Making the Shift from Staffer to Media Entrepreneur Plus, Virtual Events as Audience Development

April 21, 2021

As someone who built my own media business - a digital media consultancy - I know how difficult it is to go solo. But a lot of journalists and creators are doing this with platforms like Substack. Digiday has a series on how they are doing it. One thing leaps out from the profile of Heated founder Emily Atkin, it takes business sense not just a desire to call the shots.

The big story yesterday was, of course, Apple's new premium podcast offering. Will that be a boon to audio creators or is the revenue cut too deep to make it attractive for all but the biggest podcast stars?

How to Shift from Staff Writer to Solopreneur

This episode part of a series on independent content creators that includes interviews with YouTubers, TikTokers and Substackers.

"A year and a half later, Heated has more than 40,000 free subscribers and boasts a conversion rate of free to paid subscribers between 8-12%, which Atkin said is the metric she obsesses over to indicate her path to success. With that proof point, she said she is ready to add to her team to deliver more value to the paid subscribers, who represent Heated’s sole source of revenue. "

Virtual Events Build New Audiences for WSJ

This week, we hear from The Wall Street Journal’s Editor of Live Journalism and Special Content Kim Last. She talks about the role of live journalism at the publication, how they adapted when the pandemic hit, and what they are doing to bring events and networking to life virtually as their Future of Everything Festival …

"We think of our sessions and our events as almost like a live magazine, if you will, or a live edition of the Journal print paper."

US Network News Suffering Revenue Decline

Recent executive shakeups underscore the financial challenges of some of the country's biggest TV news operations, which are still working out how to transition to streaming.

Apple's Premium Podcast Play

Apple Podcasts will allow people to subscribe in-app for ad-free, early access, and bonus content.

Consumers Empowered in Post-Cookie World

In 2021, advertisers and publishers face a significant challenge: the deprecation of third-party cookies and other universal identifiers.

"The “cookie-free” world aims to serve the needs and wants of consumers first and foremost. Consumers will set the terms for digital advertising. This marks a fundamental change from what we’ve been used to."

Globally, Big Tech Faces New Regulation

Never before have so many countries, including China, moved with such vigor at the same time to limit the power of a single industry.

Local Now , the free ad-supported streamer, has kicked off on most major platforms. Local Now aggregates and streams local news, weather, sports, traffic and entertainment in real time. Offering 300+ free-streaming …

Eye Witness Video and George Floyd's Killing

“The world needed to see what I was seeing,” she said later. We did, Darnella. Thank you.