[washingtonismoney]

In a way I think Dufresne's biz model is more sustainable than the Athletic's. I think subscriptions -- and financing expansion out of actual factual revenue -- is a perfectly smart way to build a media business. The NYT article mentions certain media organizations with which I'm intimately familiar, but note that literally none of the other subscription-led outlets on there built their businesses through venture dollars. (They could named even more. Talking Points Memo is another good example.) Anyway, these pubs built their business by creating a good subscription product and hiring and pushing more product from there.

The problem is that (most) venture capitalists expect either strikeouts or home runs, and aren't terribly patient about it. The Athletic's Toronto publication has 10-15k subscribers for $600k/year total. That's a nice business! You can have four-five writers and an editor and have a sustainable publication from there.

The problem is, if you've got a VC wanting a big bang -- say, 10x original investment, for an $80 million business -- the back-of-the-envelope math starts to become tougher. How many North Americans want to pay $60/year? Plenty for a good sustainable business. Maybe not enough for a brobdingnagian business.

[washingtonismoney]

In a way I think Dufresne's biz model is more sustainable than the Athletic's. I think subscriptions -- and financing expansion out of actual factual revenue -- is a perfectly smart way to build a media business. The NYT article mentions certain media organizations with which I'm intimately familiar, but note that literally none of the other subscription-led outlets on there built their businesses through venture dollars. (They could named even more. Talking Points Memo is another good example.) Anyway, these pubs built their business by creating a good subscription product and hiring and pushing more product from there.

The problem is that (most) venture capitalists expect either strikeouts or home runs, and aren't terribly patient about it. The Athletic's Toronto publication has 10-15k subscribers for $600k/year total. That's a nice business! You can have four-five writers and an editor and have a sustainable publication from there.

The problem is, if you've got a VC wanting a big bang -- say, 10x original investment, for an $80 million business -- the back-of-the-envelope math starts to become tougher. How many North Americans want to pay $60/year? Plenty for a good sustainable business. Maybe not enough for a brobdingnagian business.