A tight labor market, the pandemic and long-drawn-out debates about the future of the remote workforce might be great fodder for newsletters, but they’re also driving an interesting shift in companies’ content and publishing strategies as internal audiences become as important – if not more important – than external ones.
A growing number of companies are building publications designed to speak to current and prospective employees, to connect farflung workforces, disseminate company information and, in some cases, proffer up certain narratives designed to contradict not-so-favorable storylines in the media.
AboutAmazon is part of a set of publications from Amazon, each of which covers company news from different areas of the commerce behemoth. Others include Amazon Science, AWS News, and Amazon Ads. (That latter one is frequently where ad reporter types hung out often, as it was where news about ad products was frequently “broken” by the company.)
Speaking of Amazon, the company launched its own TV channel, Amazon Live, in India. The QVC-style channel will be staffed by influencers who will host shows that will include product plugs. They’ll be paid on a commission basis.
The move is not unlike something we’ve seen other brands in the U.S. begin to do: hire creators with existing followings to be editors, hosts and writers for their brand publishing endeavors, helping brands build distribution quickly and gain viewership and readership.
Harry Stebbings is such a good interviewer. My recommendation for the week is this episode of the 20Growth podcast. Every company in the world is either distribution constrained or product constrained, according to Kipp Bodnar, CMO at Hubspot, who was the guest on this episode. Either their products have found the right fit, or they haven’t figured out a way to get their product to the right audiences or people. Kipp says that for a lot of founders, content isn’t something they want to do as a way to grow distribution – and that’s OK. But if they don’t have other methods for growth, such as a big advertising budget or distribution deals with other companies, for example, then content may be the only route to gaining solid distribution. (Kipp and the Hubspot team put out three posts a day for 15 years, so I’d wager he knows what works.)
This week, I also had the chance to speak with Resy’s editorial director, Paolo Lucchesi. A San Francisco Chronicle veteran and founding editor of Eater SF is now building the AmEx owned company’s own take on food media. We talked about how Resy relies on local expert writers to cover different markets, and gives them ample opportunities to be on what Paolo describes as the “crest of a new kind of food media.” Check out the interview here.
Lastly, the official start of Fall is always a good time to take stock of the year so far. For marketers, the beginning of the fourth-quarter is a good time to figure out business priorities for the rest of the year. This is particularly important as 2023 looks increasingly precarious, making this a good time to make needed improvements. Here are the top priorities for the brand publishers and content marketers that I’ve spoken to.