When I was working in the print industry, we heard - and feared - the slogan "Print is dead." We didn't believe it, and indeed, print was, and is today not dead. But it did indicate that times were a-changing. In 2023, the printing cost per issue has once more gone up significantly.
Which once more brings everyone in the publishing sector closer and closer to a digital-first or digital-only model. And that would be fine. Were it not that for advertising-funded media, print dollars are usually swapped for digital pennies.
And competing for a reader's attention on the vast and wild place of internet and social media comes with its own set of challenges.
Yet, we believe there is reason for hope.
The internet has delivered a deluge of content on everyone's doorstep. And with the advent of generative AI, content creation is literally a mouse click away. We can expect more, and more, and more content. And fewer and fewer people are willing to pay for content that indeed can be created with a software program that costs less than a hundred dollars a month.
Yet, a trend has arisen, a strong demand, against this overflow. Nobody is looking to add more noise and clutter to their lives.
What has become apparent is that we are looking for though is true knowledge, real news and authentic content 'from the source.' Audiences are willing to pay for content that stands out from the noise. Content that connects with them, content that adds to their lives rather than subtract from it.
I'm not referring to Nextflix, or Apple+, or Disney, or any of the other content streaming services for which undoubtedly you are paying at least one of them as well. And not Patreon either, where many creatives seem to have found a good home to create a revenue stream.
Pay-for-content is back. There, I said it.
Andrew Sullivan with The Dish, Jessica Lessin with The Information and Ben Thompson with Stratechery were trail-blazers in proving that audiences valued originality, authenticiy and expertise. And since then, we have seen the likes of Medium and Substack enter the field by opening up the possibility to blog-for-money for pretty much anyone.
Amidst change there is always opportunity. Nobody knows this better than founders. And what founders are always looking to create is a product-market fit.
In our content-creation market, the product is our original, authentic, expert content. And our market are our audiences.
If you are a content creator, and you have both, you achieved that magical product-market fit that most startups will never achieve. Growth and scaling is the problem.
Content-led growth
Many publishers possess a wide area of skills and expertise beyond content creation that has allowed them to thrive.
But amidst these changes outlined above, and no doubt a couple more, it is becoming more and more difficult to grow, let alone sometimes, survive. Technology is not becoming easier, it is becoming faster, and more crucial for survival, and growth.
Wordpond's goal is simple, it is one single thing:
Give publishing teams the tools to build thriving publications.
We're developing an all-in-one service to give publishing teams means to write, reach their audiences and build revenue streams.
Our tools will include easy-to-use editing software that allows to create a unique presence, a possibility to deliver advertising as part of a hybrid or advertising-only model, and a membership/payments solution that makes subscriptions intuitive and manageable. Over time, we will add data-driven growth and audience discovery tools to help publishers broaden their audiences and grow to the next level.
Publishers will always own their content, and their brand. We will never attempt to resell or distribute any of the publishers assets.
We're not claiming our platform will be a silver bullet. It will not solve all of the challenges. But it will increase efficiency, and remove a lot of technology obstacles.
Which, hopefully, allows content creators to do what we think they do best, which is product high-quality content. Goodbye quantity.