business models
Commercial lessons from the Black Ballad founder’s newsletter Paid Members Public
How a weekly newsletter has become central to both the community building and monetisation of a ground-breaking website for black women.
How publications get sloppy Paid Members Public
A perfect storm of dodgy SEO, dodgier AI work and the desperate need to protect affiliate revenue is breeding a whole new type of web content slop.
OpenAI is paying Axel Springer for its content Paid Members Public
The German publishing giant has inked a deal with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT
How to accidentally create a competitor Paid Members Public
What’s to stop a bunch of people you just laid off from launching a competitor? Almost nothing, it turns out…
Why DC Thompson is putting communities at the heart of its business Paid Members Public
Scottish publisher DC Thompson is rethinking its strategy around communities, becoming both a member of them, but also a source of expertise on them they can sell to others.
This is how the future media ecosystem will look Paid Members Public
The death of Buzzfeed News and the bankrupty of Vice make it clear how the new media ecosystem is developing: it's surprisingly… nautical?
Media’s no good, very bad week Paid Members Public
More proof that VC funding and journalism are poor bedfellows — and that you should never trust a social media platform.
The Canary becomes a flock: left-wing site reforms as a workers’ co-operative Paid Members Public
The politics site's former management is gone, and the staff are now collectively running the title. Can they align their business model with their values?
