Publishing-a-local-newsletter-as-a-creator

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In a previous blog post, (available in german) I addressed the appeal of the creator economy to journalists in Germany. Those who decide to pursue a career as a creator no longer work for a major media brand, but in their own name. They generally reach out to a smaller, more engaged target audience, charge their followers money (for a newsletter or similar), sell ads and/or earn money with talks, presentations and consultancy services. I’ve spoken to and learned from over two dozen colleagues and media professionals during R&D Fellowship at Media Lab Bayern:  

After publishing my post, I heard the same questions time and again: Which niches hold the most potential? How exactly can I develop my own product? How can I then earn money with it? In this post, I hope the answer these questions and go through an example of how you can create your own product. Sit back and relax. It's time to delve into the matter at hand...

There are an almost countless number of niches that journalists can tap into with their own product—from online lifestyle magazines for Afro-German women to a newsletter on the Seattle Seahawks. Highly specialized industries that employ a large number of people yet are plagued by a lack of reliable, substantial information can be particularly attractive in this respect. Heinz-Roger Dohms and Christian Kirchner from finanz-szene.de have been sending an ad-financed newsletter on the banking and FinTech industries to over 30,000 subscribers since 2017. This concept can also be copied by many other industries in the industrial and service sector, with companies such as Tagesspiegel and Handelsblatt already succeeding in filling gaps in the market with high-priced products.

Creators may find it conducive to extend their paid content to companies who will purchase entire subscription packages for their employees in addition to private individuals. The Social Media Watchblog has pursued this B2B strategy and enjoyed high revenues with over 50 institutional customers. A company subscription merely constitutes a manageable annual expense for companies, whereas for creators, it can make a major contribution to planning certainty.

In my opinion, local journalism offers another exciting area for creators. However, to this day, many regional publishers continue to rely on print titles for the vast majority of their revenues, something which is increasingly and ever more quickly crumbling. They have put off investing in (good) digital products for far too long, meaning that the digital services available in some places are restricted to an ePaper, i.e., a PDF version of the paper. Certain publishers have introduced paywalls, and 85% of them now view the importance of paid content as strategically high, and even existential in some cases. The question remains whether this will suffice to offset the declining ad and subscription revenues for print titles in the medium term.

Countless local editorial teams have gradually thinned out in a shrinking process drawn out over years. The quality of their content suffers with every press release, which lands on the page virtually unedited, and with every report that is half-heartedly researched and edited due to a lack of time. After all, the pages need to be filled with something. Many regional publishers may be able to fund an expensive cover, but it isn’t on a par with the quality of the products offered by Spiegel, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Süddeutscher Zeitung or specialist niche publications. To put it bluntly, the all-in-one business model that successfully generated extremely high yields for publishers for decades simply doesn’t work any more.

Many regional publishers have become more vulnerable. They aren’t able to offer the digital products their users want to receive. Or at least not the ones they're willing to pay for. There’s simply a lack of money, time and expertise to come up with innovations. Over time, a vacuum has been created, which journalists can now penetrate cost-effectively with the new opportunities offered by the creator economy and a product tailored to the specific needs of their target audience. (At this point, I would like to once again emphasize that there are also regional publishers in Germany who have developed great digital products and are poised for a successful future.)

New media companies now serve local niches, particularly in the US. Today, publications tend to rely on membership models (e.g., The Oaklandside, Lookout Santa Cruz) and paid (Charlotte Ledger, to some extent: The Mill in Manchester) or ad-financed newsletters (6amcity and soon Axios Local). Münster-based RUMS is a great example of how to achieve success with a paid newsletter; racking up 1,500 paying subscribers within its first year as a company.