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

When the media holding company Woven Digital purchased BroBible in 2012, the idea was that the guy-focused publisher would benefit from all the business synergies that come from being part of a larger media network. Instead, BroBible was neglected and undermonetized. So when Woven began unraveling its holdings in 2018, BroBible's staff banded together and bought it back. And what started out as a staff of seven has grown to 16 today, and the business is diversified across programmatic advertising, events, and sponsored social media posts.

In a recent interview, publisher Brandon Wenerd walked through Brobible's early blogging days, its transformation into a real business, and how breaking free of its parent company allowed it to adapt to the current media climate.

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

In 2008, Wade Wallace found himself living in Australia and laid off from the company that moved him there in the first place. With his visa in limbo, and not much else to do, he launched CyclingTips, a blog that covered both the professional and amateur aspects of the sport. What started out as a hobby eventually grew into a fully-staffed news website, one that eventually sold to the investment firm that owned Outside Magazine.

Then in 2022 he quit CyclingTips, raised some investment money, and then launched Escape Collective, which covers the exact same beat. Unlike CyclingTips, Escape Collective is fully funded through paid subscriptions, and when we recorded this interview it was on the verge of profitability.

In a recent interview, Wade walked through his early days building CyclingTips, why he grew unhappy at Outside, and how he grew Escape Collective to 15,000 paying members.

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

There was a time 20 years ago where if you filmed a horror movie on a tight enough budget, you could plausibly turn a profit from the DVD sales alone. Unfortunately for Chris Sharpe, his entry into the horror genre came just as the DVD market was collapsing, and so his career as a movie director fizzled out after he made only one film.

Luckily, one of the stars of that film, Hilah Johnson, had a strong onscreen presence and a penchant for cooking, and together they launched Hilah Cooking, a YouTube channel that eventually grew to over 450,000 subscribers. Then a few years later Chris teamed up with another co-star from that movie, Adriene Mishler, to launch Yoga With Adriene, which now has over 13 million subscribers on YouTube.

In a recent interview, Chris walked through how he and his collaborators launched both channels, why Hilah decided to eventually end her channel, and the massive success they've seen building a yoga streaming app.