Atlantic CEO on becoming profitable | Prospect looks for growth
And inside the "brutal" business model of the biggest media brand you might never have heard of, 1440
We’ve got a CEO bonanza for you this morning, with a look behind the curtain of three interesting businesses.
CEO number one: I spoke to The Atlantic’s CEO Nicholas Thompson about how the US current affairs magazine reached its dual goals of becoming profitable and getting one million subscribers – and how he’s going to decide what targets to set next.
CEO number two: Dominic Ponsford went to Prospect’s office in a lovely Georgian house in Westminster and met Mark Beard, who says he has “fixed the plumbing” of the magazine and is now focused on growth.
And CEO number three: Jim Edwards has found out about possibly the biggest media brand you’ve never heard of: 1440, which has one daily email, 15 employees and $15m revenue.
A very different model to the other two, it relies on paying to acquire new readers and then selling ads against those eyeballs. But the hook makes sense: it’s an aggregated news service, basically, for busy professionals who don’t have time to read everything everywhere every day.
New from Press Gazette
What’s next for The Atlantic after reaching profitability and 1m subscribers
“The first thing I have to do is continue to be disciplined – we didn’t get to profitability by overspending and making a bunch of bets that were unlikely to pay off, right?”
Prospect CEO has ‘fixed the plumbing’ and is now looking for growth
“I believe the commercials should be as good as the journalism. We do it with excellence or we don’t do it at all.”
The media brand with one email newsletter, 15 staff and $15m revenue
“I would say we’re taking more of a private equity approach,” chief executive Tim Huelskamp said, “like a unit economics business” with “recurring revenue”.
Previously on Press Gazette
FT becomes first UK newsbrand to announce licensing deal with OpenAI
James Harding warns BBC podcast ads will ‘drain advertising away from journalism’
Up to 15 journalists cut in latest round of sport redundancies at Mail titles
Editor of IMI-owned The National: Wrong to call us UAE ‘mouthpiece’
Top 50 UK news websites: The Independent leapfrogs Mirror and Guardian into fourth place
Rishi Sunak: OK if I clash with the media as ‘I know how important your role is’
Our latest podcast
Podcast 70: The Atlantic’s winning subscription strategy with CEO Nicholas Thompson
The Atlantic has become profitable after years in the red and marked the major milestone of reaching one million subscribers, it announced in April.
CEO Nicholas Thompson joined Press Gazette to discuss the subscription strategy behind The Atlantic’s recent success, how advertising fits in, the search for an elusive third revenue stream, and what goals he might set for the business next.
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