Welcome back to the New Disruptors! Although regular episode production has ended, I will occasionally post new interviews when I find ideas for independent creative people that I haven’t encountered before or a particularly compelling individual or business. Right now, it may seem bleak, but we will all be in a state of reinvention over the coming months and years. I hope you’re all well and keeping safe.
In this episode recorded in early April 2020, Dan Frommer (Twitter) of The New Consumer joins host Glenn Fleishman. Dan is a long-time journalist. He’s been the editor in chief of Recode at Vox Media, an editor and writer at Quartz, and helped create Business Insider.
The New Consumer is a subscription newsletter and site that charges a fee for access to keen insights by Dan about the shape and changes in the retail economy. Dan started the site a year ago, long before a pandemic was even suspected, and he’s well poised to document the massive upheaval happening now.
While paid newsletters aren’t new, Dan is part of a small but growing number of people who have built expertise and audiences who then turn to direct support as a way to create their work solely for subscribers. This keeps them independent of advertising and the vagaries of employers’ changing priorities.
Dan also runs Points Party, which focuses maximizing earning travel points and using them. While that seems a distant dream now, Dan expects one day to get back to that subject.
Show Notes
- The Power Law Curve, an essay by Clay Shirky
- The Magic Middle, a term coined by Dave Sifry
- The Long Tail, an article and book by Chris Anderson