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TS #112: The Newsletter Grand National ’23

Get ready for the world’s most famous steeplechase…

Afternoon, all. Here we are, then, the Newsletter Grand National! 

AND THEY’RE OFF AND RACING! Substack into the lead, the clear favourite. 

There’s LinkedIn hot on its heels, looking determined. Beehiiv coming up on the inside…

We have some serious contenders in this race. WhatsApp coming up fast on the outside with its handy template! He’s got big ambitions and wants to be the winner – in a league of his own with a 98% open rate. 

Mobile newsletters, what a novelty! As they say, go where your customers are. Will he take it? 

15 fences to run, and no one’s fallen yet. Substack holding it steady. 

OUT! Revue, Bulletin fall at the ninth. Revue and Bulletin both gone. Medium has drifted out to 100/1… struggling at the back of the field. LinkedIn leaning in… gathering pace, could she take the race? 

There’s Oatly Spam. An outsider! With a giant billboard ad for its new brand newsletter. Stopping us all in our tracks. What a cheeky move. A brand newsletter, of all things – what a workhorse. 

Here’s the famous fence, Becher’s Brook – and they’re all over! All cleared it safely.

My money’s on Substack, but I’ve stuck a quid on LinkedIn because of the promotion (900M members) if she can sort the paid element. Not an easy job with data and privacy issues – still no subscriber list… 

But if she puts her mind to it, she could win. Can LinkedIn compete? Let’s see! 

It’s a beautiful day at Aintree. What a race! Big ambitions for the newsletter and creator space. Who will be riding into the sunset a Grand National champion? 

The world is watching!

Two to jump and Substack holding steady… we’re in for a great finish! 

Over the last hurdle, the final fence and it’s Substack who heads down towards the last. LinkedIn second, WhatsApp in third. Bunching up in the Grand National! The final 150 yards… here we go!

SUBSTACK WINS THE NATIONAL! 20M+ monthly active subscribers and 2M paid subscriptions. 

What a turn-up for the books! 

Substack is the winner. LinkedIn was second, and WhatsApp fell away to third. Convert Kit fourth. Beehiiv fifth.

And congratulations to the winning jockey, Rachael Blackmore, who is making phenomenal strides in a male-dominated sport. 

Good news! All horses and jockeys are back safe. No fatalities. Well done to the BHA for investing in safety and improvements to the course.

Another gripping Grand National – the world’s most famous steeplechase and what a story. I hope you had a placed horse. Good day! 


Substack posted this on their blog: A new economic engine for culture, a position piece on what comes after social media as we know it. And where Substack is headed. 

20M+ monthly active subscribers and 2M paid subscriptions to writers on Substack is a fantastic achievement. Well done to the team 👏

It’s inspiring to look at the leaderboard for different sections and see writers making thousands each month from their work.

There are many publishing platforms, and I’ve stuck around because of the mission and manifesto – and the community. They are constantly innovating and trying new things to help make writers’ lives easier. 

And because I like to keep my tech stack and workflow simple! 

But I am republishing posts later on WordPress and LinkedIn – and keeping an eye on what LinkedIn does next for newsletters… 

Good discussion about it on This Old Marketing – how Substack is becoming the WordPress of how to create an audience these days. Joe says he can’t fault the business model. “Letting writers be entrepreneurs – it could be the new WordPress.”

PS, Joe needs some help with The Tilt’s creator economy survey – they are 23 responses short of 1K. You’ll get access to final report, and a chance at $250 or AirPods – fill it in here

Last call to nominate someone (or yourself!) for their list of content creators doing good work who deserve a shoutout. 

Keep moving!
Nika 🙂


The Shift Hot 5 🔥

In Praise of (Brand) Newsletters. What Oatly did next – launched its newsletter, Spam, on a giant ad billboard. A poke-in-the-eye to current marketing trends and the latest cheeky move from a company breaking conventions. Here are a few lessons Angela has learned through trial and error. I’ve moved on to pea milk.

Remote Work Spain Guide to LinkedIn. How to use LinkedIn to find employed or freelance work. Google now indexes LinkedIn post content, which can help you get discovered. Check out Maya’s Facebook group for remote job opportunities and tips. Spain’s digital nomad visa is (just about) here! 

WhatsApp is working on a private newsletter tool for a future app update. Choose who you want to hear from and follow broadcasters of your choice right within WhatsApp. They are giving people a new feature they’ve been asking for. Mobile newsletters have a much higher open rate of 90% than email newsletters at 22% (Gartner). Worth experimenting!

The Publisher Newsletter Awards – now open for entries. A new programme from Media Voices celebrating newsletter excellence, sharing best practices, and elevating publishers’ work. Free to enter – here are the categories. Entries close on April 24th. 

7 Modern Writing Tools That Changed My Life – recommended tools to keep the writing struggles away. Writing online is self-care. “Each article is a little seed that you plant, which will grow into trees and take care of you.” Stop overcomplicating things. Experiment. Keep it simple and have fun. 

I enjoyed listening to Snoop Dogg read this post!


Thoughts, questions, or topic suggestions?

Get in touch. I’d love to hear from you! Email nika@nikatalbot.io

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Newsletter

Insights from future of work discussions 🌍

Help transform work for 1 billion people by 2025

Welcome to Issue #90!

An update on the world of work from the President of the World Employment Confederation, Bettina Schaller.

A bit on Bettina’s backstory and the big topics at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos [via CTW].

1/ Finding work for Ukrainians – how can Ukrainians who have fled or are still there work and pay their bills? Platform innovation.

2/ The world is in crisis – health, food, climate, energy, a talent shortage, inflation, geopolitics – an opportunity for labour markets?

3/ The metaverse – bringing the future to the present

I walked away from Davos thinking that’s it, that’s it – it’s gonna come. It’s gonna be here.

Bettina Schaller

The voice of the worker 

Everyone has their own agenda at these big meetings. How can independents and startups in the digital platform space have a seat at the table and get their voices heard differently?

The classic answer is joining a union – collective bargaining. 

Through finding the right allies and working through those channels. Joining expert roundtables and trade organisations like the Center for the Transformation of Work.

CTW’s mission is to transform work for 1 billion people by 2025.

They are building a community of experts and like-minded practitioners – and are keen to have more independents join their calls.

An opportunity to contribute to the discussion and help redesign work.
https://transformationofwork.org/manifesto

Shaping a shared future – making the metaverse 

On the evolution of the internet: “the part where it gets less flat”. Scaling services, crossing borders, sharing virtual spaces, and new ways of expressing ourselves…

Exciting to hear that spatial audio in 3D meetings adds empathy, which isn’t possible with 2D audio. 

A fascinating discussion – much food for thought! Watch here.

Oculus Quest 2 (much improved) or shall I wait for 3…? 

– Nika


Truss v Sunak – can’t stand it. Get the businesspeople and entrepreneurs on the job!

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Newsletter

Spotify’s Work-From-Anywhere Program; The Future of Remote Work on Big City Salaries

Thinking Big 💡

Last week, Spotify launched its new Work-From-Anywhere program, which allows its 5,584 (2020) employees to work ‘wherever they do their best thinking and creating’. They can choose to work in the office, remotely or in a co-working space that the company will pay for, and have to commit to one option for a year.

Spotify is following similar moves by other tech companies but will continue to pay San Francisco and New York salaries based on the type of job, unlike Facebook and Twitter who have said that salaries could be adjusted to align with the cost of living – i.e. potential pay cuts for those who move away from HQ. Location-based pay seems counterproductive and will damage morale. Does it matter where people are living if they are expected to deliver similar results?

Here’s Travis Robinson, Spotify’s Global Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, on the thinking behind the decision and how it will help promote work-life integration, happiness and inclusion (Business Insider).

This is an opportunity to shape the idea that big cities are the only places where meaningful work can happen because we know first-hand that isn’t true. We want employees to come as they are, whatever they are and whatever their cities are.

He also says it will promote pay equity, which location-based pay could damage.

It’s a smart move and having a global, diverse workforce will improve their bottom line. Better quality, original content and experiences will appeal to more cultures and grow their subscriber base. Spotify is the most popular audio streaming subscription service with 345m users, including 155m subscribers, across 93 markets.

Thoughtful leadership too. Offering to pay for co-working space shows they recognise not everyone can or wants to work from home full time. It’s having the freedom to choose your #workstyle, as Hoxby puts it, which means Spotify will continue to attract the best talent.

It also challenges the leadership team to improve their communication skills, collaboration practices, processes and tools to keep innovating. They seem to have found a way to marry European and American mindsets – taking the best from both cultures to create a new kind of workplace. I’m curious to see how they manage the challenge of a hybrid workforce and develop their culture going forward. If you’re working there, please get in touch.

Spotify’s CEO and Founder Daniel Ek is also investing one billion EUR of his personal resources to enable an ecosystem of builders who can build a new European dream – more super companies – the first ‘Silicon Valley’ in Europe?

I’ll be looking to fund so-called moonshots — focusing on the deep technology necessary to make a significant positive dent and work with scientists, entrepreneurs, investors and governments to do so. (The Observer Effect).

More on their Dynamic Workplace effort.


Welcome to Texas, Elon Musk. You don’t have to move to Austin

What happens to the local housing market if we have a dual economy of expats and locals with the former being paid higher salaries? House prices rocket, tension builds, and creatives move out as they can no longer afford to live there. Over the last 20 years the population has doubled in Austin, TX – ‘the new Silicon Valley’ where the average home sells in nine days. A brief history of Austin’s ‘Don’t move here’ t-shirts.

Last month Elon Musk announced he was relocating to the Lone Star state, but which of their tech hubs is the best fit? The odds-on favourite: Austin.


The advice 🤔

On being in the flow and preserving start-up energy in a big company:

How do you get that vibe and retain it when you’re a large company? you need to create a space where ideas can flourish, and risks can be taken – where serendipity can take place. You have to remove all the barriers to this.

I call people when I’m inspired by something and throw out lots of different ideas. Again, nine times out of 10, what I say is completely worth shit. But every now and then, I come up with something that’s super relevant for someone; something that changes how they look at an issue. This can lead to super interesting breakthroughs.

On ‘algotorial’:

It’s a tension to talk about editorial versus algorithms. Internally we call this “algotorial.” We think that it’s quite beautiful to marry both. This is the beauty of editorial and algorithms working together; we as a company want to always ensure that we are not only shaping culture but also reflecting it.

Daniel Ek, Spotify’s CEO & Founder. (The Observer Effect)

Go deeper 🕵🏻‍♀️

👩‍💻 On the future of remote working on big city salaries – some examples of what companies are doing as they take a global approach to hiring and remote culture. (Digiday)

💰 Should you get paid based on where you live? Interesting research shows location-based pay scales can weaken the morale of both lower and higher-paid staff, diminish productivity and increase turnover. (BBC Worklife)

🎧 Daniel Ek on habits, systems, and mental modes for top performance (Tim Ferris’ podcast)

⌚️ Ever wondered why a simple meeting can throw your whole day? Here’s a brilliant explanation of the Maker’s Schedule vs the Manager’s Schedule by Paul Graham. If we can understand the differences between the two types of schedule (manager vs freelancer, corporate vs start-up), it can help resolve the conflict. No more death by Zoom…

Pass it on!


Welcome to my bookshop! 📚

I’ll be sharing books in my bag and recommended reads on Bookshop.org. They pay a 10% commission on every sale and give a matching 10% to local bookstores, an integral part of our culture and communities. Check it out here.


Work with me 🙋🏻‍♀️

Leopard print, always. Worry less and rock a red lip. Remote work evangelist, problem solver, internet person.

💡 Something you want me to check out? Leave a comment or email nicci@niccitalbot.io

☕️ Tips & large bank transfers welcome

📩 Subscribe to The Shift here

👋 Join Copy Club, 6 pm GMT every Saturday on Clubhouse

Categories
Newsletter

The Shift: Issue #17

Job hunting, The Social Dilemma, a history of Silicon Valley, slow journalism, how do we live ‘a good life’ in 2020?

I had a chat with two recruitment agents this week. Things are picking up – briefs are coming in and companies are hiring–mostly remote work. Employers are investing in remote training for staff and reassessing office space, so remote working is here to stay. Both were furloughed and are just back at work.

It’s good news for multi-skilled freelancers – we’ll be more in demand as employers may want fewer people on the payroll. We’re also flexible, agile, and used to working remotely.

Skills check–MS Office, Photoshop, InDesign (you can download the free trial for 30 days and do a YouTube tutorial to learn the basics). Google Analytics, HTML, SEO, & social media.

I made a one-page CV on Canva–wasn’t sure if it’s long enough, but they liked it. “It’s good to have it condensed on one page and you can expand as required.” Read more.