Media Unspun Biz Model Hopes/Plans May Be Flawed
Funniest email newsletter subscription offer I’ve ever seen just arrived in my inbox from Media Unspun:
“Why else should I pay now? Because I will pick two of the first 50 people who sign up and clean either their house or their office. Really.”
Media Unspun is a new ezine from the editorial team of seven (that’s more editors than practically any ezine on this planet these days) who did Industry Standard’s Media Grok ezine. It’s basically the same exact zine with a different name, and fewer subscribers for now (Grok had 100k+, Unspun has fewer than 10k.) The Unspun team hope to raise the opt-ins to the old high level — which is unrealistic because without a high traffic site like The Standard funneling subscriptions to you, or without buying
them through co-reg, it’s unlikely an ezine of this type will grow that big anytime soon. (Also, um, it would help if they put a subscribe form on their “About us” web page.)
They also plan to start charging $50 year ($39 intro offer) for the zine when it goes from weekly to daily in March. And expect to take payments through Amazon honor and PayPal. My take on that is, it’s easy enough to get a real merchant account and cart online these days — why do something that not only looks far more professional but also more subscribers are apt to use?
Will people pay for this type of content? I don’t know, but suspect it won’t be an easy sale because Grok was always more fun-to-know than need-to-know. When people buy content, usually it’s for something that will seriously improve their life or job. A good laugh and handy news round-up doesn’t strike me as mission-critical stuff the way that info on how to lose weight or make more sales does. This strikes me as more of an ad-based play. But, hopefully, I’m wrong
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