The story so far
There was no newsletter last week because I was traveling back from the Magazine Street conference. The decision to skip the send was made at dinner the previous evening when the wonderful Anna Bassi and I gave each other permission to duck out on our respective newsletters. Thanks Anna.
This week I’ve just got back from Media Voices’ first Publisher Podcast Summit and, without Anna to absolve me, I’m going ahead with the send. But given my general absence of focus and energy I’m also going to give myself a break and run with a ‘best of’ compilation.
There is actually a decent rationale for recycling these old ideas. Simon Owens recently wrote a post outlining how he recycles evergreen content, explaining that in six months, his newsletter audience grew more than 70%.
“Nearly half my audience barely knew I existed six months ago,
much less read my prior stuff,” Simon Owens.
So, with Simon’s rules for reshaping, re-using and re-sharing non-time-sensitive content and six months’ worth of newsletters in the Magazine Diaries archive, here are some of my favourite stealable ideas.
Get AC-12 to sell your subscriptions for you
Done catching bent coppers (at least until season 7), the Line of Duty crew - Jed Mercurio, Adrian Dunbar, Vicky McClure and Martin Compston - have been helping Newsquest sell subscriptions.
Don’t stress about newsletter clicks
The Guardian newsletter team’s main focus right now is to develop more in-depth newsletters that feature original reporting and analysis. They are abandoning click throughs to the Guardian website as their main measure of success, looking instead at newsletters as a standalone format.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, start your collections”
Sophie Cross of Freelancer Magazine fame admitted to me in an email that she had filched an idea from indie-mag super-sharer Kai Brach. In his amazing Indie Magonomics blog, Kai raises the idea of bundling back issues at a discount.
Campaigning covers
Campaigning covers are tackling the biggest issues of our time. From Trump to abortion rights, publishers are using the newsstand to show the world where they stand. This piece from Eye on Design lays out some of the most impactful covers of recent times, with leading art directors commenting on why they work so well.
Less is more when it comes to advertising
Customer satisfaction is a pretty simple concept but somehow it gets forgotten when publishers start talking about increasing ad revenue and the ‘more ads = more money’ equation dominates the discussion. But from digital behemoth Dotdash Meredith to indie print publishers that only sell ads to a few strongly aligned brands, less ads + better ad performance = better business. Dial it down Madmen.
This week’s magazine song is the super sultry ‘Magazin’ by White Denim, added to the playlist by the similarly sultry Reddest Roar. Turn it up, close your eyes and sway along.
Thanks for reading
Please remember to send me any magazine publishing ideas that you think are worth stealing for future issues. And remember, if you would like any help finding ideas for your business, let's arrange a chat.