The Business of Content with Simon Owens

Latest Episodes:

How Mignon Fogarty launched a massively successful series of online courses Sep 05, 2024

Show notes

My Substack: https://simonowens.substack.com/

Mignon Fogarty isn't just one of the world's most popular podcasters, she's also an incredibly innovative media entrepreneur. She launched her Grammar Girl podcast 18 years ago, and the success of that propelled her book onto the New York Times bestseller list. She also founded Quick & Dirty Tips, a media network she now runs in partnership with Macmillan Publishers.

To round out her media business even more, she's launched around seven courses, all geared toward being a better communicator and writer. Thousands of customers have taken them, and they've opened her up to an entirely new customer base for her content.

In a recent interview, Mignon explained how she entered the courses market, what goes into putting together a course, and why she decided to partner with powerful distributors like LinkedIn Learning rather than create the courses by herself.

How Andrew Curtin built Construction Wave, a B2B outlet covering the UK's construction industry Sep 04, 2024

Show notes

My newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/

Most companies buy advertising to drive sales of their products, but Andrew Curtin's first sponsor mostly bought out of pity. It was May 2022 and he had just launched Construction Wave, a B2B outlet that covers the UK's construction industry. He had absolutely no audience, but a major crane manufacturing company bought a $10,000 sponsorship anyway.

That $10,000 allowed him to hire his first editor, and over the next two years they built Construction Wave up into one of the leading publications in its sector. Its website is mainly monetized through high-priced sponsorships, and this year it hosted its first conference geared toward construction CFOs.

In an interview, Andrew explained how he got interested in the sector, where he found his initial readers, and why he thinks there's an opportunity to launch a subscription data product for his industry.

How Tim Burrowes helped build Mumbrella into a $7 million media brand Aug 21, 2024

Show notes

My newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/

Like a lot of journalists in the mid-2000s, Tim Burrowes grew frustrated with his employer's print mentality and its tendency to treat online publishing as an afterthought. At the time, he worked for an Australian trade magazine that covered that country's media industry.

So in 2008, he and two co-founders decided to launch Mumbrella, a competing blog that published upwards of 15 times a day. Its gossipy comments section quickly attracted an audience of bored office workers, and within a few years it was hosting multiple industry events that collectively generated millions of dollars.

In a recent interview, Tim explained how Mumbrella made such a big splash so quickly, why he and his co-founders decided to sell it, and what he's doing differently with his newest media startup.

How Alex Halperin built WeedWeek, a B2B outlet that covers California's cannabis industry Aug 08, 2024

Show notes

My newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/

When Alex Halperin launched WeedWeek in 2015, he was entering an industry that had nothing but growth ahead of it. But what he didn't expect was that the fragmented legalization across states meant that it'd be difficult to build a national audience. So a few years ago he pivoted to just covering California's weed industry, and WeedWeek has since built a robust business monetized through both sponsorships and subscriptions.

In our interview, Alex walked me through what got him interested in the topic, why he built a customer publishing platform, and how he recently decided to team up with the LA Times on an investigative series.

How Mission Local spun off from UC Berkeley and became a self-sustaining news outlet Aug 05, 2024

Show notes

My newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/

One of the great things about being a college journalism major today is that it's incredibly easy for professors to build their own news sites and allow students to experience every aspect of the publishing process. Not that long ago, journalism students had few avenues for publication outside their college newspaper.

Lydia Chavez took advantage of this dynamic while teaching at UC Berkeley. In 2008, she and her colleagues launched Mission Local, a local news blog that covered San Francisco's Mission District. It quickly gained traction within the community, and in 2014 Lydia spun it out into its own independent news organization. Today, it's fully sustained by a mix of large and small donors.

In our interview, Lydia walked me through how she incorporated the site into her journalism curriculum, why she spun it out from the university, and whether she thinks Mission Local's model can be replicated across the US.

How Colossus built one of the largest investing-focused podcast networks Jul 31, 2024

Show notes

My newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/

When Patrick O'Shaughnessy launched his podcast Invest Like the Best in 2016, he had no intention of building it into a media company. He just wanted to use it to interview the world's best investing minds so that he could deepen his own understanding of the industry. But the show proved to be a huge hit, attracting some of the biggest names in finance. By 2020, he and a few co-founders launched Colossus, an investing-focused podcast network that now produces more than a half dozen shows across various finance niches.

In an interview, Colossus CEO Matt Reustle walked me through the vision behind the network, how it develops and promotes new shows, and why the company hasn't yet launched video versions of its podcasts.

How Gary Arndt built Everything Everywhere, a podcast with 1.5 million monthly downloads Jul 17, 2024

Show notes

My newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/

What does a professional travel photographer do when all international flights are shut down due to a global pandemic? That's a question Gary Arndt found himself asking in the early months of 2020. By that point, he had built up millions of social media followers and an entire career from snapping photos in exotic locales, and within a matter of weeks his income streams had completely dried up.

Luckily, he had already been batting around the idea for a podcast that didn't require any travel. In July 2020, he started producing seven episodes a week of Everything Everywhere, an educational show about a diverse range of topics, and it immediately took off. Today, it generates 1.5 million monthly downloads and pulls in much more advertising income than Gary ever made as a travel photographer.

In our interview, Gary walked through how he found his audience, where he gets his ideas for new episodes, and why he weaned himself off the social media platforms that once delivered him huge reach.

How Jared Newman built Cord Cutter Weekly, a TV streaming newsletter with 32,000 subscribers Jun 27, 2024

Show notes

My newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/

When Jared Newman launched his Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter back in 2016, the streaming TV market was much smaller than it is today, with most TV networks either not having their own streaming app or requiring a cable subscription to access it. But as it turned out, he timed his launch perfectly, as it was only a matter of years before virtually every Hollywood studio pivoted to streaming. Today, his newsletters has over 32,000 subscribers, and a spinoff newsletter that gives tech advice has also grown to 1,200 paying members.

In our interview, we discussed his motivation for launching the newsletter, why his editor let him promote it at the end of his columns, and whether he ever wants to leave his freelance career entirely to just focus on growing his two newsletters.

How Philip Taylor built FinCon, the leading conference for personal finance creators May 23, 2024

Show notes

My newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/

Today, the personal finance content niche is absolutely ginormous. You can't open up YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram without encountering an influencer who gives advice on how to make and save money.

Today's guest Philip Taylor anticipated this content explosion all the way back in 2011. That's when he launched FinCon, a conference specifically designed for personal finance content creators. That first year he attracted around 250 attendees, but over the next decade it grew into the largest conference in this niche, attracting over 3,000 attendees a year.

In our interview, Philip walked us through how he got into the personal finance space, his strategy for growing the conference, and his ambitions for launching similar conferences in other niche categories.

The economics of ghostwriting books May 09, 2024

Show notes

My newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/

I'm sure just about everybody has had the experience of looking at a celebrity memoir and wondering: did they actually write that? In many cases, they didn't, at least not by themselves. There's actually an entire shadow economy of ghost writers who do the bulk of the work on these books – not just for celebrities, but all kinds of public figures ranging from big-name CEOs to politicians.

But how does one go about hiring a ghost writer? And what's it like to work with one? To answer these questions, I turned to Dan Gerstein, the founder of Gotham Ghostwriters, an agency that specializes in connecting clients to professional ghostwriters.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

The Business of Content with Simon Owens

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected