James Capo

@_astev @FreightAlley It is also about community and identity for the reader. Not all pubs have that. But a way to think about it is would you ever leave your laptop open on the coffee table to your favorite website with friends over? You would with flying mag - if a pilot. Content & context matter

@FreightAlley I understand your thesis. But do you believe audiences are actually deeply engaging with/reading them? (All the way through) Or, does it not even matter so long as they like the content *enough,* even if it means skimming, that they continue to sub?

The magazine business used to be highly glamorous and (literally) printed money. The market changed rapidly in just a decade, and incumbents didn't adapt their unit economics fast enough. Investment collapsed. Magazine publishers became zombies. They were still saddled with bloated cost structures and operating models. Hence, the opportunity. Print multiples used to be in the high teens of EBIT. Now, these brands trade at 3x - some category-leading media properties. We are picking up legacy print magazines with strong brands and audiences because these publishers require significant business model overhauls. But the most valuable part of the magazine business isn't the cash flow; it's the audience.

@FreightAlley Been a ride! Excited to help on what’s next.

In the first quarter of 2024, I had a significant issue at Firecrown. Our subscription acquisitions had imploded. In 6 months, sub bookings dropped by more than 75%. It was incredibly frustrating. It was costing us millions of dollars in monthly cash flow. I knew something was way off, but I couldn't figure it out. When the company had a single title, FLYING, we were great at subscriptions, but we were approaching 30 titles through acquisition, and our subs had imploded. At the same time, I was pitched an acquisition for a publisher that focused on railroad hobby and astronomy titles, Kalmbach. The company had world-class subscription metrics. It soon became apparent that they had nailed print subscription ops and had a team that was best in class. We underwrote the business on its own merits but knew the prize was in the subscription ops team of the acquired company. On the day of the deal, I announced that the Kalmbach team would take over all audience and subscription operations for Firecrown. The team came in and operationalized our subscription business. It's been 7 months. Subscriptions of the pre-Kalmbach titles have made up lost ground and are now 30% higher than before our business cratered. If current momentum holds, we could see our subscription bookings double in 2025, adding millions of lost revenue. And the Kalmbach business we acquired? It has become our most profitable. Those titles will likely return our entire investment in 18 months after close.

@rafat @amediaoperator @JayCoDon Great seeing you both. And I couldn’t agree more.

B2B media/info businesses never really got tons of love from larger media world, crappy trade pubs in pre-Web world & then paidContent brought digital chops to coverage for years of its existence. On & off others have covered it over the years. But @amediaoperator by @JayCoDon has created a great safe space for us. The AMO Summit yesterday was such a great breathing out moment for me and so many of us, with anywhere from few million to tens of millions to even hundred million+ in revenues companies, almost all of us solidly profitable/growing unless you have the misfortune of being debt-laden PE owned in this market. Events as safe space for owners/entrepreneurs is an under-appreciated part of the magic. 👏🏼👏🏼

Awesome time hanging with @FreightAlley is Chattanooga this week. Great town and a great media company. I’m proud @OmedaDataDriven is helping them build something special.

Omeda is the operating system of the modern media industry. Hanging with James tonight in Chattanooga. Plotting the future…

@maxwelltani How does he define “audience”? Paid Subscribers? Print? Email newsletters subs? Fly by search/social traffic? If Search/Social, yeah…happening everywhere. But that is not a “real” audience.

Washington Post CEO Will Lewis is introing the paper’s new “Build It” plan today. In a meeting with staff, he noted that the paper lost $77 million over the past year, and saw a 50% drop off in audience since 2020: “To be direct, we are in a hole, and we have been for some time."

@seangriffey And you need to be in control of your own companies destiny…otherwise you are just a pawn in the larger game. wsj.com/tech/google-de…

Seeing more and more press releases like this one from B2B media. If you are cynical, you can read this as simply saying "we are now using a CDP" to process user data. But the shift to 1st-party data is happening fast. Everyone needs a strategy einpresswire.com/article/705911…

@alexisgrant @jryedinak @OmedaDataDriven @AdamRy_n @FreightAlley @JayCoDon @alexisgrant not a all! Let me know if you’d like to attend.

@jryedinak @OmedaDataDriven @AdamRy_n @FreightAlley @JayCoDon @jamescapo Looks like only open to clients tho.

Just bought my ticket for arguably the best b2b media event of the year — OX7 from @OmedaDataDriven Hear from some of my friends like @AdamRy_n @FreightAlley @JayCoDon and more Free drink on @jamescapo if you buy from this tweet, too.

@jryedinak @OmedaDataDriven @AdamRy_n @FreightAlley @JayCoDon And I’ll make it double.

@JMatthewMcGarry While I agree newsletters can help power these channels, this is more a 1st party audience data mindset than a newsletter mindset. Rather than focusing on a “single channel” mindset it is a “audience mindset” (multi-channel, multi-product). A media company vs a newsletter.

If you're starting a newsletter, think about your product/service offer from day 1. The best newsletters are distribution channels for a high LTV product -- not just a place to sell ads.

Here are revenue streams you can create from a newsletter: • Events • Agency • Courses • Affiliates • Speaking • Coaching • Job board • Consulting • Mastermind • Sponsorships • Paid newsletter • Lead generation • Paid community • Data subscription

@JayCoDon Add Healthcare, Higher Ed, Government to that list.

These are good recommendations. What's insane is that upwards of 65% of all clicks are bots. It, ultimately, depends on the niche you operate in. I'd wager if you're in banking or something heavily financial services, it could be even higher.

@GabeTheWP So good

This is all award shows should be twitter.com/RealBrittain/s…

@amlewis4 @snigdhasur Happy to chat @snigdhasur . we met briefly at the AMO event this fall. Our platform is used by hundreds of large enterprise level media companies that need a more robust solution. We also provide subscription and cdp platform. We’re a foundational 1PD audience platform.

@snigdhasur @beehiiv I mean it’s expensive, but Omeda, Sailthru or enterprise esp solution might make more sense in long run.

mailchimp has gotten WAY too expensive for us as we scale. we still need a bunch of features however. have been considering @beehiiv (am an investor) but some features aren't out yet.. what's a lower cost solution?

@zachklein 100 year old* media company*

@zachklein Kalmbach Publishing (based in Milwaukee) and publisher of Trains.com and Model Railroader might be interested. 100 year of media co. They have a massive setup like this in their office. I know the executive team there and can make intros. Feel free to DM me.

You guys. My wife's uncle is a major model train buff. He built a 2000sqft train layout over decades and now he wants to retire from the hobby and just give the whole thing away for FREE. He asked me if I knew anyone...I want to help!

@Loganullyott @gregisenberg More here omeda.com/blog/the-impac…

@Loganullyott @gregisenberg Apple MPP (released in 21) caused a significant increase in fake opens. Security products (barracuda, proofpoint) also open and click creating “fake” non-human traffic. Enterprise email platforms (like Omeda) are equipped to handle in their reporting. Others not so much.

Most email newsletters are zombie newsletters People with thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands emails subscribers might feel pretty good and talk about their open rates being 40-50%, but it's all smoke and mirrors. Often, these guys are acquiring email subs via paid. Either these subscribers don't even remember subscribing or it's the same small group of people that are getting tossed around from newsletter to newsletter. It reminds me of banner ads... 8% of Internet users account for 85% of clicks on display ads. I'd bet probably 8% of email subs acquired via paid account for 85% of subs for lots of newsletters. So forget open-rate. It's a vanity metric. And forget subscribers, it's a vanity metric. Clicks-per-send is the second best metric. Those people care enough to click. How many people respond to your email is the ultimate metric to actually track. Those are the people that truly care.

@JMatthewMcGarry Yes, open rates ☠️. And clicks are dying bc bot clicks from security products. A larger issue, as a content creator, is the dependency on a single channel for engagement. An audience centric approach but a multi channel distribution model (web/email/events/webinars/print?!) is 👍

Apple screwed every newsletter that that provided a great reading experience with few links Now every sophisticated newsletter and media company is prioritizing clicks over opens. Open rates are dead.

@bmorrissey Merge variables in email make this pretty easy to do actually. However, I like embedding it in the copy. My guess it is not a big cta lift but does show the publication cares about the details. And people respect that.

This is a clever hack. Would like to know the incremental lift from the personalized CTA.

It seems that so many wonderful people are leaving this world, and now Jimmy Buffett is one of them. I’ve known Jimmy for some time and found him to be one of the kindest and most generous people.  I remember once on holiday when I had forgotten to bring my guitar and was itching to play. He said he would get me one of his, but I said, ‘I’m left-handed’. So, Jimmy had his roadie restring one of his guitars which he loaned me for the duration of the holiday. He then followed this act of generosity by giving me my own beautiful left-handed guitar that had been made by one of his guitar-making pals. It’s a beautiful instrument, and every time I play it now it’ll remind me of what a great man Jimmy was.  He had a most amazing lust for life and a beautiful sense of humour. When we swapped tales about the past his were so exotic and lush and involved sailing trips and surfing and so many exciting stories that it was hard for me to keep up with him.  Right up to the last minute his eyes still twinkled with a humour that said, ‘I love this world and I’m going to enjoy every minute of it’.  So many of us will miss Jimmy and his tremendous personality. His love for us all, and for mankind as a whole.  Last, but not least, is his songwriting and vocal ability. If someone made an interesting remark he repeated it in his gorgeous Louisiana drawl and said, ‘That’s a good idea for a song’. Most times it didn’t take too long for that song to appear. I was very happy to have played on one of his latest songs called ‘My Gummy Just Kicked In’. We had a real fun session and he played me some of his new songs. One, in particular, I loved was the song, ‘Bubbles Up’. And I told him that not only was the song great but the vocal was probably the best I’ve heard him sing ever. He turned a diving phrase that is used to train people underwater into a metaphor for life when you’re confused and don’t know where you are just follow the bubbles - they’ll take you up to the surface and straighten you out right away.  So long, Jim. You are a very special man and friend and it was a great privilege to get to know you and love you. Bubbles up, my friend.  Love, Paul