#101 — Using data for effective subscription marketing
Welcome, Sunday subscribers and thanks for joining to all of our newcomers this past week.
Here’s this weeks roundup of stories about independent publishing, business models and technology.
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💯 Top picks
How The Atlantic uses data for more effective subscription marketing
“Sam Rosen, The Atlantic’s SVP of Growth described the data-driven evolution of their subscription strategy in a FIPP webinar.”
💸 Business models
'We need you to fill the gap': Publishers are making a hard sell for subscriptions
“News publishers aren’t mincing words in their messages to push subscriptions, directly appealing to readers to support journalism and even make up for lost advertising revenue.”
Following layoffs, theSkimm are launching a new digital membership model
“TheSkimm is planning to launch a full-fledged digital membership model later this summer called "Teal Memb’rship,” Axios has learned.“
How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1,000 users
Newsletter author Lenny Rachitsky has done the research so you don’t have to. Find out how Tinder, Uber, TikTok Product Hunt and more acquired their first 1,000 users. There’s some fascinating takeaways in here that are just as applicable to publishers launching membership businesses as to tech companies launching apps.
What publishers should consider when looking into affiliate marketing
This article explores how publishers can optimise affiliate marketing efforts, increase profit from that revenue stream and whether this model is scalable or not.
✍️ Modern journalism
Ben Thompson challenges regulator assumptions about big tech and its impact on the news industry
“I am a big believer in the importance of journalism — I rely on it for every post I write, for one — and am very concerned with figuring out a business model that is sustainable. Moreover, tech, particularly now, needs the accountability that comes from an independent media.”
The top 15 publishing and media podcasts
WNIP curated a list of the best publishing and media podcasts covering platforms, social media, journalism and technology. There’s a few in here that we’re going to add to our resources page.
Here’s (exactly) how we organized one of the largest virtual U.S. journalism events to date
Find out how the Center for Cooperative Media hosted their Collaborative Journalism Summit virtually instead of in-person. They pulled this off at short notice and managed to increase the number of registrations by an impressive amount.
👩💻 Technology
By securing Joe Rogan’s insanely popular show, Spotify gets closer to complete domination of the podcast space
“The terms for the Spotify licensing deal were not disclosed, but I imagine a crap-ton of money was involved in this arrangement.”
Notion just removed the biggest limit on its free plan
If you’re looking for a new note taking app to organise your life, Notion just removed the limits on their free plan, which means you can create as many notes, blocks, calendars and databases as you like, and invite up to 5 collaborators. The Ghost team have used all kinds of tools for planning and note-taking over the years, and we’re happily back to using Notion to organise our work.
🤷 WTF?
Nearly 50% of the accounts tweeting about coronavirus are likely bots
“Researchers culled through more than 200 million tweets discussing the virus since January and found that about 45% were sent by accounts that behave more like computerised robots than humans.”
