Summary: La langue francaise boosted its registered users by 450% using a strategy inspired by The New York Times and Semafor involving e-newsletters and a dynamic paywall. Their experience raises the question whether email might become the dominant form of content delivery for publishers. I was reading an article about how La langue francaise increased…
Summary: Buzzwords are both annoying and necessary, often used to sound knowledgeable without conveying meaning. However, they reflect current trends and ideas. When you can, replace a buzzword with something else. When the buzzword fits, back it with data and examples. Think of buzzwords as symbolic, encapsulating larger meanings. Critique (and limit) their use, but…
Summary: Print publications are embracing their unique sensory appeal, positioning themselves as luxury experiences distinct from digital media. While challenges in quantifying engagement persist, print’s potential to captivate attention stands out. Niche print strategies offer effective outreach by differentiating from overflowing inboxes. A custom print newsletter can be an effective tool to reach key clients….
Summary: A Swedish daily experimented with AI-generated article summaries, showing increased reader engagement. The summaries, generated via an API connected to ChatGPT, led to longer time spent on pages. Human supervision corrected accuracy problems. The strategy aims to attract young readers, sparking debate on prioritizing older, more lucrative demographics. If publishers don’t provide a summary…
Why are bookazines doing so well? And is this a sign of things to come? Bo Sacks recently distributed an article by his old friend and debating partner, “Mr. Magazine,” about new magazine titles on the newsstand. Some people will see that as the equivalent of celebrating new albums on vinyl at the record store….
Summary: Relying solely on analytics without customer feedback can lead to misconceptions. This article outlines situations where data can mislead without contextual understanding, highlighting the importance of validating assumptions with real customer experiences. Are you sure your analytics mean what you think they mean? I saw a post on LinkedIn the other day asking why…
How many kinds of “events” can you come up with? Brian Morrissey mentioned a “pivot to events” in his most recent post, which I link below. There are several interesting things about this. First, you can get very specialized with events. Niches are where it’s at. Second, events are less dependent on platforms. As you…
Yesterday I saw a post on LinkedIn about the success of Barstool Sports, with 5 lessons for B2B marketers. It raised some good points, which I’ll mention in a minute. But before I get to that I want to mention a strange experience I had yesterday. My site runs on WordPress, and some of my…
I like lists because they force the author to distill his thoughts down to a pithy, short, descriptive saying. That’s what I’m going to try to do here, riffing off the article “Publishers: 12 ways to overcome common innovation roadblocks” by Damian Radcliffe, which Bo Sacks distributed recently. Innovation has to solve a problem. It’s…
Summary: This article explores the traits and tactics of untrustworthy salespeople, contrasting an honest experience with a manipulative one. It outlines behavioral “tells” and deceptive email tactics often used by insincere salespeople. In the last few weeks I have had two radically different experiences with people trying to sell me their services to help me…
Brainstorming doesn’t work that well unless you follow the right procedures. The typical “brainstorming” session involves announcing a topic and inviting people to propose their ideas in an allegedly non-judgmental environment. A bunch of people get together in a conference room and say whatever they think. There are several problems with this model. People don’t…
You’ve heard of WordPress, but have you heard of WordCamp? It’s a great opportunity to learn more about WordPress, but also to get some general ideas about content, publishing, e-commerce, software development, and many more things. It’s worth your time even if you don’t use WordPress. I did a talk there a few years ago….
The Washington Post has discovered that personalized onboarding yields good results for subscriptions. Which isn’t a big surprise. The fact that you bought something doesn’t mean you’ll use it. Think of all the idle exercise equipment in basements around the country. It’s one thing to convince somebody to buy. It’s another thing to convince them…
Think for a moment about the trajectory of media consumption. For example, compare what you did yesterday to what you did five, ten, or twenty years ago. Twenty years ago, you might have read a morning newspaper on your way to work, and then you were mostly insulated from news (as you did your job)…
Most website owners worry about engagement, which they should do, because if people aren’t engaged with your site, they won’t do the things that you really want them to do. More on that in a bit, but first, let’s say you wanted to find the most engaged users on your website. How would you do…