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Media Agencies

Status
Work

Media Agencies are a new(ish) category combining Media Companies with Agencies. Quick review. Media companies build a brand and sell ads, tickets, books, etc. Agencies sell services. A Media Agency builds a brand in order to sell services.

Media Agencies generally vertically integrate by owning a niche or horizontally integrate and support adjacent markets. For example, a vertically integrated Media Agency might start a newsletter, conference, a podcast, and then sell consulting…all on one singular niche. On the other hand, a horizontally integrated Media Agency would get really good at one thing - perhaps a conference - and try to run as many as possible in any similar markets.

Here’s a very naive scale to rank Media Agency maturity (companies not ranked within categories).

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Level One - they have a newsletter and at least one other thing (podcast, event, etc)
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Level Two - they are crushing their vertical with lots of vertical integration
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Level Three - they’ve begun to offer services
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Level Four - they’ve moved horizontally into adjacent niches

These companies are very formulaic and are all some combination of these funnels

  1. Content Funnel: Social Media —> Newsletter —> Reports —> eBooks
  2. Production Funnel: Podcast —> Webinar —> Demo Day —> Events —> Courses
  3. Industry Funnel: Job Board —> Directories —> Surveys —> Product Guides —> Awards

If you’re interested in this category, A Media Operator is doing the best thinking in public