In partnership with: Outpost for reader-funded publishers
I’ve written over 100 issues of this newsletter.
Today, I’m not writing a new one. What I have for you is a curated list of some of the best issues I’ve produced in the last year and a half. Not to pat myself on the back too much, but if you really did read all 100+ issues of Journalists Pay Themselves, you would have no more questions about how to build and keep a paying media audience.
Of course, I know you’re not gonna do that so I picked a few greatest hits for you. You probably even missed a bunch of these because they were before your time here.
Scroll down to the category that best matches your mindset right now and choose one to read. Then, send me a note and tell me what you’re gonna do next.
—Lex
If you’re just getting started
Way too many entrepreneurs spend so much time obsessing over their logo or their first issue or their social media presence and then they launch to…crickets. Your main focus should be on ensuring that your revenue plan will work, because if it doesn’t, you don’t have a business.
The two issues below cover some of the fastest paths to revenue and exactly how to take them.
This newsletter is produced in partnership with Outpost 🪐
We've never been more tech dependent. But isn't it scary that so much of tech is owned by a few mega corps and their VCs?
That's why I partnered with Outpost this year.
Outpost is a membership tool for Ghost publications. And they create marketing automations publishers actually ask for because they ONLY ANSWER to their audience. Pretty damn rare these days.
Try Outpost today for free on your Ghost blog today!
If you’re in growth mode
I covered several publishers in this past year—namely Escape Collective, RANGE and The Charlotte Ledger—who talked about the importance of expansion revenue and churn reduction.
Expansion revenue is when an existing subscriber pays more than their set rate, maybe through contributing to a reader raise or buying an event ticket. You might think you need NEW people to grow revenue, but it’s very often your existing supporters who will step up.
Reducing churn is about keeping subscribers renewing OR winning them back quickly. We had a whole series on churn earlier this year but the best thing to read is the case study I did on how Escape Collective knocks it down.
In partnership with Sunsama ☀️
I've always been a productivity nerd, but I could never find a planner I’d stick with until I found Sunsama.
Sunsama is a daily planner for anyone who wants better work-life balance, for anyone with ADHD or for anyone who is overwhelmed at the beginning of every day. It helps you be smarter about where you put every hour and it helps you stay focused on each task.
Try Sunsama for 30 days free and see for yourself how it improves your day.
If you don’t want to paywall anything
You’re not alone. No one wants to paywall stuff.
I’m a huge fan of paywalls because they are a massive help to small publishers, you can drop them any time and you can choose what should be always free. I asked other publishers how they paywall and their answers might just make you rethink this boundary.
If you just want a good read
These two issues got a ton of replies!
The playbook of reader-funded journalism is now clear
Last year, I wanted to know how long it would take me to crack the playbook of reader-funded writers. The answer was about a year. There’s no big mystery here. Just A LOT of promotion, systems and packaging. And the willpower to keep going.
What becomes hard is how you start to get in your own way. You start doubting yourself. You question your decisions. You wonder if everyone has it easier than you. You wish it was all going so much faster. The mind games of being an entrepreneur are real and they will block your success if you don’t get them under control early.
I haven’t written about any solutions to that, but one of them is to become a member of a community where you can commiserate with other tortured media entrepreneurs. We run one such community and you can join us. We’d love it if you did.
