From Nearly Homeless to High Six Figures
How "All Your Screens" Scraped By, Hit it Big(er), And is Transitioning
Rick Ellis as Horatio Alger? Perhaps there is hope for hard work and passion.
First, some headlines and observations.
And If you’re a paid sub and would like to see the transcript or video (which I think is pretty engaging), LMK. If I can, I’ll post a short clip or two for everyone.
— Dorian Benkoil, Verts Media
AI, Media, and Verts News
Ziff Davis' Everyday Health Group Acquires TheSkimm (Axios)
The newsletter company will remain a standalone brand with co-CEOs Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin in charge. Financial terms not mentioned. Subscriber count = 5 million (or more). Revenues reported at $20 million in 2019.
Wired Drops a Paywall (NiemanLab)
… for stories that are primarily sourced to public data. It’s part of their “public duty.”
DotDash Meredith Rev Up 10% (Ad Exchanger)
They say 3% is from advertising, attributed largely to “core sessions” -- traffic to main properties. Some is from a contextual advertising product they launched, D/Cipher, now available for third parties -- looking for “lookalike, premium inventory in our core categories – food, health, home, others – where we see consumer intent at scale,” Other revenue is from deals, such as with Open AI, and rev shares, such as from Apple.
Meanwhile: Lookout Local Revenue up 103% (Newspack) They won a Pulitzer and switched to a new CMS. (Yes, this piece is by that CMS.)
Beehiiv Named “Top-10” Media Innovator (Forbes)
Vice Launching New Branded Content Studio (Variety)
After acquiring commercial and music video production studio London Alley Entertainment.
OUTtv Expanding to Asia via Taiwan (Variety)
Cynthia, Print Glossy on Mexican Music, Launches (LA Times)
It’s bilingual. 3,000 copies. Two more issues are planned this year. A business? We’ll see.
Food52 Cuts Staff 40% (AdWeek)
From 140 to c. 90, largely from e-commerce.
A.I.
Judge: AI Ain’t an Author (Ars Technica)
So no copyright. Fight will go on.
The Independent Launching AI-Driven Summaries (FT)
… overseen by journalists, on a platform called Bulletin, with social media platform WeAre8.
AI in Journalism
Transcripts of Public Meetings Help Reporters (NiemanLabs)
For Investigative Journalism (ProPublica)
Using AI for Media Co. Profit (Verts)
To Use AI, Apply Business Thinking (RJI, by me)
Passion is The Driving Force
Twelve years ago, Rick Ellis was laid off for the third time in two years.
He freelanced, on the side running All Your Screens, a website covering the business of entertainment. He was in his mid-50s and, as he puts it, “as close to homeless as you could be without living in your car.”
He kept at it, gradually building an audience. About nine years ago, he started earning enough from the site, maybe $50,000-$60,000 per year— mainly from Google ads and some programmatic advertising — to try to make a go of it. Without any funding, he had to figure out how to attract more attention.
Ellis found valuable yet under-covered niches in one of the most-covered industries on planet Earth.
“When you're trying to build a business that way, you take chances that most people would not,” he says.
He interviewed guest actors from TV shows, knowing that they wouldn’t get onto the pages of Variety or The Hollywood Reporter, but that they would share the story with family, friends, and colleagues.
He covered people behind the scenes, and shows “that no one else gave a crap about.” Long before the likes of Squid Game, he introduced readers to streamed foreign language TV shows, to their directors, actors, and backstories. He’d write about niche shows that didn’t get major coverage, “for instance, shows that have an all-Black cast.”
He started covering smaller streaming services, such as so-called FAST (free ad-supported TV) channels like Pluto TV.
Ellis had found valuable yet under-covered niches in one of the most-covered industries on planet Earth.
Thanks to the original coverage, he earned a lot of traffic from search. He built more loyal audience on Twitter. About six years ago, he started hiring freelancers to cover events and openings he didn’t go to from his home base — still in Minneapolis.
By 2-3 years ago, All Your Screens had 10-12 million pageviews per month and was earning about $800,000 per year.
“I couldn't write for someone else with this kind of passion.”
That was the peak. Google and other search has been deteriorating as a referral mechanism with the advent of AI and algorithm changes. Twitter isn’t what it used to be. BlueSky might help, but nothing like Twitter was. “Facebook doesn’t work,” Ellis says.
Ellis had a “perfunctory" email newsletter that was basically a rundown of coverage at the website. On instinct, he increased the frequency to three-, then five times per week, and then started putting his voicey writing in there, 1,600-1,800 words five times per week.
He has about 100,000 free subscribers, and about 8,100 paid — most at $40/year, some at the founding rate of $75. Paid subscribers get a few extra benefits, such as a Sunday list of all that’s been on the website, and some extra videos. He puts out the newsletter, branded “Too Much TV,” from his own server, and through Substack. (I’ll say more on Substack-vs.-not in a future missive here.)
Revenue, Products, Awards, and Plans for The Year Ahead
Today, at the age of 67, he still works 70-hour weeks, from his home in a St. Paul, MN, suburb. (He apologized on one recent day when medical issues prevented him from doing his usual daily duties. Commenters expressed understanding and sympathy.) Being far from the tumult of Hollywood, he says, gives him a “different perspective” that people appreciate.
This year, with paid subscription growth, automated ads, directly-sold ads (mainly to those who approach him), and some consulting (he gets paid to give unvarnished takes on streaming services’ usability), he’ll get back up to about $700,000, he believes. He’s figuring out what to do for the next iteration of the Global Television Awards honoring streamed TV shows in non-English languages. He conducted the awards for the first time late last year, online.
Last year, he won an investigative journalism award from the L.A. Press Club for a story on a Minnesota-based casting agent convicted of abusing clients who were child actors. “Once again, that was something that was just, the story is just out there, and no one wants to tackle it because it takes a lot of time,” he says. “The advantage of me working for myself is, I can say to myself, I think this is an interesting story. Let me spend some time, see if I can draw it out.”
He’s fielded insults and threats for covering the Netflix deal for comedian Tony Hinchliffe, widely lambasted for insulting remarks about Puerto Rico, Latinos, Blacks, and others at a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden.
His work has gotten him on the inside, too. He now gets special invites — such as to rare off-the-record briefings from the likes of Netflix that help him explore the inner workings of their business.
Meanwhile, he continues to build out Too Much TV and All Your Screens, with videos — Q&As for paid subscribers, trailers of streaming shows — contests to win TV show give-aways, photo galleries of TV shows, and, of course, his daily takes: reviews, coverage, criticism, interviews, and plenty of quips.
The fuel behind his success — in addition to iteration and trusting his gut— is, well, let’s put it in his words:
“I couldn't write for someone else with this kind of passion. I couldn't write what someone else wanted me to write about with this kind of passion, and I was hoping that it was going to come across to people. And it has.”
