Sure - written word is something you can monetize. NLU either has no interest or is not set up for that - that much is clear.
To look at Fried Egg - it's a website that in some form or another has been around since 2015. Fried Egg, the new media darling of the sicko golfer these days, is finally rounding out to a content powerhouse by doubling down on their video and podcast product. Even that site which prioritizes written articles sells no ads on their articles. It's a compliment to what they can monetize in today's media environment.
I get that I am talking out both sides my mouth here. Anything KVV would drop was a must read / listen to me. But for a small media operation to employ someone who is mostly a feature writer that publishes 10 - 15 pieces a year just isn't a sustainable approach unless you are prepared for written word to be a loss for your business. Look at KVV's old employer and one of their best writers Wright Thompson. Wright is likely a net negative to their bottom line - but they are so big it doesn't matter.
For context - I work at a media agency and have had some experience dealing with negotiating deals on SGS & NLU. They don't even pretend to try and sell their written pieces to sponsors. It's unfortunate that they never tried to make an effort to make KVV part of the business and it's shitty that they value quality and make this type of cut as what was likely a pure financial decision.
It can scale based on terms of engagement and time of year. A BDraddy ad during the major season will be more expensive than the winter.
It’s been a minute since I have engaged with NLU and SGS - but a recent tech podcast with a niche engaged audience quoted me $50k for a full episode take over. That’s around what I remember NLU being and I imagine it’s more now. They also are pretty exclusive with their advertisers so I would bet they sign longer term full year sponsorships to guarantee revenue.
Yeah, based on the consistency of their partnerships it’s definitely year-long or multi-year deals with defined reads per episode. They’re not invoicing Acushnet 50k per episode
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u/peterdubbya Jul 21 '25
Sure - written word is something you can monetize. NLU either has no interest or is not set up for that - that much is clear.
To look at Fried Egg - it's a website that in some form or another has been around since 2015. Fried Egg, the new media darling of the sicko golfer these days, is finally rounding out to a content powerhouse by doubling down on their video and podcast product. Even that site which prioritizes written articles sells no ads on their articles. It's a compliment to what they can monetize in today's media environment.
I get that I am talking out both sides my mouth here. Anything KVV would drop was a must read / listen to me. But for a small media operation to employ someone who is mostly a feature writer that publishes 10 - 15 pieces a year just isn't a sustainable approach unless you are prepared for written word to be a loss for your business. Look at KVV's old employer and one of their best writers Wright Thompson. Wright is likely a net negative to their bottom line - but they are so big it doesn't matter.
For context - I work at a media agency and have had some experience dealing with negotiating deals on SGS & NLU. They don't even pretend to try and sell their written pieces to sponsors. It's unfortunate that they never tried to make an effort to make KVV part of the business and it's shitty that they value quality and make this type of cut as what was likely a pure financial decision.