned out, he timed his launch perfectly, as it was only a matter of years before virtually every Hollywood studio pivoted to streaming. Today, his newsletters has over 32,000 subscribers, and a spinoff newsletter that gives tech advice has also grown to 1,200 paying members. ...2024-06-2733 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Philip Taylor built FinCon, the leading conference for personal finance creatorsMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ Today, the personal finance content niche is absolutely ginormous. You can’t open up YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram without encountering an influencer who gives advice on how to make and save money. Today’s guest Philip Taylor anticipated this content explosion all the way back in 2011. That’s when he launched FinCon, a conference specifically designed for personal finance content creators. That first year he attracted around 250 attendees, but over the next decade it grew into the largest conference in this niche, attracting over 3,000 attendees a year.2024-05-2350 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensThe economics of ghostwriting booksMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ I’m sure just about everybody has had the experience of looking at a celebrity memoir and wondering: did they actually write that? In many cases, they didn’t, at least not by themselves. There’s actually an entire shadow economy of ghost writers who do the bulk of the work on these books – not just for celebrities, but all kinds of public figures ranging from big-name CEOs to politicians. But how does one go about hiring a ghost writer? And what’s it like to work with...2024-05-1043 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Ben McCarthy built a Salesforce-focused media company with 400,000 monthly readersMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ Ben McCarthy didn’t set out to create a media company focused on Salesforce, he just began blogging about his use of the product as a way to document the various use cases he encountered. As it turned out, there were thousands of other people who were encountering those same use cases, and via Google searches they began landing on Ben’s blog posts. Fast forward 10 years, and he now runs a 20-person media company that generates over 1 million pageviews per month and is the most au...2024-04-2542 min
The AI UpgradeEp. 8 – The Business of Content: Journalist and Podcaster Simon OwensSimon Owens started his career as a newspaper reporter, but today he covers the media himself through this popular Substack and as the host of his podcast The Business of Content. Simon has successfully built an audience for his independent work by honing in on a concept known as parasocial relationships – the personal connection between a creator and their audience. Simon talked with host Peter Bittner about how generative AI is changing the way both publishers and content creators can develop these relationships.Show Notes:(1:35) The parasocial relationship(4:55) AI: To hype or not to...2024-04-2329 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Joe Pulizzi built and sold The Tilt, a newsletter and conference business geared toward creatorsGet $100 your CEX tickets by entering the discount code OWENS100 My newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ When Joe Pulizzi launched The Tilt in 2021, he already had a pretty good idea of how to build a successful media company. Back in 2017, he had sold his previous media startup, The Content Marketing Institute, to one of the world’s largest event conglomerates. Joe ran The Tilt with a very similar playbook – first starting with a weekly newsletter, and then expanding into an in-person conference called The Content Entrepreneur Expo, or CEX...2024-04-1845 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Brad Hargreaves built Thesis Driven, a newsletter and data product focused on real estateMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ When it comes to knowing all the intricacies of real estate investment, few are more knowledgeable than Brad Hargreaves. In 2015 he founded Common, a company that manages rental properties and consults with real estate investors on building design. And then in 2022 Brad decided to begin sharing his knowledge through a paid newsletter called Thesis Driven. Within a matter of months, it was generating six figures in revenue, and he decided to step down from his role at Common so he could focus on building out a d...2024-04-0556 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Andreas Sator built one of the most popular podcasts in AustriaMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ I spend most of my time on this show interviewing entrepreneurs who founded English-language media outlets – mostly because that’s the only language I speak – but that doesn’t mean I’m not interested in the media ecosystems from other regions in the world. That’s why I was super excited to talk to Andreas Sator, the host of one of the most popular podcasts in Austria. Andreas got his start at a major newspaper, and after a few years at the outlet, he got to experiment...2024-03-2744 min
Behind The Frames Podcast#19 Simon Owens - Build Your One-Man Media EmpireSimon Owens is the founder of the Simon Owen’s Media Newsletter, a media platform that educates media and brand executives about the media industry. Simon Owens has worked as a corporate and freelance journalist for over a decade until 2020 when he decided to switch his focus to build his newsletter full-time.
In my conversation with Simon, he shares the evolution of newsletter platforms, how he approaches writing his newsletter issues and the range of business models happening in the publication industry.
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Simon Owen’s Media Newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/
Simon’s Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@nomiss...2024-03-2640 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow to grow your audience in a post-Facebook worldMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ Earlier this month, I sent a newsletter to my audience with the subject line: “Ask me a question.” Basically I told everyone to jump into the comments section of the post and ask me any questions they have about the media industry or creator economy. Several of you did pipe in with some amazing questions. I then invited on Alexis Grant, the founder of They Got Acquired, to help me answer them. We answered questions on a range of topics like: ...2024-03-211h 02The Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Tom Arbuthnot built Empowering Cloud, a media comapany focused on Microsoft cloud productsMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ The rise of cloud computing introduced all sorts of benefits for the enterprise software space. Not only could license holders access their accounts from virtually anywhere, but it also allowed the software companies to issue updates on a more regular basis. But this also made the sector a lot more complicated and created a need for more experts who could educate cloud software customers about the intricacies of the tools. Tom Arbuthnot is one of those experts. For over a decade, he’s been a Micro...2024-03-1435 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow CJ Gustafson built Mostly Metrics, a newsletter for CFOsMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ I think everyone likes to think of themselves as being financially savvy, especially if, like me, you write about business topics, but how many of us truly understand finance terms that are bandied about like gross profit and lifetime value. Like we may know that the term EBITDA stands for “earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization,” but how many people actually know how to calculate it? CJ Gustafson knows. After a decade in finance, he’s mastered all the accounting jargon, and a few years ag...2024-03-0742 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Sam Koslowski helped build The Daily Aus, a social first media outlet in AustraliaMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ For most of Instagram’s existence, it wasn’t thought of as a platform for distributing news, but a growing number of media entrepreneurs have figured out ways to leverage its photo and video features to deliver engaging news digests. One of those entrepreneurs is Sam Koslowski. Back in 2017, he and his co-founder launched The Daily Aus, a social first news outlet that’s grown its Instagram account to over 500,000 followers. As it ramped up its audience on the app, it began to diversify its content...2024-02-2943 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensThe state of newsletter advertising in 2024Subscribe to my newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ Ask about just any media executive, and they’ll tell you that the year 2023 was not a good one for the advertising business. A combination of high interest rates and an uncertain economy made companies extremely skittish, and that caused them to pull back on their marketing spend. There’s some recent signs that advertising spending is picking up in 2024, but it’s still too early to know how it will shake out. But what about newsletter advertising? It’s seen some...2024-02-2139 min
First Time GoBridge StuartA FANTASTIC RELATIONSHIP is now available for streaming on Amazon Prime. Go watch it! And come back and listen to this episode from 2024. Step 1. Listen to this episode.Step 2. Buy passes to the Sedona International Film Festival (https://sedonafilmfestival.com/)Step 3. Buy plane tickets, train tickets...BUS tickets?! to Sedona.Step 4. Watch A FANTASTIC RELATIONSHIP on February 25th, the film's world premiere.I'm joined today by the film's director, writer, actor, comedian, former YouTube star, man of infamy, not obscurity, relative or otherwise, Bridge Stuart.In this...2024-02-2037 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Riad Chikhani built GAMURS Group, one of the largest gaming media companies in the worldMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ By the time Riad Chikhani was 16 years old, he had already built a hugely successful online community for gamers and then sold it for a healthy sum. Two years later, he founded the company that would eventually become GAMURS Group, and while it took far longer to gain traction, it eventually grew into one of the largesting gaming media companies in the world, with outlets that include Dot Esports, Gamepur, and Gamer Journalist. In my interview with Riad, we talked about his early business pivots, wh...2024-02-1657 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow to monetize newsletters on LinkedInEarlier this month, I sent a newsletter to my audience with the subject line: “Ask me a question.” Basically I told everyone to jump in the comments section of the post and ask me any questions they have about the media industry or creator economy. Several of you did pipe in with some amazing questions. I then invited on Alexis Grant, the founder of They Got Acquired, to help me answer them. We answered questions on a range of topics like How to monetize newsletters on LinkedIn 2024-02-131h 00The Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Jack Kramer and Nick Martell sold their media company to Robinhood and then bought it backMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ When Jack Karmer and Nick Martell launched their daily newsletter Market Snacks in 2011, they kept their names off the publication so that it wouldn’t jeopardize their finance day jobs. But once the newsletter started to attract readers and sponsorship revenue, they decided to come clean. Luckily, their bosses let them continue on with their side hustle. Flash forward about a half decade, and Market Snacks had gained enough traction that they both decided to go to business school so they could learn to scale the...2024-02-0854 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Cityside built a sustainable model for local newsMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ It’s no secret that local journalism has struggled since the Great Recessions, with hundreds of newspapers shuttering and thousands of reporters losing their jobs. Over the past few years, entrepreneurs have launched dozens of local news startups to help fill in the gap, but there’s still an ongoing debate as to whether local news should be a for-profit or nonprofit industry. Berkeleyside is one of the few organizations that has tried both models. For the first several years of its existence, it was a for...2024-02-0257 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Lucas Grindley helped Next City grow to 1,000 paying membersSubscribe to my newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ Lucas Grindley knows something about building sustainable revenue streams for media companies. When he was hired to Here Media, a network of LGBT news outlets, it was losing money, but over a period of six years he nurtured it back to profitability. Now he’s the executive director of Next City, a 20-year-old nonprofit magazine dedicated to urban policy and equitable cities. When he first joined, the publication was almost entirely reliant on large grants, but he’s since diversified its revenue by buildin...2024-01-2445 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensWill Spotify's audiobook streaming be good for authors?Sign up for my newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ It’s been nearly five years since Spotify announced it would diversify its audio offerings beyond music streaming, and while it spent most of that time building its podcast capabilities, it made no secret that it eventually wanted to get into audiobooks. Then in 2022 it made its first move into the industry by acquiring an audiobooks distributor called Findaway. Later that year, it launched the ability to purchase audiobooks through spotify. And then finally in late 2023 it rolled out audiobook streaming as part...2024-01-1931 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Gabe Fleisher built Wake Up To Politics, a daily newsletter with over 50,000 subscribersSubscribe to my newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ There are plenty of popular politics newsletters out there, but none with the kind of unique origin story of Wake Up to Politics. It was started by Gabe Fleisher when he was only 9 years old. While the early editions were sent out by a Gmail account and only read by his mom, Gabe kept at it, waking up early every day before school to write the newsletter. Flash forward about a decade, and he’s now a senior at Georgetown and Wake Up to Politics has close to...2024-01-1844 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensThe biggest difference between the Creator Economy and traditional mediaSubscribe to my newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ Earlier this month, I sent a newsletter to my audience with the subject line: “Ask me a question.” Basically I told everyone to jump in the comments section of the post and ask me any questions they have about the media industry or creator economy. Several of you did pipe in with questions, and so I spent a few hours jotting down notes and then recording this episode you’re about to consume. I answered questions on a range of topics...2024-01-1242 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensSimon answers your questionsSubscribe to my newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/2023-05-311h 00The Business of Content with Simon OwensHow to launch a successful events businessMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/welcome As the media industry focuses on revenue diversification, more and more publishers are venturing into live events — both virtual and in-person. Not only can they be monetized in multiple ways, but a well-planned event can provide a great venue to forge a deeper connection with your most engaged audience. But events are tricky to pull off and can be intimidating for those who haven’t hosted one before. For this episode, I pulled together a panel of people who run some of the most succes...2023-02-081h 11The Business of Content with Simon OwensHow to build a successful B2B media companyB2B used to be the least sexy space in media, but in the last decade we’ve seen a new crop of B2B media companies that are proving to be far more innovative than their B2C peers. Recently, I convened a panel of experts to talk about all the various aspects of B2B media — including running events, launching paid subscriptions, finding sponsors, and building out niche editorial products. What you’re about to listen to is a recording of a live Zoom call I had with my newsletter’s paid subscribers. I host th...2023-01-061h 22The Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Matt Brown built a thriving newsletter around the business of college sportsVisit https://memberful.com/simonowens Matt Brown didn’t set off to build his own solo newsletter business, but he fell into it after taking a buyout at Vox Media sports site SB Nation during the height of the pandemic – a period when very few media companies were hiring. While his SB Nation beat covered all of college sports, Matt decided to niche down with his own newsletter – which was called Extra Points – to focus specifically on the business side of college athletics. This gave him the edge he needed to find a loyal aud...2022-11-3053 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Roca News grew to 1.1 million Instagram subscribersVisit Memberful: http://memberful.com/simonowens When the media outlet Roca News launched in the year 2020, it started creating just about every kind of content you can imagine. There was a newsletter, a podcast, and accounts on every single social media platform. But this everything-but-the-kitchen sink approach didn’t seem to work, so the founders decided to focus mostly on a single platform: Instagram. Over the next two years, they leveraged Instagram’s visual storytelling features to deliver a digestible form of news to its young followers. This singular focus allowed it to...2022-10-2647 min
Oh Fork ItUn Mordor Más ComercialEpisodio 189. Alguien, vamos a llamarlo X, como todo buen político corrupto, jode a todos sin discriminar. Llegó otra persona, vamos a llamarlo Y, un arquerito con buena puntería y montó un Onlyfans de pies… Buena política Targaryen. ¡¿Qué coño voy a hacer yo con 14 CDs?!
✅ Follow Up
Homebridge FTW!
El desenlace de la novela de Jorge con su iPhone 14 Pro
El otro caso no cerrado de Jaime
🔗 Links
https://www.anthonybourdainworldmap.com/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6XYvaoDGE0VmRt83Jss9Sn?si=HnWG3g2aSt6CtgZhFV1Elw
https://simonowens.substack.com/p/is-spotifys-podcast-exclusivity-strategy (dejar de ultimo, Segway)
🎭 Mini To...2022-10-192h 04The Business of Content with Simon OwensUncovered is building the largest community for true crime enthusiastsMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ You’ve probably noticed that true crime is having a bit of a moment right now. Podcasts dedicated to the genre dominate the charts, and every week there’s a new hit series on one of the major TV streaming services. Jim Brown approached true crime from a different direction. Rather than launching a show, he used his tech and product skills to build a database of cold cases. Think of it as a kind of Wikipedia for unsolved crimes. He then create...2022-10-1943 min
ELI5 Explain Like I'm 5: Bite sized answers to stuff you should know about - in a mini podcastELI5 Jupiter - can you land on a gas planet?What do they mean when they say Jupiter is a "gas" planet? Could a rocket be shot through it? Can a space ship land on it? If Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is a storm, why has it been there for so long? Why was the Juno mission one of NASA’s most difficult? ... we explain like I'm five Thank you to the r/explainlikeimfive community and in particular the following users whose questions and comments formed the basis of this discussion: simonowens, billandteds69 and spriddler To the ELI5 community that has supported us s...2022-09-1607 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Libsyn plans to challenge Spotify for podcast dominanceVisit Memberful: https://memberful.com/simonowens The podcast industry is around 17 years old, and Libsyn was among the first companies launched to service that industry. For most of that time, it focused on paid podcast hosting, but in recent years it’s acquired companies that specialize in podcast advertising and subscriptions. Libsyn needs that more diverse product offering if it wants to compete with rising podcast behemoths like Spotify and SiriusXM. I recently sat down with Dave Hanley, who helps run its advertising operations. He told me the story behind Libsyn’s acquis...2022-09-1442 min
Techmeme Ride Home(TWTR SPC) Whither The Creator Economy?Talking the state of Snap, Substack, and the creator economy generally, with @kyurieff, @simonowens and others!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.2022-09-031h 37The Business of Content with Simon OwensHow publishers can drive more subscription revenueGet a 10% discount on a subscription: https://simonowens.substack.com/a30836c1 It’s incredibly difficult to convert your audience from free readers/viewers/listeners into paying subscribers. In this meeting, we’re going to discuss all of the optimization strategies that increase conversion and reduce churn.2022-08-2852 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensWhy Brandi Kruse left her lucrative TV news career to launch her own podcastVisit Memberful: https://memberful.com/simonowens In terms of career advancement, Brandi Kruse was at the top of her game. As a TV news correspondent in the large media market of Seattle, she was paid more than most of her industry peers, and she even hosted her own longform weekly talk show. But in late 2021, she quit her job and immediately launched her own podcast called Undivided. Within weeks of the launch, she amassed over 2,000 paying subscribers on Patreon, and she now delivers her commentary and interviews to over 200,000 followers across Facebook, Twitter, an...2022-08-1739 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow Stacker created a newswire for data journalismVisit Memberful: http://memberful.com/simonowens Over the past decade, several major media companies have invested in building out their data journalism operations. ABC News has FiveThirtyEight, The New York Times has The Upshot. And Vox Media runs Vox.com. These outlets have leveraged publicly available data to explain complicated stories, and the infographics they create are easily shareable on social media. But most media outlets don’t have the resources to hire an expensive data team, especially if they operate at the local level. ...2022-08-0349 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensInside Morning Brew's video strategyVisit SparkLoop: https://sparkloop.app/partner-network?utm_campaign=simonowens If you’re aware of Morning Brew, it’s probably because of its daily business newsletter. Since its founding in 2015 by two college students, it’s grown to over 4 million subscribers, and its news digest format has been copied by dozens of other media startups. But since getting acquired in 2020 by Business Insider, Morning Brew has expanded into new niches in verticals. Not only has it launched several B2B industry newsletters, but it also invested heavily in podcast and video production. 2022-07-2042 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensDo people want longform Twitter content?Visit SparkLoop: https://sparkloop.app/?utm_campaign=simonowens If there’s one thing Twitter’s known for, it’s character limits. It famously only allowed 140 of them and then later expanded to 280. In some ways, that forced brevity made Twitter what it is today: a real-time commentary on what’s going on in the world. But for years, Twitter has been trying to expand beyond its own character limits, first by launching features like photos, gifs, and videos. It launched a threading tool that allows you to string several tweets together. In 2021, it acquired newsletter platform...2022-06-3054 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensYes, I'm still hereMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/2021-07-1513 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensLessons from my first year of running a paid newsletterhttps://simonowens.substack.com/ I just passed my one-year anniversary of launching my paid newsletter, so I decided to dive into some of the biggest lessons I learned during that time.2021-03-0914 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow much this podcast grew in 2020Subscribe to my newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/2021-01-0706 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensLessons learned from running a paid newsletterMy newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ So the format to this podcast is pretty straightforward and consistent. I bring on a media entrepreneur or executive and interview them about their craft. But I’m also sort of a media entrepreneur myself, in that six months ago I launched a paid Substack newsletter that I hope to grow into a full-time job. Growth has been slow but steady, and over the six-month period I’ve experimented with a number of strategies to boost signups. Some worked, others didn’t. I’ve still got a ways to...2020-09-2417 minThe Business of Content with Simon OwensHow I plan to monetize this podcastWhere you can subscribe to my newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/p/discount So this is the 68th episode of my podcast, and if you’ve been listening to it for any amount of time, you’d know that it never has ads. And while I don’t have anything against podcasts that have advertising, I don’t envision a future for this podcast where I’m reading promos for Squarespace of Mailchimp. But at the same time, I’d like for this podcast to contribute to my income, mostly so I can justify spending more time on...2020-02-1945 min
Techmeme Ride HomeWednesday, May 30, 2018 - Mary Meeker's Internet ReportThe Code Conference brings us Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends Report and juicy quotes from Evan Spiegel, web publishers find life after Facebook, a new gaming laptop from HP, and how ambulance chasing lawyers can target ads to people in the hospital. Tweets: @simonowens, @agolis Links:Snapchat preps Snapkit platform to bring camera, login to other apps (TechCrunch)Mobile Direct Traffic Eclipses Facebook (Chartbeat)Mary Meeker’s 2018 internet trends report: All the slides, plus analysis (Recode)Digital Ambulance Chasers? Law Firms Send Ads To Patients' Phones Inside ERs (NPR)Glenn's Kickstarter2018-05-3019 min
Hollywood 2.0Simon Owens, content and social media marketing consultant.We discuss how tech companies are getting into the high stakes world of original content.
Links
www.simonowens.net
Music from Le Feline
https://soundcloud.com/la-f-line2015-11-1000 min