6AM City is Taking the Local Scene One City at a Time

Discover how 6AM City launch newsletters in new cities.

Also in this issue:

📍 Google ’s new SERP look spells bad news for publishers

📍 New AdTech solutions for reducing carbon emissions

📍 LinkedIn 's newsletter product is getting cool upgrades

📍 Substack released a smart video clipping tool

📍 WordPress values and the 2024 mid-year project update

Let's start.

Google’s new SERP look spells bad news for publishers

Press Gazette's post shows a side-by-side SERP comparison that shows just how dramatic the impact will be on publishers relying on organic traffic.

New adtech and standards for reducing carbon emissions in advertising

GARM and Ad Net Zero have introduced new standards for measuring carbon emissions in media. The Global Media Sustainability Framework helps advertisers request and compare carbon data from media sellers. But what about publishers that don’t meet some requirements? The usual answer is that they get black-listed by advertisers.

💡Good-Loop thinks there is a better way:

“We must stop telling advertisers that they are reducing their emissions by blocking publishers: That is wrong and factually incorrect,” Will Luttrell, chief technology officer at Good-Loop, told ADWEEK. That is why the company is making its GARM-compliant measuring tool, Good Measure, available to publishers for free. Others must pay $5,000 a month for the product.

LinkedIn’s newsletter product is getting cool upgradesnbsp;

LinkedIn has added new features to improve its newsletter tool. Users can now design custom cover images with Microsoft’s AI-powered Designer tool, receive better subscriber notifications, embed profiles and pages in articles, and preview newsletters before publishing. The updated reading experience shows comments alongside articles, making it easier to engage with readers. If you’re following Media Tech Report on LinkedIn, you may already be experiencing the new features.

Substack released a smart new video clipping tool – and it looks impressive

Substack has created another video tool for its creator toolbox. The new video clipper uses AI to help you create“shareable clips” faster. It automatically breaks the video into chunks and shows what each one is about. Subsctack has also added a tool to generate transcripts and captions.

WordPress values in the 2024 mid-year project update

Matt Mullenweg took the stage at this year’s WordPress WorldCamp Europe to present an overview of WordPress mid-way through the year. He also shared 11 points to focus on the open-source platform powering almost half the web. The first point resonated with me and how I think about problem-solving and web and product development:

“Simple things should be easy and intuitive, and complex things possible.”

Media Company of the Week: 6AM City

6AM City focuses on rapid audience development when launching in new cities, reaching up to 50,000 subscribers within three months. Their playbook includes a mix of pre-launch strategies, such as content planning and onboarding new people using a specific training app.

Once they start on a new city, they try to launch the local 6AM newsletter within 6 months, and since they have done it a lot, they know how much it should cost or what pre-launch methods are needed. Sometimes they buy up local lifestyle websites as a way to get noticed in a particular city before launching the newsletter.

They rely heavily on email marketing to drive this growth, using targeted campaigns constantly refined through A/B testing to improve their effectiveness.

In terms of expansion, 6AM City is strategically targeting cities where they see the potential for high engagement, using metrics like local pride and economic activity to choose new markets. This strategy has helped them maintain a consistent growth trajectory and build a sustainable business model focused on community engagement.