Entrepreneur Anne Helen Petersen’s Explains Content Model

Entrepreneur: Anne Helen Petersen

Tilt: Impact of culture around you

Scene: Culture Study newsletter (105K), The Culture Study podcast, books Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation, Out of Office: Unlocking the Power and Potential of Hybrid Work with co-author Charlie Warzel, Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud, and Scandals of Classic Hollywood

Snack Bites: 

• Anne spent a year as a visiting professor teaching cultural studies in English and film studies.
• After a six-year stint at Buzzfeed as a senior culture writer, she left to turn her hobby newsletter on Substack into a content business called Culture Study.
• She’s also authored multiple books and hosts a logically named The Culture Study podcast.

Why We Stan: Anne Helen is a journalist-turned-content entrepreneur who knows how to connect with her audience to convince them why paying for content is a necessity while also recognizing that newsletter models may not be the best long-term solution

After earning a doctorate in media studies and spending a year in academia teaching cultural studies, Anne Helen Petersen’s career took a big turn. She joined Buzzfeed as a senior culture writer and Western correspondent.

During that time, she also launched her own newsletter called The Collected AHP. “I missed the casual, digression-heavy style of early blogging,” Anne Helen writes on her Substack about page. 

Between 2016 and 2020, she wrote irregularly and didn’t charge. But in 2000, she realized she could get the same pleasure writing across the week and turn it into a content business. Anne Helen left Buzzfeed for full-time entrepreneurship and, in four years, has grown the newsletter, now called Culture Study, to over 105K subscribers.

She’s also launched a podcast on Substack and written multiple books from the serious business – Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation and Out of Office: Unlocking the Power and Potential of Hybrid Work – to the entertaining, including Scandals of Classic Hollywood.

Anne is a great example of maximizing your presence and content as an entrepreneur on the Substack. She neatly separates her content by format, from the subscriber-only Tuesday and Friday threads to her essays, interviews, recommendations and links, and even her personally fun garden study.

However, what Anne does really well is explain to readers why their investment matters. She writes, “So how do you support good writing that covers things you care about — and introduces you to new ones? You can and should keep subscribing (if you’re able) to local and national publications. But you can also pay writers directly on Substack. That support might look like a traditional subscription. Or, depending on your financial situation, it might also look like sharing posts and telling people about the newsletter.”

Anne Helen explains when she was writing her original newsletter without charging, she was getting paid by a corporation who made money through affiliate links, merch, and ads. Then, she goes on to explain how subscriptions fees are used. “Your $5 a month (or $50 a year) pays for, well, everything. It allows me to pay guest writers an above-industry rate for their essays. It allows me to pay for design work. It helps me cover the student loan payment for the PhD that helps me analyze things the way that I do. It pays for the books and subscriptions that make me a better thinker and writer …”

On her podcast page, she not only explains what subscribers get but outlines the business model to explain how subscribers’ fees are used. Anne Helen explains it operates under a 50/50 profit sharing model with the podcast’s co-creator, editor, and producer Melody Rowell and outlines all that Melody does for the podcast. She goes on to say their goal is to pay $500 an episode to guests for their time.

Explanations like these and a transparent business model are smart moves to attract interested audience members to make a commitment and subscribe to the newsletter and/or podcast.

The post Entrepreneur Anne Helen Petersen’s Explains Content Model appeared first on The Tilt Publishing.