Is There a Playbook for Getting Into Subscriptions?

For this week's Making Media, we sit down with longtime journalist and media observer, Simon Owens. Simon started in newspapers, he’s worked with large brands like US News and World Report, PBS, the Atlantic, New York Magazine, ESPN, and now he writes independently on Substack. All of his perspectives are rooted from actual experience. He's a true practitioner in the industry he covers, which we love. This conversation covers a range of media topics, so please enjoy and stay tuned for our debrief to conclude this show.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here. 

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Show Notes

(00:02:20) - (First question) - Simons’ history in media and what he thinks is happening right now with new companies compared to previously successful ones (00:05:20) - A case study for the archetypical 2023 media company 

(00:07:28) - A swing back towards advertising in media companies 

(00:08:59) - Thoughts on Substack and Puck and which model will emerge as the standard

(00:10:49) - What pulled him in the most to make the switch over to Substack 

(00:13:52) - Whether or not he’d stay on Substack if they changed their take rate 

(00:15:22) - Best practices for implementing subscription models

(00:20:34) - Lessons to take away from The Athletic experiment 

(00:22:58) - Whether or not there’s truth to the claim that investigative deep dive journalism is dying out

(00:24:51) - The narrative that every company wants to become a media company 

(00:26:59) - Ways where becoming a media company has worked well like Hubspot 

(00:28:23) - The push and pull between a company and their media arm 

(00:30:04) - Whether or not there will be dedicated mediums for multimedia brands 

(00:32:21) - Thoughts on YouTube shorts winning the short form video wars

(00:33:56) - How important events are for media companies and why they do them

(00:35:24) - Overall audience size and the shift in monetizing with advertising 

(00:39:09) - Different data points that can be collected from various platforms and the role they play in informing delivery writ large 

(00:40:39) - Whether or not the shift back towards email lists is here to stay or cyclical 

(00:43:14) - Cultivating community and where he stands on community building in media 

(00:45:19) - What creators and companies can do to build up their defensibility

(00:46:23) - Axios’ ten thousand dollar subscription product 

(00:49:17) - The one media business that’s likely to have a stronghold on the industry in ten years from now 

(00:51:35) - De-brief