Niche Media Publishing This Week

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Welcome to this week's issue of the Niche Media Publishing Newsletter.

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Let’s get started with this week’s topics.

What Will Google Do Without Creators?

There is an interesting convergence of stories around Google’s future with “creators”.

First, there’s Brandon’s experience being invited into the belly of the beast….

Definitely worth a read! But the subtext is that Google suddenly seems VERY interested in what creators think (after smashing their businesses almost a year ago).

Not everyone is impressed by this outreach.

Around the same time, Google Search Liaison announced some vernacular change from “webmasters” > “creators”.

All of this gets at a pretty existential truth for Google. Without genuine, original creators, Google is screwed. This impacts both their core product (search) which many of us have been vocal about for months, BUT ALSO impacts their AI ambitions.

In fact, if the AI future is realized, the need for original source content, opinion, and data could well be exponential.

I’m not entirely sure what they are going to “do” about this. The easiest thing would be to fix the algo. A new internal role at Google isn’t going to fix this.

Perhaps we can keep some hope burning…

Even if they do manage to fix the incentives for creators, that ship may have sailed for many.

Personally, I’m not banking on Google to do the right thing. If they do, it’s just an excuse for us to more rapidly built the drawbridge to a walled garden (email list, community).

Reddit Shifts are Starting to Break Through

I had the opportunity to speak with Michael McNerney for a feature on Google changes and Reddit.

Through my work with ReddVisible, I’m getting real time feedback from brands. The magnitude of Reddit’s growth is starting to break through.

Anecdote: There’s nothing more frustrating for a brand than a Redditors “misinformed” opinion of ranking at the top of Google.

Need Traffic? Want to Build Community?

I’m “all in” on Reddit right now as the fastest way to acquire users and build community.

As such, my course is a fluid, evolving project. I’m adding new modules weekly!

Substack as a Referral Network

I’ve personally seen this for some time with my Substack newsletters, but there is a great deep dive out this week on how Substack doesn’t have to be an “all in” choice:

The TL;DR is that media brands are increasingly using Substack as part of a hybrid traffic strategy, selectively distributing content on platform to reach new readers.

There are some real network effects, like Twitter, LinkedIn, etc… as the Substack app is now the #7 news app in the Apple App Store (for example).

Takeaway: If you regularly publish content, consider distributing (or redistributing) SOME of it on Substack.

Other Things I Read Recently

These are some articles I enjoyed, but don’t really have anything to add to!

Other Newsletters Worth Following

Here are some other publications I subscribe to, author, or co-sign.

If you are operating a newsletter (or even just interested), this next one is one of my “must opens” every week as a newsletter operator myself:

If you want to go deeper with Reddit (one of my favorite creator ecosysystems right now), check out my sister publication:

And don’t miss Amy’s excellent insights into wants happening in the world of content marketers.

We also cover the latest MarTech trends and deep dives with a monthly newsletter for B2B operators:

Interested in Booking an Ad?

I’ve put together a resource sheet over at Passionfruit here.

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OK, that's it for this week...

Please do reply to this email with any feedback or suggestions.

Ewen