In the past 14 months, since jumping hoverboards from digital advertising to digital publishing, I have helped launch five new publications. Three were with Private Media (who is in a JV with Business Spectator, my employer, and The Eureka Report). Each time, since SmartCompany was launched almost 5 years ago, the time it takes to reach a critical mass of readers is shortening.
Below you can see SmartCompany took over a year to reach over halfway up the index (what I would consider our minimum reader level for commercial viability. Each other publication took considerably less each time, going from seven months, then four, then two months, to reach this milestone. This is the network effect of being able to share links, cross-publish one article across multiple and link back. Oh, and that small matter of Google Juice helps too. With each new publication, the speed in growth increases.
Last month we launched The Power Index – a site dedicated to investigating who really runs Australia. Headed by Walkley Award Winning journalist Paul Barry in partnership with Private Media it features a staff of four writers and uncovers a list of ten each fortnight, as well as covering and breaking daily news in business, politics and society.
The site is another freemium experiment for us, being a free-website. Profiles on the Power Index requiring a subscription, and PDF reports on each profile also available for individual purchase.
See below for a glimpse, visit the site to browse (it is currently unlocked for a limited time). You can subscribe to the free daily newsletter here.
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