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Right here’s a media pattern: Journalists organising their very own newsletters as a substitute of working for giant, established publishers.
Right here’s a media pattern working in the wrong way: Massive, established publishers with sturdy enterprise fashions or massive backers — or each — consolidating their energy by hoovering up expertise.
And right here’s a narrative that may do each: The Atlantic is launching a e-newsletter providing that desires to convey writers underneath the Atlantic’s umbrella (and paywall) whereas letting them keep semi-independent.
The concept, per folks acquainted, is for the journal to unveil a roster of e-newsletter writers — possibly a dozen or so — within the coming weeks. They’ll solely be accessible to Atlantic subscribers. The New York Times has done something similar this year, rolling out subscriber-only letters from writers, together with Kara Swisher and Jay Caspian Kang.
One massive distinction between the Atlantic’s plan and different e-newsletter distributors is that, in some instances, the Atlantic is recruiting writers who’re already within the paid e-newsletter enterprise. And it desires to transform these writers’ subscribers into Atlantic subscribers.
No less than a kind of writers, I’ve confirmed, is a author who at present has arrange store at Substack, the corporate that kicked off the newest e-newsletter growth by making it simple (theoretically) to become profitable self-publishing.
Right here’s the tough define of what the Atlantic desires to do, by way of folks with information:
- The Atlantic isn’t hiring the writers as full-time staff, however will provide them some type of base fee with the flexibility to make extra cash in the event that they hit sure subscriber objectives. So it’s a way more dependable revenue supply than a paid e-newsletter — even Casey Newton, a contributing author for Vox Media’s The Verge, who has been operating his personal, profitable, Substack for the final 12 months, says he sees monthly churn of 3 to 4 percent.
- If the writers are already promoting paid subscriptions to their letters, the Atlantic desires to show these subscriptions into Atlantic subscriptions. That’s: Should you’re at present paying Provocative However Thinky Takes Man $5 a month for his work, now that very same cash will get you that letter, plus some other newsletters the Atlantic publishes, plus the Atlantic itself, which at present sells a digital-only subscription for $50 a 12 months.
- Publication writers who be part of the Atlantic’s program get to maintain their present record of subscribers. So in the event that they determine to bail on the Atlantic, they might begin up their enterprise once more.
- How a lot oversight or help the letter writers will get from Atlantic editors and workers nonetheless feels like a piece in progress. However the thrust is that the writers are supposed to stay editorially impartial from the publication; they gained’t be edited by Atlantic editors. So what occurs if the Atlantic finally ends up hiring somebody the Atlantic decides is just too racy/racist/problematic for the Atlantic? Good query!
An Atlantic rep declined to remark.
It’s simple to see the enchantment of this system to the Atlantic, led by Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg and CEO Nick Thompson. The publication will get a brand new roster of voices and the potential for immediately growing its subscriber numbers. And whereas extra subscribers are all the time good, they might be significantly good for the Atlantic proper now, which thrived during the Trump years and the pandemic in particular however, like different publishers, has seen its website traffic slump as Trump and Covid-19 have stopped dominating the information cycle.
And since declining visitors makes it tougher to transform new readers into subscribers, something that brings in new eyeballs — not to mention an injection of paying readers — can be welcome. (Right here we should always be aware that although the Atlantic is owned by Laurene Powell Jobs, the billionaire desires the publication, which had a spherical of layoffs in the early months of the pandemic, to be self-sustaining.)
The pitch to writers is a bit more nuanced, with some elements spelled out and different elements extra tacit. The apparent one: Come work at an award-winning publication with large attain, backed by a billionaire. Unspoken: Perhaps you thought you’d be crushing it when you began up your e-newsletter enterprise. However possibly you’re not, and possibly you’d like a gradual paycheck. Operating a solo store isn’t for everyone.
That mentioned, some e-newsletter writers who’ve discovered receptive audiences — primarily by way of Substack — are making far more cash than they ever did at established media corporations.
Former New York Instances opinion writers and editor Bari Weiss, as an illustration, tells me she now has 16,500 subscribers to her Substack, Common Sense. Which at $5 per subscriber, per thirty days, means she might be bringing in $890,000 a 12 months, after Substack takes its 10 p.c charge. So don’t anticipate Weiss to indicate up within the Atlantic’s roster anytime quickly.
I requested Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie what it means if rivals just like the Atlantic poach a few of his authors. He was gracious about it. “We root for writers even after they’re not Substackers, so we’re glad to see a pattern towards extra possession for writers,” McKenzie mentioned in a press release. “We’ve all the time advocated for writers to have full possession of their content material and audiences, and we applaud each step on this path.”
McKenzie and his staff have clearly contemplated some form of this platform-jumping: A part of Substack’s pitch is that writers can simply stroll away, taking all of the content material they printed and an e-mail record of all their subscribers. And Substack’s success has spurred new rivals, together with Fb and Twitter, each of which might simply outspend Substack in the event that they need to — as I reported in June, Facebook dropped $6 million on the URL for Bulletin, its Substack clone.
However should you’re not a Substack celebrity, possibly it doesn’t take a ton of cash to woo you from the corporate: only a regular paycheck and the flexibility to write down for an enormous group of individuals. Like folks at some common media corporations do.
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