Fundamentals of an editorial product business

Driving factors: Differentiation

Differentiation typically comes from building authenticity on your core product, i.e., editorial product. This involves owning more of the value chain:

Owned Identity

• Are you a trusted brand or voice for a well-defined topic?
• Are you able to set the agenda for a well-defined audience segment?
• How strong is your recall among that well-defined audience segment?

Owned Network

• Have you stitched the most active members of that audience segment into a tight knit community?
• Is the community co-building with you or via you?
• How are you ensuring that you are not only building but also retaining 1:1 relationship within that community?

Owned Media

• What’s your information architecture and content strategy?
• How deep are you serving that vertical?
• Is your website (yes! a website even after GenerativeAI) representative of who you are?

Amplification factors

While the above gets your driving factors in place, the next aspects define how much you can amplify. This includes:

• Distribution
• Ability to sell advertisements, subscriptions, or events
• Ability to market and develop audience