Enthusiastic Audience Ensures Magazine Survival

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Enthusiastic audiences who deeply care about the content of decade-old magazines contribute to their survival, even in the face of challenges like wars, pandemics, and economic depressions. These magazines have thrived because their audiences value the content enough to subscribe. The enduring presence of these magazines in the age of the internet and beyond indicates their longevity. The strategy involves investing in content that resonates with the audience, introducing additional products or services, and enhancing advertising and pricing strategies to sustain the business. The model separates the media and commerce operations to ensure efficient performance in each area, with a focus on continuous improvement to outperform previous owners.

Episode 596: Sam Parr ( https://twitter.com/theSamParr ) talks to Craig Fuller ( https://x.com/FreightAlley ) about how he turned dying hobby magazines into a cash flow machine.

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Show Notes:

(0:00) Intro

(2:45) Economics of long-haul trucking

(3:36) Getting fired from the family business

(5:30) Fuel cards for truck drivers

(6:40) How FreightWaves hit $20M ARR in 2 years

(9:08) Acquiring FLYING for $3.5M

(12:14) Opportunity: Depressed media properties

(16:02) From losing $8 per subscriber to profitability in 1 year

(20:31) A media side hustle becomes a real estate main hustle

(22:55) Craig's tolerance for being leveraged

(25:32) Pre-selling $28M units pre-construction

(28:51) Diversity, Asymmetrical risk, and generational security

(31:11) Teams to diversify your time

(34:21) Building a portfolio of hobby magazines

(37:20) Content to commerce playbook

(47:03) The story of William Randolph Hearst

(51:32) What's the chase?

(53:15) "The best thing to give a founder is an enemy"

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Links:

• FreightWaves - https://www.freightwaves.com/

• Knight-Swift - https://knight-swift.com/

• Firecrown - https://firecrown.com/

• The Chief - https://tinyurl.com/36khrt8y

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Check Out Sam's Stuff:

• Hampton - https://www.joinhampton.com/

• Ideation Bootcamp - https://www.ideationbootcamp.co/

• Copy That - https://copythat.com

• Hampton Wealth Survey - https://joinhampton.com/wealth

• Sam’s List - http://samslist.co/

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Check Out Shaan's Stuff:

Need to hire? You should use the same service Shaan uses to hire developers, designers, & Virtual Assistants → it’s called Shepherd (tell ‘em Shaan sent you): https://bit.ly/SupportShepherd

My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano