3 ms·

Robert Cottrell of 'The Browser' newsletter gave a really good interview [1] on the North Star podcast about the emergence of newsletters and the future of jour

Robert Cottrell of 'The Browser' newsletter gave a really good interview [1] on the North Star podcast about the emergence of newsletters and the future of journalism. Interestingly, of course it's partly about seeking out writers whose work you value - when of course the Economist does not identify its writers on each piece. Also, The Browser started on Substack but has now moved to Ghost - presumably to lower their costs and get more control - a good example of a major risk to the Substack model. https://perell.com/podcast/robert-cottrell/ https://perell.com/podcast/robert-cottrell/

ghaff 6y ago
There's this yin and yang between organizational brands and individual brands. Not quite the same thing but when blogging was getting big in the mid-2000s a lot of media orgs, analyst firms, etc. jumped on the bandwagon and even invited outside people to participate. But that pretty much all died off over time as the orgs realized they didn't really like the loss of control and it wasn't in their interest to emphasize personal brands anyway.
- klelatti 6y ago
  I'm personally more than a bit sceptical about the whole Substack hype - I think that it will blow over when the novelty wears off. But what has changed I think is that good writers who are good at marketing themselves on social media and have a valuable niche can now make a really good living using this model. However, it's going to be a relatively small number who can do this - although many will try - and it certainly doesn't deal with wider issues around publishing.
  - ghaff 6y ago
    As I wrote on another thread, for an individual, making money on content that's not connected to a company making money on products/services (or at least getting funded to do so) is really tough.There are exceptions of course. But they're the 1%. (To be generous.) And I'm not sold on any of these platforms as personal income streams as complements to people making money elsewhere. Medium looked attractive for this for a time and then it didn't. Personally I write for specific outlets and do the odd thing that doesn't fit on my personal blog. (Mostly it's connected to my day job.)
    - klelatti 6y ago
      Completely agree. As an aside I think someone said about Stratechery that it helps him a lot that you can put it on the company credit card, and I think there is a lot of truth in that!
      - ghaff 6y ago
        That certainly helped WSJ/FT subscriptions early-on and probably helps NYT/Economist to a lesser degree.
- umeshunni 6y ago
  The other part of it is that individuals don't always have enough interesting things to say for it to be worth it from a subscriber's point of view. Hence, over time it becomes either diluted (i.e. the author stretching beyond their areas of expertise) or it becomes a brand with ghostwriters.
  - klelatti 6y ago
    Absolutely. To my mind the most effective newsletters are actually what you might call 'link newsletters' - finding and filtering other's content. In a way my inbox looks more like the lamented Google Reader than a magazine. It's also interesting that Ben Thompson who pioneered the model often stresses how hard he has to work and generate his content - and I fully believe him!

ghaff 6y ago

There's this yin and yang between organizational brands and individual brands. Not quite the same thing but when blogging was getting big in the mid-2000s a lot of media orgs, analyst firms, etc. jumped on the bandwagon and even invited outside people to participate. But that pretty much all died off over time as the orgs realized they didn't really like the loss of control and it wasn't in their interest to emphasize personal brands anyway.

klelatti 6y ago
I'm personally more than a bit sceptical about the whole Substack hype - I think that it will blow over when the novelty wears off. But what has changed I think is that good writers who are good at marketing themselves on social media and have a valuable niche can now make a really good living using this model. However, it's going to be a relatively small number who can do this - although many will try - and it certainly doesn't deal with wider issues around publishing.
- ghaff 6y ago
  As I wrote on another thread, for an individual, making money on content that's not connected to a company making money on products/services (or at least getting funded to do so) is really tough.There are exceptions of course. But they're the 1%. (To be generous.) And I'm not sold on any of these platforms as personal income streams as complements to people making money elsewhere. Medium looked attractive for this for a time and then it didn't. Personally I write for specific outlets and do the odd thing that doesn't fit on my personal blog. (Mostly it's connected to my day job.)
  - klelatti 6y ago
    Completely agree. As an aside I think someone said about Stratechery that it helps him a lot that you can put it on the company credit card, and I think there is a lot of truth in that!
    - ghaff 6y ago
      That certainly helped WSJ/FT subscriptions early-on and probably helps NYT/Economist to a lesser degree.
umeshunni 6y ago
The other part of it is that individuals don't always have enough interesting things to say for it to be worth it from a subscriber's point of view. Hence, over time it becomes either diluted (i.e. the author stretching beyond their areas of expertise) or it becomes a brand with ghostwriters.
- klelatti 6y ago
  Absolutely. To my mind the most effective newsletters are actually what you might call 'link newsletters' - finding and filtering other's content. In a way my inbox looks more like the lamented Google Reader than a magazine. It's also interesting that Ben Thompson who pioneered the model often stresses how hard he has to work and generate his content - and I fully believe him!