Report from the Niche Leadership Summit 2024
In a conference mostly populated by boomer-aged publishers, the influence of millennials nipping at their heels was everywhere to be found.
Don Harkey of People Centric Consulting showed two demographic trends: a million more jobs than employees available and boomers reaching retirement age without a succession plan. He called it “the perfect storm.”
He said that we have to do a better job getting millennials into the board rooms and showing them the financials.
Harkey noted that by 2025, the average B2B buyer will be a millennial, and 80% of sales interactions will be entirely digital.
In the round tables, publishers noted an increasing disconnect between readers who like print magazines and younger, digitally savvy media buyers who will only buy digital. “They want to see the analytics,” one publisher complained.
AI is top of mind.
One publisher noted that Photoshop’s AI is now so good that even he can use it. Another is training an agent to build a curated newsletter. Another used SUNO, a “make a song about it” AI tool that writes music, to write a song about his solution for an advertiser and get the deal. But for the most part, it is a very, very early stage of AI implementation for most niche publishers.
Tips include: Only ask AI to perform tasks on data you input, avoiding hallucinations. Claude is better at writing. Use GPT apps under “Explore GPT” to save tool licensing fees. Perplexity delivers real-time results from the web; however, get the paid version. When you turn on your computers, open GPT or Claude immediately and just leave it open in the browser to save daily work time.
On the other hand, LinkedIn expert Colleen McKenna, of Intero Advisory, pictured above, said LinkedIn’s AI “isn’t there yet.” She recommended creating a killer, memorable slogan for your LinkedIn home page as the top priority.
Also, make your contacts private in settings so they are not used by competitors, and post links to articles below, not in them, where they are penalized.
She advised us to verify our accounts. Last year, LinkedIn caught and took down 20 million fake profiles.
Innovative revenue models
Two publishers including Deborah Stadtler of Meloira publishing (pictured left) acquired magazines in the last year. Cheese Reporter is Stadtler’s second acquisition.
Some publishers are also moving into new revenue directions, including Paige McCullough, President of SpaceNews, which now sells self-serve press releases, another extends the paid press release distribution to a broader PR distribution company.
AE Ventures, publisher of online magazine and event company Builder Innovator, has created a video directory of building services. Video producer Devan Dhawan, and Ryan Mahoney, Director of operations were on hand to share their processses..
Kevin Uhlenhaker, who recently purchased Parking Today Media, is one of several publishers earning new revenues from “Sample baskets.” His baskets go into the hotel rooms of event attendees. He gives the hotel a list of who gets what, and they place the baskets themselves. Advertisers pay thousands for the privilege.
Sometimes, hundreds of thousands in available revenues are within reach with a few great ideas.
Newsletter-exclusive sends are on this list, especially if the newsletter is daily. We noted a top price of $40,000 for an exclusive send package. Another publisher charges $400 per send, allowing 2 or 3 per week.
This is a subject for further discussion!
Since audience data is key and Google traffic is increasingly unreliable, publishers discussed ways to gate content without interfering with online ad results. A publisher noted the gated content is 30 days old but keeps the new, higher-traffic content outside the gate.
What’s next?
At the end of the conference, Tim Hermes, a technology publisher with several successful exits, discussed maximizing your company’s net worth.
Hermes suggested ensuring a key employee is on board with the sale and compensated to stay on. Buyers want to see the next generation of leadership in place – millennials again?
After his last media company sold, Hermes began making bespoke watches in his basement, which were handed out after the presentation, proving, he said, there is life after publishing.
