You’re reading the My News Biz newsletter, which I will be sending you every other Thursday. My goal is to help you and other digital media entrepreneurs to find a viable business model that works for you. If you were forwarded this email, you can sign up here. Ismael Nafría, Part 2: Going independent, with a newsletter at the coreForgoing a salary is a risk, but you can focus on what you love, on your own schedule
You’re reading the Your News Biz newsletter. My goal is to help digital media entrepreneurs find viable business models.
In my last newsletter, I interviewed my friend Ismael Nafría about the growing power of email newsletters for trustworthy news media. He is the author of seven books on digital media and an expert on email newsletters. He publishes his own email newsletter in Spanish, Tendenci@s, which I follow closely. In this second part of our interview, he gives advice for news media professionals and then for students.
The boldface emphasis in Ismael’s comments below is mine. I’ve edited the text for length and clarity — James On the decision to go forgo a salaryJames: You made the leap to go forgo a salary and go completely independent about two years ago. And what is it like to be independent? There are risks, but what are they? Ismael: It has disadvantages, the main one being that the market can be unstable, so you don't always have a regular income every month, a salary that allows you to plan anything. The great advantages are of a very clear personal nature, of being able to dedicate myself to subjects that I love, of being able to organize my time. It is true that you work a lot, but you can organize it, you can focus your attention on those aspects that interest you the most, or that you think are more interesting to you, or that you believe in. I, for example, am putting a lot of effort now in creating a product base that can run by itself as much as possible, to have as many paying subscribers as possible. I am going to launch a new book on newsletters [it is to be published soon] and I want to accompany it with an online training course on this topic that can circulate and run on its own. I will accompany it with individual sessions as well. The best distribution channelsJames: At this point in our conversation, Ismael mentioned the social network that works best for him these days is LinkedIn. He had seen a big dropoff in response to his links on X (Twitter) long before its owner made it more of a megaphone for the ultra-right. Ismael: LinkedIn is the one that has the best quality in the conversations, the type of content you find, the contacts it makes for me. It is a magnificent territory right now. And I am also exploring Threads and BlueSky as alternatives to X. But I am not going to abandon X totally. Text vs. video vs. audio vs. what’s next?James: I am a writer, always a writer, although I dabble in multimedia. And I am a little worried about the future of those who write text, like me, because after covid-19, with Zoom classes and meetings, my students didn’t read. And when I am on some professor websites, they always complain about the lack of reading by students. Ismael: Yes, I think that what you say is partly true. I also don't know if it is as serious as you say. For example, I find university students among the subscribers of Tendenci@s. Of course, I can't tell you to what extent they read everything or don't read, but I do see that they do sign up and that they are interested, I also agree with you that I, for example, have worked mainly in writing and also in radio, right? I like radio a lot. I do see doing something in audio, in podcasts. It's one of the things that I would like to propose, but, for example, doing other types of content more like video — well, I see it as much more complicated. I aspire to reach the people that I think can take advantage of what I'm offering, right?And that's why, with the book I'm writing about newsletters in Tendenci@s, I'll do a course that will be on video. I'm convinced that there will be many people who will prefer to have the newsletter book, to consult it whenever they want, at their own pace and so on. And other people who will prefer to take the course and learn in a short space of time and apply that. I do think that quality is much more important than quantity, I think that this also applies to formats: that is, do what you can do well, so as not to go crazy, because there are so many things to do, right? And in the end, I think that where the value is or where I find value in things is when there is a well-made, well-prepared and well-packaged message. Produce something, consume a lotJames: What are your recommendations to communication or journalism students worried about finding jobs? Ismael: For me, a very clear recommendation is that they produce something, in a format that they like. That they write, that they publish, that they start a newsletter, that they launch a podcast, that they open a social media account, that they do whatever, if that is what they like, but that they learn to communicate in a better way. The other thing is that they consume a lot — read, search, compare. I am surprised sometimes at how little variety of information consumption there is among, for example, journalism students. Even if you don't want to dedicate yourself to a format, you have to know how it's done. You have to consume media in a critical way: the big digital media, the niche media, a television report, a well crafted podcast, a well crafted magazine . . . And the only way, if you don't work in those media, is to consume them in a critical way, to analyze what they are offering you. That seems essential to me in your whole life — to have a lot of curiosity and judgment, to be skeptical about things. As a matter of professional advice, I always encourage you to publish, because you learn a lot — a lot. And it serves as a professional portfolio, because when you want to apply for a job or whatever, I think it is very difficult for a company or a media organization to hire you if you don’t have any work to show.
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++++ Below is a video of our interview, which was conducted in Spanish; subtitles are in English. I translated it with the help of Deepl.ai and Google Translate.  You're currently a free subscriber to Your News Biz. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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Ismael Nafría, Part 2: Going independent, with a newsletter at the core
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