The Business of Content

Given the rise of paid newsletters, we’ve seen a number of new platforms spring up to service this type of publisher. One of those platforms is Revue, a newsletter distribution platform that was designed with content publishers in mind. I interviewed its founder Martijn de Kuijper about the platform’s offerings and the best way for publishers to convert casual newsletter readers into paying subscribers.

With individual users wielding that much power, it shouldn’t be surprising that some have succumbed to illicit backroom deals in which artists pay the playlist owners to include their songs, a practice that’s been illegal since the payola scandals in the 1950s that led to a Congressional investigation into radio DJs.

SYLO is a tech platform that can scan social media accounts and detect fraudulent activity. I interviewed Schwab about the state of social media influencer fraud and how his platform is able to tell when an Instagram account is propped up by an army of bots.

I recently sat down with Judd Legum, Think Progress’s founding editor, and asked him about how the site operates, why it decided to leave the Medium platform, and how it managed to generate $500,000 from its readers after Trump was elected.

Tune in while we reminisce about a bygone era when we didn’t live or die by the Facebook algorithm and the internet was a Wild West composed of various ideological fiefdoms.

Podcasting has led to a resurgence in audio fiction, and a whole new generation of fans are tuning in to new episodes, attending live events, and ordering merchandise online. Why are we seeing this resurgence in what was thought to be a bygone medium? To answer this, I interviewed Alasdair Stuart, the owner of Escape Artists Inc, which produces a number of popular fiction podcasts in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres.

Add Castbox to the list of podcast apps that are producing their own shows. An app with 15 million downloads, Castbox has recently launched “Off Track with Hinch and Rossi,” a show about auto racing, and it has several other podcasts in development.

Several years ago, a record label owner named Ian Wheeler launched a publication called Talkhouse, and it’s essentially The Players’ Tribune, but for artists instead of athletes I recently interviewed Wheeler about Talkhouse and whether famous Hollywood and music artists actually need their own media outlet.

How does Apple rank its podcasts? And what’s the best way to make it onto one of its lists? To answer this question, I interviewed Dan Misener, the head of audience development at a company called Pacific Content, which specializes in helping brands develop their own podcasts.

Ernie Smith has run both a Tumblr with 160,000 followers and an independent newsletter with 10,000+ subscribers. We talk about how he built his audience.

How the publisher uses podcasts to promote its books and diversify revenue

Is Twitter's recent profitability a sign of a company turnaround? Or just a temporary blip at an otherwise struggling company? I recently discussed these questions with Jonathan Rick, a digital media consultant based in Washington, DC.

Mike Shapiro was working as a lawyer when, in a bid to spend more time with his kids, he launched a news site for his New Jersey town. That site soon spawned two new sites, and then blossomed from there. The TAPInto network now boasts dozens of sites all across New Jersey.

What’s a company to do if it wants to edit its Wikipedia page without running afoul of Wikipedia’s rules? You’ll want to call a guy like Bill Beutler. Beutler, founder of a company called Beutler Ink, has been conducting Wikipedia consulting for almost a decade and led a coalition of PR firms in developing a code of ethics for Wikipedia editing. I spoke to Bill about how he fell into his line of work and how he navigates Wikipedia’s regulations on behalf of clients.

Ernesto Gluecksmann is the co-founder of Human Factor Media, a podcast consulting company that works with associations to launch and produce podcasts. I recently interviewed Ernesto about how he launched the company and what makes for a successful branded podcast.