Audience Engagement Digital Publishing
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Why give up the freedom to do your own newsletter? — The Media Roundup

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The Atlantic wants to hire newsletter writers — and it wants their subscribers, too

Our newsletter provider is Revue. We struck lucky in a sense – it turns out that most Substack signups are driven by Twitter anyway, and Twitter’s acquisition of Revue means you can sign up to our newsletter directly from Twitter itself. And as we’ve previously discussed on the podcast, newsletter superstars can almost dictate their own terms.

Now The Atlantic is hiring newsletter writers, and it also wants their subscribers. Crucially: “The Atlantic isn’t hiring the writers as full-time employees, but will offer them some sort of base payment with the ability to make additional money if they hit certain subscriber goals. So it’s a much more reliable income source than a paid newsletter — even Casey Newton.”

Newton’s previously stated that his churn rate was around 4%. That continues to be the biggest potential challenge for anyone looking to make a living from their own newsletters – so we can understand why The Atlantic’s approach might make sense.

Can freemium ever be free? Paywall strategies from news, B2B and B2C

Metered and freemium paywalls offer a little taste of publisher content. But how much to give away for free is a constantly evolving conversation. Here’s how different sectors are dealing with it.

Hearst launches blimp in the metaverse in a bid to show advertisers virtual co-branded opportunities

My job is to write about tech and I don’t really understand why this is happening. But nevertheless, there will inevitably be a burst of publishers looking to get into the metaverse in the near future, so you should know about this as an early entrant into the field.

Could the teen magazine rise again?

Teen Vogue has been among the best outlets for political commentary over the past few years. The New Yorker states “Instagram and TikTok erased the authority of the traditional teen magazine, but teenagers still want guidance and a community” – which is true! But to what end?


This content originally appeared in The Media Roundup, a daily newsletter from Media Voices. Subscribe here: