Building a Paid Publication and the Power of Subscriptions

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This chapter explores the speaker's experience in building a paid publication, the decision to focus on subscriptions instead of advertising, and the challenges of implementing sponsored posts. It also discusses the innovation of subscriptions at scale, the importance of tools like Stripe, and the role of social media in marketing. The chapter ends with a criticism of Substack for lacking visual distinctiveness and causing reader confusion.

Ben Thompson joins Acquired to discuss the business of Stratechery itself and celebrate 10 years (!) of the internet’s best strategy analysis destination. Even beyond Stratechery’s enormous impact itself on business and tech over the years, Ben’s work inspired a whole generation of business content creators — this show very much included — and it was super special for us to give the Acquired treatment to one of our own heroes. We cover the full history of Ben pioneering the subscription internet media business model (indeed SubStack’s seed round pitch was “Stratechery-in-a-box”), and how + why he’s evolved the business since and is now doubling down both on podcasting and a broader vision of the Stratechery Plus bundle… including for the first time content not made by Ben himself! Tune in and enjoy.

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