Niches of the rich and powerful: How laser-focused publishers are cashing in by @bmorrissey PLUS Publishers top priorities according to @digiday

September 23, 2022

Campaigning journalists can often look down their noses at niche publishers, but many of these businesses have proven quite lucrative. Brian Morrissey's overview of these publishers, including some of their impressive exits and funding rounds, shows how much interest there is in them from audiences but also investors.

Digiday has a good overview of the priorities of US publishers that attended its recent conference in Florida, and we've got a look at the how to "curate product kits".

I don't do this often, but I've also resurfaced a piece about Gannett's struggles from yesterday because not only did they talk about cutting jobs, but they also are looking to sell more of their properties. That interests me as a former employee (who fortunately sold his stock before it tanked). When I was there, I thought that instead of a local-to-national strategy that they should pursue a more sustainable regional-to-national strategy. They could have a tentpole property in every state - print or digital - and then use that to provide content to the USA Today network.

In social news, The Verge looks at how the major platforms are now being flooded with content from elsewhere, lowering their USPs, and Meta is looking to shed about 10% of its staff by the middle of next year, the WSJ says.

Digiday asked publisher professionals what their business priorities will be in the next six months, as economic uncertainty persists and Q4 rapidly approaches.

In the US, most publishers believe that recession is looming, and their two top areas of focus are direct-sale advertising and subscriptions.

UK news publisher, The Independent, is doubling down on its eCommerce operations via a partnership with checkout specialist Bolt. A significant rationale behind the collaboration is to keep readers within the Independent’s own ecosystem rather than lose them at point-of-sale. UK news publisher, The Independent, has launched a new, integrated shopping service that allows readers …

The UK's Indy is leaning into non-subs revenue streams.

Narrowing focus isn't narrowing ambition

Niche and B2B publishing gets looked down upon by people who do public interest journalism. But Brian Morrissey runs through the numbers including the recent acquisition of Industry Dive and Recurrent's recent $300m equity round. One point that I'm really glad that Brian

Repackaging past work into helpful tools for your audience.

I linked to a Poynter reposting of this yesterday. I'm posting this again today because Gannett is reportedly looking to sell another 60 newspapers after selling 100 already. This is great news for local communities, and I hope that

Earlier this month, Gannett’s Michael Reed had an opportunity to set a new course for the nation’s biggest newspaper company after disappointing financial results in August.

I linked to a Poynter reposting of this yesterday. I'm posting this again today because Gannett is reportedly looking to sell another 60 newspapers after selling 100 already. This is great news for local communities, and I can see some great opportunities for smaller communities to reclaim their local newspapers.

For platforms like TikTok and YouTube, there’s a delicate balance between authentic culture and a scammier kind of network bootlegging.

How video and social media platforms including TikTok, Instagram and YouTube are overwhelmed with duplicative content from other platforms or from professionally produced shows. "Now that on-platform culture is being overwhelmed by viral arbitrage, and the actual content is getting closer to what you see on every other network."

Meta 'Nudging' Staff Out As Part Of Planned 10% Overall Cost Cut: Report - 09/22/2022

Media Post summarised a Wall Street Journal story about how Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta would be asking employees to apply for other positions in the company.