Earn money with your own content in the media with podcasts and newsletters. This is the creator economy. Journalists in Germany are increasingly committed to this.
2018: Minh Thu Tran and Vanessa Vu are studying at the German School of Journalism in Munich when they come up with the idea for “Rice and Shine”, one of them Podcast for Vietnamese history and perspectives. It was initially a leisure project, says Minh Thu Tran, who grew up in Illertissen, without a specific goal, but as an answer to a specific need:
“We wanted to do the podcast we needed when we were teenagers.” Minh Thu Tran, podcaster Rice and Shine
There are now 36 episodes of “Rice and Shine”, 11,000 people are now following the project on Instagram, with each podcast episode Minh Thu and Vanessa reach an average of 5,000 to 8,000 listeners. Good numbers for an independent project that Community wants to be there, so more than a podcast. The workload is high: “At least one week a month is spent on Rice and Shine,” says Minh Thu Tran.
Both now work full-time as journalists, Minh Thu for ARD, Vanessa Vu for Zeit Online. After all, 300 people now support their additional work financially, with amounts between 2.50 euros and 100 euros – on the Berlin platform Steady.
Financing by the “Verlag für die Hosentasche”
Steady is a start-up from Berlin. Founder and managing director Sebastian Esser calls the platform a “pocket publisher”. Steady provides all the technical tools media makers need to distribute their content and earn money.
Esser knows both sides of the business. The journalist did that in 2014 Online store Krautreporter founded, which has shown new paths in the media industry. The 20 editors are organized as a cooperative and are financed by more than 15,000 members, free of advertising.
Platforms keep part of the membership fees
Steady and other large platforms like Substac or Revue are now opening this principle to everyone. And earn money with it too. The business model: Creators like Minh Thu Tran and Vanessa Vu provide the content, the platforms take care of the rest – and keep part of the membership fees for it. At Steady, it’s 10 percent of sales.
There are now 1,200 journalistic offers on Steady, 120,000 members pay for it. Every five weeks, Steady transfers a total of around one million euros to the media makers. “The Creator Economy,” says Esser, “we can watch live on our dashboard every morning.”
Few German journalists want to be entrepreneurial
In order to be successful as a creator, media makers not only have to take care of the content, but also the entrepreneurial, says Thierry Backes. The journalist from Munich has dealt intensively with the topic. This is unusual in German journalism:
“German journalists feel very comfortable in the contracts they have, with the big publishers, with the public broadcasters.” Thierry Backes, journalist
In the USA it is different. Well-known journalists such as Glenn Greenwald and Anne Helen Petersen have already left their journalistic homeland there to write paid newsletters – with success. From Thierry Backes’ point of view, two prerequisites are decisive: many followers in social networks and a very hot topic.
1,000 fans are enough for a living
“You don’t really need more than a thousand people who think you are really good to be able to make a living from it,” believes Steady founder Sebastian Esser. Thierry Backes advises German journalists to just try it out – part-time, with little risk. As experts in a subject area, journalists could earn money not only through members, but also from lectures, webinars or panels. Like Minh Thu Tran, who now gives podcast seminars at TU Dortmund University and is regularly requested for panels and podiums.
At least in the long term, however, the trend could become a challenge for large publishers and public service media, Thierry Backes believes: A “war for talent”, which is already in full swing in other industries, is imminent.
Forbes launches program to retain journalists
Solutions come – of course – also from the USA. The business magazine Forbes will in future offer authors the opportunity to keep their jobs at Forbes and also to write their own paid newsletter – they have to share the profit with Forbes. A model that aims to combine the security of a permanent job with the freedom to be self-employed – and which does not yet exist in Germany. Journalists like Minh Thu Tran and Vanessa Vu will also continue like this – because money is not in the foreground for them anyway – not yet:
“So we’re really doing this podcast for the community and for the visibility of Asian realities here in Germany. But not really to earn money. Maybe we should rethink (laughs).” Minh Thu Tran, founder of “Rice and Shine”
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