“Growing at 50% per year scares me more than dropping 35% in revenue for one year.”
Jason Freiert has experienced both, as CEO of Angel Publishing.
Since 2005 Angel Pub’s has grown very consistently 15%-17% annually.
Then the Covid-FinPub Boom hit and Angel Pub grew 50% year-over-year in 2020.
That lead to a hiring boom, a frenetic customer service pace, and sliding into 2021 it steadied out.
When 2022 hit Angel Pub, like a lot of publishers saw a big drop and Jason is very open about it.
He saw a 35% drop in revenue in 2022 – including a series of layoffs as the business right-sized after the boom.
The good news is if you think of the covid-boom as an anomalous event then Angel Pub is still higher than they were pre-covid.
Just like a lot of publishers out there.
Check out my very open, honest, and real conversation with Jason Freiert about his experiences and insights into building a publishing business.
We range across everything from
• The problems and benefits of the fast growth of Covid-Boom.
• The importance of storytelling and relationship building with your audience.
• Going back to the 2005-2006 one of the big acquisition themes was the “Peak Oil” narrative.
• Then hit on the promo themes that have worked best for Angel Pub over the past two years.
• Building out a company culture (Angel Pub has one of the most loyal employee bases in the industry.A lot of their current team have been there since before 2008).
• And a lot more about how he thinks about building and managing a stock investing newsletter business.
