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Today’s roundup is brought to you by Esther.
They revolutionised podcast advertising. Subscriptions are next.
Just before I went away, I had a chat with Acast co-founder Måns Ulvestam. Along with fellow co-founder Karl Rosander, he launched a new company last year offering single purchase audiobooks and eBooks.
They’ve just expanded Sesamy to allow single-purchase podcasts. But that’s not the most interesting part. Ulvestam is so committed to the belief that a la carte payments for content are viable that they’re developing their own smart paywall. This will assess a reader’s propensity to pay for either a subscription or just to pay for the one article.
Micropayments and single payments are a touchy subject for the industry. I grilled him on some of the most common issues, and he was confident in his vision. Sesamy might well be the Goldilocks solution to the two extremes of full subscriptions and micropayments.
I remain optimistic – albeit with a healthy dose of scepticism.
Publishing ideas to steal: cover stars, bartender newsagents, and cutting ads
The latest instalment of Peter’s Magazine Diaries is up on the site. This time he suggests bringing back glossy magazine cover stars for digital content, finding an Instagram influencer to sell your mags, and cutting down on ads for better performance all-round.
3 findings from experiments with triggers via push notification, website and email
Getting subscribers to interact with content can be a perilous battle. To avoid subscribers churning, becoming zombies or worst of all unsubscribing, publishers are turning to triggers. Twipe’s data and experiments have found that these triggers can boost engagement.
Recurrent Ventures lays off entire Mel Magazine staff
The entire editorial staff of Mel Magazine was laid off on Friday, one year exactly after the title was acquired in July 2021 by Recurrent Ventures. This is our main story on the podcast news round-up this week, so do give it a listen for our (unfiltered) thoughts.
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