The other day Dan Frommer, Editor in Chief of Recode, tweeted out this:

https://twitter.com/fromedome/status/915914916552433664

I’ve been thinking a lot about this problem recently. I work with a lot of companies helping them with this exact question and then today Quartz at Work launched and I thought - ok time to blog!.

So here are some notes and thought starters for the question of what a “modern business publication” should be and do:

A View from Nowhere

What’s your point of view? I think this is an essential question

Branding

Branding! You can’t get to the about page. What even IS the about page? How do you instantly recognize a recode URL in your feed? Branding is friction and content is about removing friction.

A point of view. You’re not news. What is your point of view on AI? Kara’s POV is strong Quartzy? NYT 2020 report on mission/vision

Promote the voices of the individuals.

The podcast is great. The newsletter is great. Promote them with real CTAs

Bullets and real digests

Hero content. What are you known for? Data viz in service of big hitting items. Mary Meeker is top shared content on your site. Maybe readers want deep content?

Understand your audience Insights = better ads Why are ads on recode just generic vox ads?

Gather your audience Yes, you have the conference. But it’s pretty exclusive. What’s the identity moment for non-code attendees that like recode? Schwag? Community? Facebook group? Slack channel?

Maybe ditch the ads?

http://rafat.org/post/137951171636/25-founders-on-how-they-spent-the-year-building