The Case Against Growing an Audience

The Case Against Growing an Audience

Hey Everyone,

Hope you're having a great week. Here are a few things I've been reading, writing and pondering lately. Enjoy!

1. You Don’t Need an Audience

One of our goals at Animalz is to change the language used to talk about content marketing. It’s why we don’t use the word “publication” and aren’t fans of marketing personas.

Here's another term we'd like to do away with: "audience."

Your readers are likely not part of a growing audience, but rather a continuous stream of people with a problem to solve. At the moment they need an answer, they search Google and find you. Your “audience” is actually a different group of people each day.

When you let go of the idea of an “audience,” you realize that you need far less content to be successful. Even a handful of pieces, strategically placed and well-written, can serve readers over and over again.

actual-audience

2. Why The Athletic Wants to Pillage Newspapers

Disrupting sports journalism could be a win-win for The Athletic and underpaid reporters all over the country. For newspapers, not so much.

The reporters are sometimes the most knowledgeable sources of information on the teams they cover, but they are afforded little opportunity to step back and write impactful articles.

These reporters are skilled experts feeling the strains of a crippled industry, and many are looking for a way out. [The Athletic founder Alex] Mather knows it.

And he really isn’t messing around: “We will wait every local paper out and let them continuously bleed until we are the last ones standing.”

3. 10 Great People to Follow on Twitter

Here are a few people whose tweets I’ve really been enjoying lately:

4. Tweet of the Week

Have a great weekend!

Jimmy

PS - I’m looking to partner with a few great businesses to sponsor this newsletter. It reaches a bunch of smart folks from places like Google, Apple, Spotify, New York Times, Marriott and Harvard. Shoot me an email if you're interested in working together.

PPS - I created an email course called 5 Days to Better Content Marketing. More than 300 people have already taken it. You should check it out too.

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