🔶 #17: "What if journalism was a place you could walk into again?”
Hello and welcome back to the News Alchemists newsletter!
Today I want to tell you a little story. A few weeks ago, I received an email I was not expecting: "Mattia, I'm interested in supporting your newsletter. Are you open to a sponsor?"
Whoa! When I started writing this newsletter, I had hopes about being able to monetise it some day, but at no point did I even dream that someone would be interested in sponsoring it after I sent only a few editions!
The email came from Matt Cronin, the founder of House of Kaizen, a consulting business that supports organisations with optimisation strategies for audience revenue growth.
I met Matt about one year ago – @Laura, thanks again for that introduction! – and since then we have had a number of fascinating conversations about the need for journalism organisations to embrace audience-centricity at scale, and what that looks like in practice.
It didn't take long for Matt and I to understand we believe in the same things:
That journalism can redefine itself, and find new opportunities to become financially sustainable, only if it focuses relentlessly on creating value for people’s lives; and that we share a commitment to work with people not because of what they do but why they do it. (Yes, we have both read Start with Why.)
After that first email, the conversation evolved organically from a discussion about sponsorship into one about collaboration – all the way to the announcement I'm excited to make today:
🥁 For the next five weeks, the News Alchemists newsletter is supported by House of Kaizen!
(It feels surreal to even write that sentence.)
Let me be very clear: this is not a soulless ad where I get $$$ from HoK to sing their praise and that’s it. (I also do get $$$ of course.) I’ve spoken to the team, I’ve learned about how they work and the methodology they deploy, and I believe that your company would do itself a big favour by hiring them.
House of Kaizen has a solid framework in place – the Growth Diagnostic – to turn the idea of audience-centricity that I’ve been championing through News Alchemists into an actionable roadmap that will help you align your business goals with the goals of your audience, in order to build products they actually want and are willing to pay for.
Here’s a 3-min video where Matt explains how the diagnostic works and what it will help you achieve.
Sounds interesting? Let me know if you have any questions, or get in touch with HoK directly if you’re already convinced. I hope (for you) that you will.
I love writing this newsletter. I know it’s valuable and enjoyable – because you told me so! – and now I also know I have a product that someone is willing to pay for.
That’s the best feeling and what we should all aim for: unlocking a virtuous circle that starts with creating value for our audiences and communities; continues with building a relationship with them based on shared humanity; and sustains itself by finding partners who are willing to invest in our products and services because they share our vision and mission.
Thank you, as always, for making all of this possible by reading this newsletter. I'd love to know what you think of today’s news and if you have any questions about it.
It's time for the seven links of this week. Enjoy!