The Business of Content  By  cover art

The Business of Content

By: Simon Owens tech and media journalist
  • Summary

  • The podcast about how publishers create, distribute, and monetize digital content.
    Simon Owens 2018
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Episodes
  • How Tom Arbuthnot built Empowering Cloud, a media comapany focused on Microsoft cloud products
    Mar 14 2024

    My newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/

    The rise of cloud computing introduced all sorts of benefits for the enterprise software space. Not only could license holders access their accounts from virtually anywhere, but it also allowed the software companies to issue updates on a more regular basis. But this also made the sector a lot more complicated and created a need for more experts who could educate cloud software customers about the intricacies of the tools.

    Tom Arbuthnot is one of those experts. For over a decade, he’s been a Microsoft MVP and Microsoft Certified Master, and he spent a significant amount of time in the early 2010s educating the public about these products through blogging and conference talks. But then in early 2022 he realized that there was a market opportunity for a media company to cover these products. That year, he launched Empowering Cloud, an online community that produces a mixture of videos, live calls, and other educational materials centered around Microsoft’s cloud technology.

    In my interview with Tom, we talked about the site’s launch, how he finds sponsors, and why he decided to lock most of the company’s content inside a community platform that requires a login.

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    36 mins
  • How CJ Gustafson built Mostly Metrics, a newsletter for CFOs
    Mar 7 2024

    My newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/

    I think everyone likes to think of themselves as being financially savvy, especially if, like me, you write about business topics, but how many of us truly understand finance terms that are bandied about like gross profit and lifetime value. Like we may know that the term EBITDA stands for “earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization,” but how many people actually know how to calculate it?

    CJ Gustafson knows. After a decade in finance, he’s mastered all the accounting jargon, and a few years ago he realized that there was a market need for someone who could explain these terms in a way that’s both entertaining and informative. So he launched Mostly Metrics, a Substack newsletter about finance, strategy, and operations at startups.

    CJ’s since grown the newsletter to over 42,000 subscribers, all while holding down his day job as a CFO at a tech startup. In my interview with him, we talked about why he launched the newsletter, how he balances his day job work and writing, and what his longterm plans are for the newsletter.

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    43 mins
  • How Sam Koslowski helped build The Daily Aus, a social first media outlet in Australia
    Feb 28 2024

    My newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/

    For most of Instagram’s existence, it wasn’t thought of as a platform for distributing news, but a growing number of media entrepreneurs have figured out ways to leverage its photo and video features to deliver engaging news digests.

    One of those entrepreneurs is Sam Koslowski. Back in 2017, he and his co-founder launched The Daily Aus, a social first news outlet that’s grown its Instagram account to over 500,000 followers. As it ramped up its audience on the app, it began to diversify its content offerings across newsletters, podcasts, and YouTube.

    In my interview with Sam, we discussed why Instagram was the ideal platform for launching the company, how it monetizes its content, and where he hopes to expand in the coming years.

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    43 mins

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