Audience-first publishing

Subscriptions or advertising. The pivot to paid is overall a healthy trend for many publishers, but subscriptions aren’t a savior. Ads still have a role, sometimes as the main plank of media business models. The success of Axios, Morning Brew and Dotdash prove that. And ads can work with subscriptions -- look at the success Bloomberg is having in t... See more

Substack isn’t the only player that has sought to figure out small-scale publishing in the platform dominance era. Medium, for instance, has been home to a rotating roster of small publications, but has pivoted often and failed to emerge as the media force many once hoped it would be. Best said Substack’s main focus is the connection between an ind... See more

The pivot to paid is, in most ways, a positive development in the search for sustainable media models. That’s not to say ad-dependent media is dead, not by a long shot. But too often in the excitement around subs the attention goes to acquisition vs retention. And the latter is where the true health of a subscriptions business is gauged.