I think the "publish less" applies to anything and everything under the "content sun."
It sounds so obvious, but when it's your brand, your publication, your personal voice, the feeling. is usually, "I'm not doing enough. If I kept sending out more words, more videos, more podcasts, more stuff, that would naturally translate to more readers, more viewers, more listeners, more revenue/leads/likes/shares."
But that just confuses the value that consistency produces with constancy.
Unless you have an audience of millions spread across the globe and an dozens of interests, they can absorb the flurry of 200 (maybe more) articles the NYT publishes daily. I'm sure if they thought it would increase revenues (relative to costs), they'd have the wherewith to publish a thousand-plus items a day. But even their roughly 10 million digital subscribers (and the 2 billion "uniques" they reported in 2022) have their limits.
When I started a digital news site within a software company focused on the ultra-niche area of location-based marketing and IoT devices years ago, I thought we had to have at least 6 to 10 items a day. But staff (including me!) forced me to cut that to one or two articles a day. Surprisingly (to me and the marketing team that oversaw it), traffic more than doubled.
But it shouldn't have been. A few years ago, The Guardian cut its weekly story production by *one third*... and traffic soared. Even local news outlets, The Post and Courier grew digital subscriptions by 250% when they cut the volume of output.
There's always a complaint that content is "commodified." It is if you churn it out like cans of beans. But if you view it as unique, smartly crafted articles, videos, podcasts, whathaveyou... the audience will recognize it as something worth their attention as well as their sign-up info.
Anyway, you're such an incisive, insightful writer, Amanda, as a devoted audience member of yours, I would say, "Publish more!" But I won't fault you for not changing your pace. Your dispatches aere worth waiting for, always.
100% this. I also just came back to my newsletter last week after a (happy!) 2-month break... and promptly changed its frequency from fortnightly to sporadic. there is, indeed, too much of everything---I don't need to add more to the pile :) but I look forward to your next one... whenever that might be!
My online voice is too small to be recognized or taken seriously for saying the same thing but THANK YOU. Thank you for being the first voice of sanity. Nobody is an expert of hot, publishable takes every waking day of their lives and I miss thoughtful writing on the internet.
Such a necessary, thoughtful post, Amanda.
I think the "publish less" applies to anything and everything under the "content sun."
It sounds so obvious, but when it's your brand, your publication, your personal voice, the feeling. is usually, "I'm not doing enough. If I kept sending out more words, more videos, more podcasts, more stuff, that would naturally translate to more readers, more viewers, more listeners, more revenue/leads/likes/shares."
But that just confuses the value that consistency produces with constancy.
Unless you have an audience of millions spread across the globe and an dozens of interests, they can absorb the flurry of 200 (maybe more) articles the NYT publishes daily. I'm sure if they thought it would increase revenues (relative to costs), they'd have the wherewith to publish a thousand-plus items a day. But even their roughly 10 million digital subscribers (and the 2 billion "uniques" they reported in 2022) have their limits.
When I started a digital news site within a software company focused on the ultra-niche area of location-based marketing and IoT devices years ago, I thought we had to have at least 6 to 10 items a day. But staff (including me!) forced me to cut that to one or two articles a day. Surprisingly (to me and the marketing team that oversaw it), traffic more than doubled.
But it shouldn't have been. A few years ago, The Guardian cut its weekly story production by *one third*... and traffic soared. Even local news outlets, The Post and Courier grew digital subscriptions by 250% when they cut the volume of output.
There's always a complaint that content is "commodified." It is if you churn it out like cans of beans. But if you view it as unique, smartly crafted articles, videos, podcasts, whathaveyou... the audience will recognize it as something worth their attention as well as their sign-up info.
Anyway, you're such an incisive, insightful writer, Amanda, as a devoted audience member of yours, I would say, "Publish more!" But I won't fault you for not changing your pace. Your dispatches aere worth waiting for, always.
100% this. I also just came back to my newsletter last week after a (happy!) 2-month break... and promptly changed its frequency from fortnightly to sporadic. there is, indeed, too much of everything---I don't need to add more to the pile :) but I look forward to your next one... whenever that might be!
My online voice is too small to be recognized or taken seriously for saying the same thing but THANK YOU. Thank you for being the first voice of sanity. Nobody is an expert of hot, publishable takes every waking day of their lives and I miss thoughtful writing on the internet.