• The business model isn’t proven yet. Jamshidi’s Letter of Intent has the clearest path. It makes money from ads that go for about $700 per newsletter, which works because it is targeting a narrow genre of people that software and finance companies need to talk to.
• The Daily Aus has taken money from investors and will have to hope that it can convert Instagram followers into dollars.
• Venture capitalists won’t touch media companies because they can’t generate the hefty returns that they are after, so that way of raising cash looks like a dead end.
  • Quote: “We just don’t think you’re destined for a multibillion exit,” one VC fund manager told Daily Aus co-founder Sam Koslowski, 27. “I think that’s totally correct, I’m fine with it,” Koslowski said. The people giving the company cash want good journalism and a decent return.

Mainstream media companies like Nine, the owner of this masthead, and News Corp, have made moves too. The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have a newsletter editor overseeing titles like national science reporter Liam Mannix’s Examine, Money With Jess [Irvine] and veteran books editor Jason Steger’s Booklist (no prizes for guessing what it is). The Australian is readying a youth publication called (and again, no prizes for inventiveness) The Oz.

And one more thing, while this crop of media outlets are hoping ads, events and brand deals will get them to profitability, in the US there’s a whole other crop of successful outlets that are subscription-driven: the Athletic (sports), the Information (technology) and Puck (Washington, Silicon Valley, Hollywood) are just a few.

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