How To Transition From Layoff To Newsletter Publisher
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Craig Calcaterra wrote the HardballTalk baseball blog for 11 years. But in early August, he was part of NBCUniversal’s company-wide layoffs.
This, however, isn’t a story of woe.
That’s because just two weeks after losing his job, Calcaterra was publishing again — this time for his new business venture — the Cup of Coffee newsletter on Substack.
A little over a month after that first email went out, Calcaterra likes the audience growth he’s seeing.
“I’m pretty damn confident that this will be my full-time job,” he said.
Calcaterra is not alone. You’ve heard plenty of stories recently about journalists who have either been laid off or who left their corporate media jobs to go solo via a newsletter.
The New York Times recently did a story on the exodus of national writers, like former The Verge star Casey Newton, who started his own Substack newsletter.
Industry analyst Simon Owens wrote about this trend of writers leaving national publications for Substack — on his own Substack newsletter: |
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When these defections first started happening, people joked that Substack posed a serious threat to mainstream media. But now they’re occurring at a high enough frequency that I don’t know it’s really a joke anymore. The landscape is such that a media outlet can pay a journalist’s salary for years, train them, build up their personal brands, allow them to develop sources, and then lose them just as they’ve reached maximum value.
Technically these kinds of defections have been possible since the advent of blogging, but few writers could reach the kind of traffic scale required by programmatic advertising to generate real revenue. The rise of platforms like Patreon and Substack allowed for the monetization of small-but-passionate audiences.
I can only imagine that the trend will accelerate, which means the line between mainstream media outlets and solo content creation will become more porous in the coming years. But just as prominent creators can break off from legacy outlets to hang up their own shingles, I can also see talent flowing in the opposite direction.
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(Owens also appeared on the Curated YouTube channel recently to discuss how he generates revenue and leads for stories via his own newsletter.)
That’s great for national writers. But you’re here because you love local news. So would this work at the local level? Can a local journalist make a living via Substack or another email platform?
Calcaterra believes it is possible.
“I think it might be better at a local level,” he said. “Look at a city like Cleveland. Basically it had a newspaper disappear. The level of local coverage in a lot of cities has gotten really bad. There are definitely 2,000 or 3,000 people who do care (about local news enough to pay for it).
“Sports is inherently a local thing,” he continued. “Baseball coverage is a localized thing. Aaron Gleeman (who covers the Minnesota Twins and has a successful podcast) made a mini empire based on 10,000 Twins fans.”
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For Calcaterra and his baseball newsletter, he was able to capitalize on his national following to quickly establish his newsletter presence. He charges $6 a month or $65 for a year, with a premium tier if people are interested — and some have taken him up on that.
Matt Brown is another sports journalist who turned a furlough/layoff into a newsletter business opportunity.
Brown has been creating his Extra Points college athletics newsletter since April 2019, and is now trying to make a full-time gig out of it after spending many years with SB Nation and Vox Media.
After losing his job at SB Nation this past April, in the middle of a pandemic, Brown realized a few things. All of the media jobs he could find that fit his skill set were in New York or D.C. He lives in Chicago, and has a young family, so moving there wasn’t really an option. Luckily, he did have something in his back pocket, so to speak.
“Other than work at a deli counter, I could try to monetize this newsletter,” Brown said.
Brown is very open about the financial viability of his newsletter. In fact, he dedicates an edition of his newsletter every four months or so to this very topic as a way to make a personal connection with his audience. Here’s a sample of that from his latest temperature check on Sept. 15:
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Brown’s paid subscription model is similar to Calcaterra’s setup — $7 a month or $70 for a full year. He also has a “deluxe membership” at $150 — which includes an Extra Points shirt and some stickers. (The shirts, BTW, are pretty sweet.)
There are several things Brown is trying in order to make his newsletter a profitable venture for the long haul.
First, he entered a partnership with The Intercollegiate website, which is also about college athletics. That site focuses on long-form journalism and open records requests. Extra Points provides a strong, four-day-a-week newsletter arm that the folks at The Intercollegiate couldn’t offer.
Second, Brown has been aggressively trying to sell subscription packages to university professors — especially those in undergraduate communications and journalism departments and sports management programs.
He’s signed deals with about six universities to provide a set number of subscriptions at a discount (of about 60 percent off) to use as supplemental classroom curriculum. Brown also offers to talk to classes via Zoom. Brown believes his newsletter can compete with sports business journals that have a much higher subscription price point.
“About 60 percent of my business are regular college sports nerds, and the other 40 percent increasingly are those who work in this business,” Brown said. “Athletic departments, commissioners and others who work with them and who want to move up.”
As for Brown’s future, he knows that reporting and writing four newsletters a week, recording podcasts, doing marketing and promotion, growing subscriptions and also managing home life during a pandemic is tough to manage.
“If you are someone who has other responsibilities in your life, it is hard to grow this into a full time job,” he said. “I’m working more hours at this than I did at Vox. But I’m happier. It is mine. It’s what I want to do.”
Calcaterra thinks there may be a saturation point for newsletters, but he also believes that, if the audience is there, the business model can work.
“If you can get 2,000 subscribers on a Substack, you’re doing better than almost any media person can do at a regular job,” he said. “If you’re launching CBS All Access, or Peacock, you need millions of people.”
He said it is all about the value proposition.
“The No. 1 thing is do you bring something to the table that people can’t get elsewhere,” Calcaterra added. “Will people follow you, or is your readership because of where you work? If it’s the latter, you might have problems.”
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The first NewStart information session of the year will be held Friday for people interested in joining us in Year 2 of the program and earning a master's degree in media solutions and innovation.
So if you'd like to be a part of our innovative journalistic venture, this is a great chance to learn more from myself and Don Smith, the legendary executive director of the West Virginia Press Association.
There are still a few spots available in Friday's session, so register now!
Here's a rundown of all of the sessions, who will be a part of them, and a link to register:
- 10-11 a.m. ET on Friday, Oct. 2, with Don Smith of the West Virginia Press Association (Register Here)
- 3-4 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Oct. 7, with NewStart student Becky Pallack (Register Here)
- Noon-1 p.m. ET on Thursday, Oct. 15, with NewStart student Victor Hernandez (Register Here)
- 6-7 p.m. ET on Monday, Oct. 19 with NewStart student Becky Pallack (Register Here)
- 8-9 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Oct. 27 with NewStart student Tony Baranowski (Register Here)
And remember, if you're joining the ONA20 conference next month, make sure you check out the NewStart 6's "Under The Hood" presentation and Q&A on our program. This is your chance to meet the stars of the NewStart program!
In non-Zoom news, our program was featured in two more outstanding articles on the Center for Journalism & Liberty website.
As always, if owning and running your own publication sounds interesting to you, now is the time to consider becoming a media entrepreneur via our NewStart program and taking over a rural publication somewhere in the country. And if you're an owner or publisher who is grooming someone in your newsroom to eventually take over, why not enroll them in our one-year, online master's degree in Media Solutions and Innovation from West Virginia University? It would make a worthwhile investment in your publication's future.
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Quick Hits
Now on to the latest news and notes from around the world of local journalism:
Learn:
"This report examines how local and regional newspapers around Europe have adapted their editorial and business strategies to remain sustainable in the digital media environment."
"Digital news site Long Beach Post has harnessed CrowdTangle to realize hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue and grow an engaged audience as part of a multi-pronged approach to digital growth."
“This financial commitment - our biggest to date - will pay publishers to create and curate high-quality content for a different kind of online news experience,” Pichai said in a blog post.
"This study ... offers a systematic qualitative investigation of the perceived impact of a newspaper’s closure on community members’ everyday lives and their sense of community."
“What we found was that folks who wouldn’t normally engage with local media wanted the information we have. They just didn’t like the way we were delivering it to them.”
"Foley also said that even defining local news for Black communities is surprisingly complicated. 'Does a hair magazine count? Hair can be political; hair can be local news. Does that count within our ranks?' he asked. 'It challenges our traditional methodologies…but if we are dealing with how news outlets serve certain communities, this is what we will have to address.'"
"The GNI Digital Growth Program is designed to help small-to-mid-sized news organizations achieve digital success. The free workshops that are part of this program are meant to be completed as a full curriculum, but can be accessed as standalone sessions as well."
"In the battle to combat misinformation, researchers have offered clear advice for how journalists should cover and debunk it, but we have very provided little guidance for how civil society should counter media manipulation and disinformation campaigns."
"Marketers are asking for what they want. It’s our duty – and in our best interest – to listen."
This An' 'At:
"We wanted to make sure the newspaper continues."
"Product thinkers — those with the abilities to align editorial, audience, technology and business goals — have become the missing link to creating sustainable journalism in the digital age."
"Last week, three US senators introduced a bill called the Future of Local News Commission Act. (They) proposed the establishment of a formal commission to examine the accelerating decline of local journalism. In response, news advocacy groups have buzzed with praise and support."
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Thanks!
That's all for this week. Thanks, as always, for reading!
A reminder: Share your success stories! Share your innovations! You can reply to this email, or hit up NewStart on Twitter @wvunewstart, and you can @ me @jimiovino.
Be like the fine folks at the Knight Foundation and the Benedum Foundation! If you, your organization, or anyone else you know would like to fund a NewStart fellowship position or would want to offer a scholarship in Year 2, feel free to reach out to me. I'd be happy to talk! Seriously, I would love to offer more fellowships and scholarships, and you can help.
And don't forget, you can find NewStart online at newstart.media.
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Thanks again, stay safe, and we'll talk next week.
Jim.
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