audience development – From Pixels to Particles

Crisis Mode: Why Small Publishers Should See Opportunity in the Chaos

Every now and then, I read something from a media veteran that feels like it’s aimed right at the big players — but still lands squarely in the lap of small and niche publishers. That’s exactly what happened with Chris Duncan’s upcoming keynote at the FIPP World Media Congress.

Duncan’s career is full of steering through storms — launching The Times on the iPad (when that was brand new territory), leading through COVID, and now advising on the AI tidal wave that’s hitting every corner of publishing. His core message? Publishing thrives in crisis.

Now, “thrives” might feel like a stretch if you’re running a three-person operation and trying to keep the lights on. But here’s where the small guys might actually have an edge: when the ground shifts under everyone, agility beats scale.

What small publishers should take away

1. AI isn’t just a newsroom curiosity — it’s a traffic problem.
Yes, AI tools can help you cut costs and automate grunt work. But Duncan’s warning is clear: generative AI could cut off more referral traffic than Google already has. For small publishers, that means you can’t afford to be a “search-dependent” business. Your audience has to remember you and seek you out.

2. Innovation isn’t optional.
He’s blunt: mobile journalism hasn’t seen much truly new since about 2012. That’s both sobering and exciting. If you’re a niche publisher, you don’t need to outspend The New York Times — you need to outthink them in your lane. That might mean interactive features, audio companions to your stories, or even an “insider’s app” for your core audience.

3. The platform era is shifting — be ready.
Duncan thinks we’re past the peak of Google and Meta’s dominance. That’s a rare window to build distribution without depending entirely on them. When big platforms are distracted by regulators and market shifts, you can make a move to deepen your direct audience connections.

Where to put your focus next

Here are three action items I think every small or niche publisher should put on their whiteboard after reading Duncan’s comments:

Build direct audience pipelines.
Start or double down on newsletters, podcasts, private communities, or events. Make sure your readers’ path to your content doesn’t depend on an algorithm.
Test one “genuinely new” product feature in the next year.
Could be a micro-app, an interactive archive, or a new storytelling format. The goal is to prove you can innovate without waiting for the industry to hand you a playbook.
Scenario-plan for a search traffic cliff.
If your Google referrals dropped 50% tomorrow, how would you adapt? Do that planning now while you have the luxury of time.

Duncan’s not saying this will be easy — far from it. But he is saying that urgency forces experimentation, and experimentation is where breakthroughs happen. For small publishers, the trick is to use your speed, focus, and audience intimacy as weapons in this fight.

You may not have a “war room” of strategists, but you do have something the giants often lack: a direct line to a loyal audience that cares deeply about your coverage. That’s your moat. Guard it, grow it, and use this crisis moment to get a little scrappy.

If you want the full keynote preview, it’s worth a read: Publishers work best in some form of crisis.

Takeaway for the fridge:
Crisis is coming. The question is — will you let it happen to you, or will you make it work for you?

What Small Publishers Can Learn from the Big Four’s AI-Defying Quarter

If you’ve been following the headlines, you might think AI is poised to hollow out the news business — stealing traffic, scraping archives, and churning out synthetic stories that compete with the real thing. And yet, four of America’s largest news organizations — Thomson Reuters, News Corp, People Inc (formerly Dotdash Meredith), and The New York Times — just turned in a combined \$5 billion in quarterly revenue and nearly \$1.2 billion in profit.

I first came across this coverage in the BoSacks newsletter, which linked to Press Gazette’s original report. The piece details how these companies aren’t just surviving in the AI era; they’re quietly reshaping their models to make it work for them. From AI-powered professional tools to content licensing deals with OpenAI, Amazon, and Meta, they’re finding ways to monetize their content and expand audience engagement — even as Google’s AI-driven search starts serving answers instead of links.

For smaller, niche publishers, the temptation is to shrug this off. “Sure, it’s easy when you have a billion-dollar brand and a legal department the size of my entire staff.” But there’s a lot here that is portable — if you focus on the right pieces.

Lesson 1: Own Your Audience Before AI Owns Your Traffic

One of the clearest takeaways from the big four is how much they’re investing in direct audience relationships. The New York Times hit 11.88 million subscribers, People Inc launched a dedicated app, and even News Corp’s Dow Jones division keeps climbing on digital subscriptions.

For small publishers, this means stop over-relying on algorithmic referrals. If you’re still counting on Facebook, Google, or Apple News as your main discovery channels, you’re building on borrowed land.

Action:

Launch a low-friction email newsletter that delivers high-value, niche-specific updates.
Incentivize sign-ups with premium extras — e-books, data sheets, or early access content.
Build community spaces (Discord, Slack, or forums) where your most engaged readers gather off-platform.

Lesson 2: Package Your Expertise as a Product, Not Just a Publication

Thomson Reuters isn’t just “doing news.” They’re integrating AI into products like CoCounsel, which bakes their proprietary legal and tax content into Microsoft 365 workflows. It’s sticky, high-margin, and hard for competitors to replicate.

Smaller publishers may not have the dev team to roll out enterprise-level AI tools, but the underlying idea applies: turn your content into something your audience uses, not just reads.

Action:

Convert your most-requested guides or reports into downloadable templates, toolkits, or training modules.
Create a searchable knowledge base for subscribers, updated with new insights monthly.
Partner with a lightweight AI platform to offer custom alerts or summaries in your niche.

Turn insights into income.

Don’t just read about what’s possible — start building it now. I’ve put together a free, printable 90-Day Growth Plan for Small Publishers with simple, actionable steps you can follow today to grow your audience and revenue.

Lesson 3: Monetize Your Archives and Protect Your IP

Both the NYT and News Corp are in legal battles over AI scraping, but they’re also cutting deals to license their content. The message is clear: your back catalog is an asset — treat it like one.

For small publishers, this could mean licensing niche datasets, syndicating evergreen content to allied outlets, or even creating curated “best of” packages for corporate training or education markets.

Action:

Audit your archive for evergreen, high-demand topics.
Explore licensing or syndication deals with industry associations, trade schools, or niche platforms.
Add clear terms of use and copyright notices to protect your content from unauthorized scraping.

Lesson 4: Diversify Revenue Beyond Ads

People Inc is replacing declining print dollars with more profitable digital and e-commerce revenue. The Times is making real money from games, cooking, and even video spin-offs of podcasts.

Smaller publishers don’t need a NYT-sized portfolio to diversify. You just need a second or third income stream that aligns with your audience’s interests.

Action:

Launch a paid resource library with niche-specific data, tools, or premium reports.
Run virtual events, webinars, or training sessions for a fee.
Sell targeted sponsorships or native content in newsletters instead of relying solely on display ads.

The Bottom Line

AI disruption is real — and it’s already changing how readers find and consume news. But the big players are showing that with strong brands, direct audience relationships, and smart product diversification, you can turn the threat into an advantage.

For smaller publishers, the scale is different but the playbook is the same:

Control your audience pipeline.
Turn your expertise into products.
Protect and monetize your archives.
Don’t bet your survival on one revenue stream.

It’s not about matching the NYT’s resources; it’s about matching their mindset. In the AI era, the publishers who think like product companies — and treat their audience like customers instead of traffic — will be the ones still standing when the algorithms shift again.

Memorable takeaway: In the AI age, resilience isn’t about the size of your newsroom — it’s about the strength of your audience ties and the creativity of your monetization.

Ready to grow? Grab the free, printable 90-Day Growth Plan for Small Publishers and start building your audience and revenue today.

Reignite Your Niche Magazine: Blending Timeless Marketing with Smart Digital Tactics

I just dove into Tom Goodwin’s provocative piece, “We’ve forgotten how to market. So, how should today’s playbook look?”—which I first spotted in BoSack’s newsletter (highly recommend subscribing if you haven’t!)—and it got me thinking: what if you ran a niche magazine or a specialist news outlet—how would you apply his six-pronged revival plan to your world?

1. Reclaim the Classics

When you’re covering, say, indie architecture or artisanal food, you already know your audience’s quirks. But have you written down your positioning statement lately? Dust off that 4-Ps playbook:

Segmentation: Beyond “interested in craft beer,” drill into motivations—collectors hunting rare brews, home-brewers, industry pros.
Proposition & Consistency: If your magazine promises “deep dives into brewing’s alpine terroir,” every newsletter, cover story, and Instagram Reel must echo that core promise.

By re-centering these fundamentals, you build a loyal, identifiable readership that transcends fickle click metrics.

2. Pick & Polish the New Tools

Goodwin isn’t anti-tech—he just wants us to be choosy. For your niche title:

Retargeting with Purpose: Don’t just chase “abandoned carts.” Use web analytics to spot readers who read three long-form essays in a session—serve them a webinar invite or premium newsletter upsell.
Lookalike Audiences: Model your highest-value subscribers (annual-plan renewers) and find similar prospects on social platforms. But keep it tight: a narrow +5% lookalike is better than broad +20%.
Creative Testing, Lightly: A/B test subject lines for your subscription emails, but only iterate on those that truly shift conversion by more than 10%.

The key? Only invest in tech that measurably deepens engagement or loyalty, not vanity metrics.

3. Define Your Success on Your Terms

Are your quarterly targets all about “lowering cost-per-click” or about “growing paid circulation by 15%”? Maybe you want to be known for live-streaming expert panels on emerging tech, even if that doesn’t spike immediate ad revenue. Clarify:

Short-Term: Boost open rates on your weekend roundup from 25% to 35%.
Long-Term: Cultivate a community around exclusive member-only Slack channels where your most passionate readers network.

When you know what you really care about, you can filter out the noise.

4. Fuse Old & New Playbooks

Put the two in dialogue:

Classic Insight: A paid subscriber is 5× more valuable than an ad-only reader.
Modern Tactic: Use cohort analysis (new tool!) to see which first-month issue topics yield the highest 6-month renewal rates.

You might discover that long investigative features drive retention more than listicles—and then double down on those premium stories.

5. Reimagine Your Canvas

Today’s screens are gorgeous and interactive. For a specialized news org:

Interactive Infographics: Instead of a static pie chart on artisanal cheese markets, build a click-through journey that lets readers explore each region’s unique strains.
Audio Supplements: Embed 2-minute mini-podcasts in your articles—think “soundscape of a New England dairy farm” alongside your written feature.

These high-quality, sensory-rich experiences align with Goodwin’s call for distinctive, creative work that stands out in a sea of bland ads.

6. Persuade the Powers That Be

This is often the toughest: convincing your board or investors that a six-month brand campaign—say, a “Founders Series” profiling craft producers—matters even if it doesn’t drive clicks immediately. Build your case by:

Benchmarking Success: Show how other niche titles (e.g., a gourmet-pizza newsletter) saw a 20% lift in subscriptions six months after launching a video miniseries.
Hybrid KPIs: Combine quantitative (subscription growth) with qualitative (Net Promoter Score, reader surveys on “how memorable was last month’s cover?”).

Frame it as “investment” rather than “cost,” and lean on your deep knowledge of your audience’s values.

Wrapping Up

If you’re running a niche magazine or specialist news outlet, Tom Goodwin’s rallying cry isn’t just about ditching hollow metrics—it’s about owning your unique space with conviction. Rediscover the bedrock of segmentation and consistency, wield modern tools to enrich—not distract—and champion the long game to stakeholders.

“Do we want to hide behind spreadsheets… or do we want to make work that we feel proud of?”

That question feels especially urgent when your brand is small but mighty. Here’s to bold, big-idea marketing in the specialist press—thanks again to BoSack’s newsletter for pointing me to this gem.

What If News Avoiders Are Right—and Journalism Needs to Get Real?

Let’s face it: a staggering number of people are tuning out the news on purpose. Recent reports say that in some countries, up to 60% of the public avoids the news entirely. That’s not just a sign of audience fatigue—it’s a flashing red light for anyone who still believes journalism is “essential.” (Hat tip to BoSacks, whose newsletter first put this article on my radar.)

The Practitioner’s Dilemma: “But How Do We Fix It?”

Having spent years working with and around newsrooms, I’ve had a front-row seat to the cycle: new tools, new platforms, fresh engagement strategies—all launched in the hope of winning back audiences. But let’s be honest: none of it really matters if the news itself doesn’t fit into people’s lives. The recent piece, What if news avoiders are right and you don’t need journalism? confronts this crisis head-on.

The authors argue that journalism has been missing the mark, producing for peers or vague notions of “the public” while ignoring how people actually use—or don’t use—what we publish. The JR3 project, with folks from the Knight Lab and News Alchemists, gathered a group to ask two deceptively simple questions:

“What is the purpose of journalism?”
“What should journalism enable us to feel, think, or do?”

When journalists answered honestly, their responses shifted from the usual talk of “watchdogs” and “guardians of truth.” Instead, people wanted journalism to help them feel better, take meaningful action, and connect with others. Not exactly the classic playbook—but maybe that’s the point.

But the Contrarian in Me Isn’t Satisfied

Now, here’s where my skeptical side kicks in. If we only create journalism to make people feel good or “empowered,” do we risk turning away from the hard truths that journalism is supposed to shine a light on? The world isn’t always a comfortable place. Sometimes, the news is negative because reality is negative.

Let’s not fool ourselves: there’s a danger in softening every edge or chasing popularity at the expense of uncomfortable, necessary stories. Journalism isn’t about customer service or crafting content that never offends. It’s about surfacing what matters—even when that means unsettling people, or challenging their views.

So Where’s the Sweet Spot?

For me, the real opportunity here isn’t about throwing out the old model for the shiny new one. It’s about balance. Yes, journalism should be more in tune with its audience: listen more, communicate with empathy, design stories that matter in the real world. But at the same time, it can’t become an echo chamber or a comfort zone.

The best journalism serves both the audience’s needs and the public interest—even when those don’t perfectly align. That tension? That’s where the real work happens.

Want to Go Deeper?

How would a newsroom look if it truly put audience needs at the center, every day?
Should every story be “empowering,” or do some just need to be true?
How do we measure impact without reducing journalism to a popularity contest?
Where does audience input strengthen journalism, and where does it dilute its mission?

Who Should Care?

If you work with media, study journalism, or have simply given up on the news because it feels irrelevant or exhausting—now’s the time to get involved. This isn’t just about keeping journalism alive as a business; it’s about making it matter to people again, even when that means making us all a little uncomfortable.

Memorable Takeaway:
“The pre-existing mental model for journalism falls apart when you center the audience.” But maybe it holds together best when you center both the audience—and the uncomfortable truth.