Desk Notes
(Please excuse the mess…Still building dreams) ✨
I’m experimenting with a new (shorter) format because a) I respect your time and b) I need to get outside and enjoy the early days of summer. There might not be much of it in the UK. And it’s my birthday month!
1️⃣ Went to a Leading Expert talk on the Sorry State of Social Media with Brian Clark – an overview of the evolution of social media from a helpful audience-building tool (Digg and Delicious) to a dopamine-fueled distraction and time suck—with more emphasis on ‘influencers’ and attention than community and connection.
From a business perspective, it’s hard to justify spending time on social media. He’s been experimenting with LinkedIn and succeeding, but “there’s no aspect of fun on LinkedIn.” (I agree—it’s boring AF—what can we do about that?)
Some thoughts on how to fix it: Focus on building your email list and a deeper psychological understanding of your prospects. Test paid ads in other newsletters and/or write guest posts for folks in your niche. The business basics: People and relationships power everything, and that won’t change. He says he’s “lost all techno-optimism,” – noooo! BUT there will be something else—we can’t predict it.
2️⃣ Preparing for Joshi Herrmann NUJ talk on launching local news sites and growing your paid newsletter. Joshi is the founder of
The Mill, which has just reached a six-figure reader milestone. Exciting to hear they’ve announced a major hiring round (hiring 11 staff in FIVE cities) and are expanding into Glasgow and London (making hay as the Evening Standard goes from daily to weekly). Love the ambition! Bringing deeper narrative journalism to local news. What local news to you read/need? Let me know and I’ll ask him.
3️⃣ Went to a Scaling Paid Subs Mind Meld with Lex Roman. I love her new project, Journalists Pay Themselves, for reader-funded journalists. Sharing tiny experiments and helpful resources in her newsletter and hosts free monthly meets to help folks grow their paid readership. We discussed pricing and tiers and tried to work out why anyone would pick the middle tier!? Plus, a hot-seat publication rundown is super useful. I’m hosting the next session on Monday, July 1. RSVP here. Interview with Lex coming soon!
PS It’s the Publisher Podcast & Newsletter Summit / Awards on Wednesday. Esther Kezia Thorpe shared this post on what burnout feels like and how challenging event marketing is as a part-time gig and full-time parent. They’re open to ideas re partnerships, investment, or refocusing to work smarter, not harder. The lineup is insane – last chance to grab a ticket here.
Cool Reads
▶️ 12 mind-opening highlights from the panels at the Newsletter Conference [Newsletter Circle] Great summary. Ciler says an AI notetaker is a must next time to stop the hand cramp.
▶️ An AI-powered necklace that remembers your conversations for you [Compass Wearable] Are we entering the post-smartphone era of personal devices? I might be alarmed to hear how much I talk to myself.
▶️ Tiny Marketing Actions: The Six-Week Experience [Pam Slim on Maven] Like this concept. How to execute TMAs on a daily/weekly basis to grow your business with a community of small biz owners.
▶️ Day Trading Attention: How to Actually Build Brand and Sales in the New Social Media World [Gary Vee] on the nuts and bolts of growing your business in 2024 and beyond. I’m enjoying the audiobook as he goes off-piste.
▶️ Fairytrail app redesigned for finding nomadic friends and adventures worldwide! How they’ve pivoted their business post-Covid to address the problem of loneliness as a remote worker.
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Nika Talbot 