Media companies are getting excited about free content again

Editor’s note: Hi there Medium readers! I’m Simon Owens and I’m a journalist who writes about the media industry and Creator Economy. Below is my weekly roundup of links to industry news. Enjoy!

Media companies are suddenly getting excited about free content again. [LA Times]

Related observation: BuzzFeed started seriously investing in video starting in 2012, and it’s struggling to eek out $400 million a year across all its properties. PlutoTV started in 2013 and it’s already up to $1.2 billion in revenue.

How local newsletters can thrive on Substack [Simon Owens]

Many of the most high-profile Substack newsletters cover broad, national topics, but there’s also exciting stuff happening at the local level.

Twitter launches new features for Super Follows [Social Media Today]

This is a step in the right direction, but the Super Follows value proposition still isn’t that great. I’m absolutely astonished that it hasn’t occurred to Twitter to integrate Super Follows into a Revue newsletter subscription.

How a kids-focused podcaster reached 1 million monthly downloads [Simon Owens]

How did an engineer who didn’t even listen to podcasts become the fastest-growing brand in children’s audio? I interviewed Jim Jacob about his plans to become the next Mr. Rogers.

The Atlantic launches a book imprint [Publishers Weekly]

I don’t know why most national publishers didn’t start doing this sooner. You put all this effort into nurturing writing talent and then allow that talent to publish their book content elsewhere?