554 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

Capital Daily website article count:

 

 

Jan 22

Jan 23 (2)

Jan 24 (2)

Jan 25 (2)

- none

Jan 27 (4)

Jan 28

- none

Jan 30  

- none

- none

- none

 

Today's newsletter has no fresh news articles, links a November 2022 piece, and the TC for one article.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 02 February 2023 - 06:48 AM.

[Mike K.]

Yes, it is difficult to provide news to people for free, let alone to go out and get subscribers that make enough of a financial difference to help lessen the burden. It takes a lot of time to work the deals that keep an operation afloat. It takes a lot of time to put out content.

The only way to do it is to hustle and to keep moving.

[Victoria Watcher]

Yes, it is difficult to provide news to people for free, let alone to go out and get subscribers that make enough of a financial difference to help lessen the burden. It takes a lot of time to work the deals that keep an operation afloat. It takes a lot of time to put out content.

The only way to do it is to hustle and to keep moving.

 

Or use ChatGPT:

 

Breaking news, it's harder than solving a Rubik's Cube with one hand to give away news for free and expect people to pay up like they just hit the jackpot. It's a real workout trying to make deals that'll keep the ship from sinking. And don't even get me started on the time it takes to produce content, it's like running a marathon in flip flops. The secret to success? Hustle like you're running from the cops and never stop moving, baby!

 

 

 

Providing news to the public for free, while also acquiring subscribers that provide significant financial support, is a challenging task. Negotiating deals to maintain the viability of the operation takes substantial time and effort, as does producing and distributing relevant content. The key to success in this industry is persistence and determination.

 

 

 

 

In today's fast-paced world, the dissemination of news and information has become an essential aspect of our daily lives. However, providing this information to the public for free, while also securing enough subscribers to offset the costs associated with running a news operation, is a formidable challenge. It requires a great deal of time, effort, and expertise to negotiate the deals that keep the operation financially viable and to produce and distribute quality content.

 

The process of acquiring subscribers, in particular, requires a concerted effort to market the news organization and its offerings. It entails creating a compelling value proposition for the public and reaching out to potential subscribers through various channels. The process of maintaining these subscribers also requires careful attention to ensure that they continue to receive value from the news organization.

 

Despite the difficulties associated with running a successful news operation, the only way to succeed is to persistently pursue this goal. This involves working tirelessly to establish and maintain strong relationships with both subscribers and partners, while continuously producing high-quality content. It is only through this combination of hard work, determination, and a relentless drive to succeed that a news organization can overcome the challenges associated with providing news to the public for free.

 

 

 

 

 

The task of delivering news to the public for free, while also securing enough subscribers to offset operational costs, is a complex challenge. Sustaining a successful news operation requires extensive effort in negotiating financial deals and producing high-quality content.

 

Acquiring subscribers is a critical component of this challenge. It involves creating a compelling value proposition, marketing the news organization and its offerings, and building and maintaining strong relationships with subscribers.

 

The process of putting out content is equally demanding, requiring a significant investment of time and effort to research, write, and distribute articles that are accurate, relevant, and engaging.

 

Despite the difficulties, there is only one way to succeed in this industry: to work tirelessly, be persistent, and never stop moving forward. This requires a relentless drive to succeed and a commitment to producing quality content and building strong relationships with subscribers and partners.

 

In conclusion, providing news to the public for free and securing enough subscribers to offset operational costs is a complex challenge. However, success in this industry can be achieved through hard work, determination, and a never-give-up attitude.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 02 February 2023 - 07:07 AM.

[Mike K.]

The other side of the coin is every time you put out a compelling or unique story, the other journalists rush in, repackage your content, often not even add anything new to the story, and publish it as their own “news” with no credit, mention, citing or reference at all to the source. And sometimes their re-write is a near literal version of the original story they based their “news” off.

Theft of content, plagiarism and otherwise unethical practices are rife in this industry, and because so many journalists conduct themselves that way, the new ones coming in see it as normal despite their education making it clear how to conduct yourself when in the real world.

To Cap’s credit they conducted themselves very well in that regard, even though some of their former and current hires haven’t under previous positions at other outlets.

[Victoria Watcher]

Or put another way:

 

The flip side of having a captivating or distinctive story is that other journalists often steal the content, retelling it without adding anything new or giving credit to the original source. This practice, known as plagiarism, is prevalent in the industry and perpetuated by journalists who view it as normal despite being taught the ethics of writing. Cap has maintained a good reputation by handling their content ethically, despite past actions by some of their employees at other outlets.

[Mike K.]

A human couldn’t write it better.

[Stephen James]

Thank you for sharing those tweets, VW! So many levels of the two sides talking at entirely cross-purposes. Ms. Chaland doesn't seem to understand much about business, sales, marketing... not usually a winning marketing strategy to say, "send money, we're about to fail!"

 

I wonder if Wilkinson/Mohamed:

• approved of the narrowing political spectrum represented in the writing?
• thought a narrow political agenda would be the best strategy for paid customers?

From a strategic perspective, I could argue it was an utter failure. Who was their customer? When they started, the words suggested the average citizen of Victoria was their customer. There was going to be municipal oversight, in-depth analysis of the issues... but any reader after JT took over would have thought it was a leftist/Marxist trade rag for the true believers.

[Mike K.]

$20,000/month, with nine employees is $2,200/month. Surely the employees were paid more?

Then factor in EI, employer-paid benefits, health insurance, the operating costs and investments/expenses to make the operation work.

It’s shocking that this isn’t glanced over by Ricochet as they describe the situation as “thriving.” A back of napkin calculation without an office space is about $60,000/month to run that operation. If it’s bringing in $20,000, it’s bleeding money hard.

[Victoria Watcher]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a bunch of ninnies.

[spanky123]

^^ When he says "making" does he mean revenue or profit? Usually it means the later.

Edited by spanky123, 02 February 2023 - 12:17 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Story, over: Billionaire blows up thriving local news outlet

 

 

https://ricochet.med...cal-news-outlet

Victoria’s Capital Daily was profitable, popular and a critical darling. Then the owners of Overstory Media Group fired most of its staff

 

 

 

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 02 February 2023 - 12:21 PM.

[Mike K.]

So if it was profiting $20,000/month, the 3% of its 55,000 newsletter readers who were subscribers were paying an average of $50/month, if revenues were $80,000 per month. If the monthly cost was $80k (with $20k profit), then each subscriber was paying $60.

[Victoria Watcher]

According to multiple sources with knowledge of internal finances the outlet is currently making $20,000 a month in profit, and the decline in revenue Mohamed is referring to is a projection of what may happen six months or more in the future, based on a dip in advance ad sales. OMG may be losing money, but Capital Daily isn’t, and even in the worst case scenario would remain profitable for many months. Mohamed stopped responding when Ricochet asked him what the basis for these projections was.

 

 

 

 

 

A best I can tell Cap Daily might be making $20,000/mo. revenue, not profit.  1,650 subscribers.

 

 

 

 

But all wasn’t well below the surface at OMG. Sources describe an increasingly toxic workplace, with Mohamed interfering in editorial decisions and pushing employees to abandon award-winning longer form journalism in favour of short, snappy daily news type articles. He denied these allegations in response to questions from Ricochet, but comments he made on the leaked recording are consistent with the experiences described by multiple OMG sources.

 

_____________________

 

On Twitter Wednesday, Mohamed said he was unaware his staff were organizing to join a union. Wilkinson, meanwhile, tweeted that “we had heard they were talking about unionizing since spring.” Mohamed did not respond to a request to explain this discrepancy.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 02 February 2023 - 12:30 PM.

[vortoozo]

So if it was profiting $20,000/month, the 3% of its 55,000 newsletter readers who were subscribers were paying an average of $50/month, if revenues were $80,000 per month. If the monthly cost was $80k (with $20k profit), then each subscriber was paying $60.

Monthly subscription is $10: Become a Member (capitaldaily.ca)

[spanky123]

So if it was profiting $20,000/month, the 3% of its 55,000 newsletter readers who were subscribers were paying an average of $50/month, if revenues were $80,000 per month. If the monthly cost was $80k (with $20k profit), then each subscriber was paying $60.

And ad revenue and the fact that the Feds were paying 25% of wage costs.

The annual top tier membership was $500 a month.

[vortoozo]

The annual top tier membership was $500 a month.

 

$500 a year.

[spanky123]

In any event this is a gong show and badly handled by Tiny/OMG. The employees have only one story - they were fired. in the past 48 hours I have heard at least 5 different versions of why they were let go from OMG and/or people associated with them.

 

VW's article demonstrates how little thought was put into this which is surprising given how hard the teams work to build and support their brand.

[spanky123]

$500 a year.

 

Yes my bad but still much more than $10 a month.

[Mike K.]

How much was the federal government kicking in?

It is theoretically possible it was profitable due to government subsidies.

[spanky123]

How much was the federal government kicking in?

It is theoretically possible it was profitable due to government subsidies.

 

Government pays 25% of wages for journalism.