I Sold The Magazine, Too(marco.org)
marco.org
I Sold The Magazine, Too
http://www.marco.org/2013/05/29/sold-the-magazine
82 comments
Don't think he was technically a co-founder of Tumblr (but was the first employee), but nevertheless quite the achievements!
And in case you wondered, the company - Vivisimo - where Marco worked for his first job (before Tumblr) and where he owned stocks was also sold a year ago... So Marco made money from 4 different businesses in one year.
I know nothing of the back story. I want to give praise to the Marco for this: "I accidentally built a business that I’m not very well-suited to run." A profound admission, showing real personal insight. I had to realize this about myself recently, and it wasn't easy.
When I tried reading this site on my Android phone, I get a blank page I can scroll around, with a) a huge ad banner and b) a "read later" button which leads to Instapaper. Very un-satisfying. :|
I really admire Marco as an entrepreneur and as a person. I am already looking forward to his next endeavour already, no doubt it'll be something awesome as usual. Congratulations Marco.
As Marco has sold his businesses, I can't help but think of the line from Office Space "What would you say you do here Bob?"
Instapaper. Tumblr. and now The Magazine.
Sounds like Marco is clearing house a bit.
Out with the old, in with the new.
Sounds like Marco is clearing house a bit.
Out with the old, in with the new.
I love Glenn. This is in good hands.
That dog is so gonna be next to go.
From the press release:
"He and his wife have one child and one dog. Neither is for sale." > Don’t worry, Hops isn’t for sale.
I have a client that insists I believe things simply because he says them, all evidence to the contrary. Situations change, priorities change, 'facts' are rarely actually facts, and even statements that are currently true often don't stay that way...
I'm not suggesting he's being dishonest or that it won't last, but even the statement you cite indicates it's not currently for sale, and even then, what's the guarantee?
I'm not suggesting he's being dishonest or that it won't last, but even the statement you cite indicates it's not currently for sale, and even then, what's the guarantee?
Maybe now it'll be ported to other platforms, but they are generous with the platform-agnostic file downloads.
Excellent news, no note about what he's doing next though?
IIRC, he hinted several times on twitter that he's experimenting with some new iOS apps ideas.
He's often said that his strategy was to do cool stuff with Apple's newer APIs to maximize the chance for his apps to get featured (eg. the magazine with newsstand).
So whatever Apple announced at WWDC could be a nice hint towards his next venture :)
He's often said that his strategy was to do cool stuff with Apple's newer APIs to maximize the chance for his apps to get featured (eg. the magazine with newsstand).
So whatever Apple announced at WWDC could be a nice hint towards his next venture :)
I, for one, am hoping he makes good on his threats to make a podcasting app. This space desperately needs some innovation and a solid bare-bones app to help facilitate the podcasting sector's growth.
I don't know how a new podcasting app would work in today's market. It would be competing against entrenched products on the high-end side, and a free offering from Apple on the low-end side. And it doesn't have any recurring revenue, which is not great.
That's a bit like saying "search is done" before Google entered the market.
I released a new podcast app a month ago and it's been doing well to date. Not to compare myself with the aforementioned :) Just saying that if you take the time to understand people's pain points and put a new spin on an old paradigm, there's still opportunity in any area.
Also, who said a podcasting app can't have recurring revenue? TuneIn just raised $25M today and we can be sure it's not for 99 cent app sales. (Not exactly podcasting, but same ball park.)
I released a new podcast app a month ago and it's been doing well to date. Not to compare myself with the aforementioned :) Just saying that if you take the time to understand people's pain points and put a new spin on an old paradigm, there's still opportunity in any area.
Also, who said a podcasting app can't have recurring revenue? TuneIn just raised $25M today and we can be sure it's not for 99 cent app sales. (Not exactly podcasting, but same ball park.)
>That's a bit like saying "search is done" before Google entered the market.
All depends on where you think we are in the market for podcast apps.
All depends on where you think we are in the market for podcast apps.
He was talking a while back on the accidental tech podcast about a PHP framework based on the one he built at tumblr that he said he was going to open source "soon".
On a recent ATP podcast episode, Marco hinted he had another major project or few in the wings, and from the sound of it, it was going to be unveiled soon.
He recently bought a BMW (a long running joke), and estimates guess he made about $6.2 million from the Tumblr sale. If he puts the BMW up for sale, then worry.
He recently bought a BMW (a long running joke), and estimates guess he made about $6.2 million from the Tumblr sale. If he puts the BMW up for sale, then worry.
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I'd imagine now that tumblr made him a pretty penny he'll be working on a personal fun project that's been on the back burner.
It's great to see someone find success from things they've built. Marco is a solid example of what many of us strive to be: someone who builds things because it's what we love doing (and because at least one person out there needs/wants it).
It's like the mental version of reducing your possessions to fit in a backpack. Pretty cool if you ask me.
Maybe he's just finding that after polishing his yachts and helicopters he doesn't have time to work on all these projects.
Hope Glenn keeps up the good work. As a journalist The Magazine has been eye-opening to me. Almost non-existing staff (Glenn and Marco), handpicked contributors and you get a excellent magazine running profitable in less then one month.
Shows how much baggage traditional media carries from the past and how convoluted a news organization can get once you start adding sales, advertising, and other departments that can be avoided now with the proper strategy.
Shows how much baggage traditional media carries from the past and how convoluted a news organization can get once you start adding sales, advertising, and other departments that can be avoided now with the proper strategy.
I think it's unclear how scalable and replicable The Magazine's success is (or even how successful it is).
Marco Arment has a sizable niche following which provided an initial boost when The Magazine launched. His personal connections have allowed him to snag a handful of known names within that same niche circle.
But more importantly, I think there's a different level of burden on a niche, under-the-radar type publication like this as compared to much of traditional media. I don't think Marco has a research staff to vet every article, so it's possible that they have or will eventually publish false information thanks to a lack of due diligence. Will anyone care? I guess it depends what falsehood they publish.
What if the falsehood results in a libel claim? Now you're talking about significant legal involvement (and costs).
Or maybe they end up running a story that has been plagiarized. What happens then?
I think that what Marco has done with the Magazine has been great, but I often find that when you start dissecting "broken industries", you can start to see a method to the madness that led to the current state of affairs, and I question if big media is no different.
Simplified money transfers were (still are?) a booming concept when PayPal launched, providing a simple alternative to the major banking networks that were slow and full of red tape. But as time has gone by, most of these payment services have gotten equally complex (holds on money, automatic reversals, etc...) because they slowly discovered that there was a reason for all the red tape. I find myself wondering if The Magazine's business model will discover a similar situation.
Marco Arment has a sizable niche following which provided an initial boost when The Magazine launched. His personal connections have allowed him to snag a handful of known names within that same niche circle.
But more importantly, I think there's a different level of burden on a niche, under-the-radar type publication like this as compared to much of traditional media. I don't think Marco has a research staff to vet every article, so it's possible that they have or will eventually publish false information thanks to a lack of due diligence. Will anyone care? I guess it depends what falsehood they publish.
What if the falsehood results in a libel claim? Now you're talking about significant legal involvement (and costs).
Or maybe they end up running a story that has been plagiarized. What happens then?
I think that what Marco has done with the Magazine has been great, but I often find that when you start dissecting "broken industries", you can start to see a method to the madness that led to the current state of affairs, and I question if big media is no different.
Simplified money transfers were (still are?) a booming concept when PayPal launched, providing a simple alternative to the major banking networks that were slow and full of red tape. But as time has gone by, most of these payment services have gotten equally complex (holds on money, automatic reversals, etc...) because they slowly discovered that there was a reason for all the red tape. I find myself wondering if The Magazine's business model will discover a similar situation.
There's a huge cottage industry of for-profit political and current-events "blogs" (really, magazines of small-form journalism) that have been coping with whatever these legal risks might be for ~10 years now. The Magazine is cool and all, but it's presumably dwarfed by Talking Points Memo, which has physical offices in multiple cities and full-time technical staff to back it up.
Political blogs/sites arguably have less legal exposure because they specifically deal with public figures and legally public figures have less protections (or at least a higher burden of proof) when it comes to things like libel.
That said, I can't really think of a plausible example of something The Magazine could hastily publish that could land them into legal trouble. I suppose a story full of falsehoods could tarnish its reputation, but I'm not sure it has a reputation to tarnish in the firs place.
That said, I can't really think of a plausible example of something The Magazine could hastily publish that could land them into legal trouble. I suppose a story full of falsehoods could tarnish its reputation, but I'm not sure it has a reputation to tarnish in the firs place.
TPM and other political blogs often cover national security, etc. Recent posts on that site indicate that they spend at least some time and money on legal counsel, but not necessarily for libel.
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It might also be useful context that TPM — to which I subscribe — took a round of funding lead by Marc Andreessen a few years ago.
>Marco Arment has a sizable niche following which provided an initial boost when The Magazine launched.
I think it was a pretty brilliant idea to have a lot of the pieces be written by popular bloggers and people with lots of twitter followers. Then they organically advertise The Magazine "for free", right when it needs the biggest pop.
(And yes, they were mainly his friends, but I bet offering people a few grand for a longer blog post, cold, would work pretty well.)
I think it was a pretty brilliant idea to have a lot of the pieces be written by popular bloggers and people with lots of twitter followers. Then they organically advertise The Magazine "for free", right when it needs the biggest pop.
(And yes, they were mainly his friends, but I bet offering people a few grand for a longer blog post, cold, would work pretty well.)
> I think it's unclear how scalable and replicable The Magazine's success is (or even how successful it is).
At the very least, any publications that follow in The Magazine's footsteps stand a far better chance of success than the current lot of broken-by-design Newsstand apps. Every time I see a magazine app whose thumbnail is the cover from their print edition which is too small to even read it's obvious they haven't thought much about what it means to make a publication for a smartphone. "Exporting to app" from InDesign just isn't going to cut it. Marco's app is among the first that seems to have actually taken design of a mobile publication seriously.
At the very least, any publications that follow in The Magazine's footsteps stand a far better chance of success than the current lot of broken-by-design Newsstand apps. Every time I see a magazine app whose thumbnail is the cover from their print edition which is too small to even read it's obvious they haven't thought much about what it means to make a publication for a smartphone. "Exporting to app" from InDesign just isn't going to cut it. Marco's app is among the first that seems to have actually taken design of a mobile publication seriously.
Exactly! But coming form traditional media, I can see why some of these bad choices are made. It's not easy to convince this big publishers to adopt a complete new workflow.
What if the falsehood results in a libel claim? Now you're talking about significant legal involvement (and costs).
Liability insurance (http://www.authorsguild.org/services/media-liability-insuran... for example) would help to mitigate this risk. I can't find premium cost info for a writer's policy, but our premiums for engineering general liability and E&O are a few thousand dollars. I don't imagine a writer's policy could be significantly more than that (our policies cover injury and death).
Liability insurance (http://www.authorsguild.org/services/media-liability-insuran... for example) would help to mitigate this risk. I can't find premium cost info for a writer's policy, but our premiums for engineering general liability and E&O are a few thousand dollars. I don't imagine a writer's policy could be significantly more than that (our policies cover injury and death).
> As a journalist The Magazine has been eye-opening to me. Almost non-existing staff (Glenn and Marco), handpicked contributors and you get a excellent magazine running profitable in less then one month.
OTOH, this is basically the business model of most niche paper magazines. You essentially have one editor, a bunch of freelance writers given assignments, and then photos are either freelance or stock. I guess they also have an ad sales department, unless that it outsourced too. But shoe-string permanent staffs are very common.
OTOH, this is basically the business model of most niche paper magazines. You essentially have one editor, a bunch of freelance writers given assignments, and then photos are either freelance or stock. I guess they also have an ad sales department, unless that it outsourced too. But shoe-string permanent staffs are very common.
Except niche paper magazine have to run through printing and distribution costs. For small digital magazines the traditional way to finance is through advertisement and most of them are vanishing and surviving on the kindness of the contributors or turning into something that resembles a blog.
Marco did something interesting: stick to one platform, play by Apple rules and see what you can build with that scheme. Id say that him being a developer was a huge advantage. Finding a developer for a small project these days is costly. But starting from zero he avoided the trap a lot of magazines fall into, like trying to create a enriched PDF that use the design guidelines we use on paper (multicolumn, etc..).
I read somewhere that his contributors get paid the standard going rate in most big magazines (Time, New Yorker,...) Not a lot of small magazines can say the same. The Magazine did not have ads, so he didn't need to manage/outsource that part of the business.
By no means is this the only way of doing things, of course, and it might not work for everybody but I found it inspiring. It was (is) a tight, lean and simple product.
Marco did something interesting: stick to one platform, play by Apple rules and see what you can build with that scheme. Id say that him being a developer was a huge advantage. Finding a developer for a small project these days is costly. But starting from zero he avoided the trap a lot of magazines fall into, like trying to create a enriched PDF that use the design guidelines we use on paper (multicolumn, etc..).
I read somewhere that his contributors get paid the standard going rate in most big magazines (Time, New Yorker,...) Not a lot of small magazines can say the same. The Magazine did not have ads, so he didn't need to manage/outsource that part of the business.
By no means is this the only way of doing things, of course, and it might not work for everybody but I found it inspiring. It was (is) a tight, lean and simple product.
Well, I really do agree that you can create awesome media with hardly any resources these days, and that that's actually a better way to go about it... but I would hesitate to call The Magazine excellent. The writing has been hit-and-miss: some awesome articles, some weird ones, some navelgazing ones in every issue thus far. It feels more like "a promising start" to me. YMMV.
> get a excellent magazine running profitable in less then one month
That is primarily due to his large influential niche audience and friends in the tech media. Joe Schmoe could do the same thing, better, but without that free media exposure it would go nowhere, lost in the open sea that is the App Store.
That is primarily due to his large influential niche audience and friends in the tech media. Joe Schmoe could do the same thing, better, but without that free media exposure it would go nowhere, lost in the open sea that is the App Store.
Be that as it may, he pulled it off. A lot of journalist have a great following and a brand name these days as well.
I suspect the same model will flourish for those with similar niche audiences
Can you say something about what you found useful in he articles? I've never seen the mag and the website says subscription, and no obvious "read example articles here", but I'd like an idea of the kind of stuff it does before buying.
I like many of Marco's posts, but I find it amusing that this one made it to #1 on the front page
Instagram was a great product, Magazine a good follow-up.
It is marginally interesting that Magazine ownership is being transferred to Marco's partner, but I don't understand why that merits the #1 ranking on HN :)
Instagram was a great product, Magazine a good follow-up.
It is marginally interesting that Magazine ownership is being transferred to Marco's partner, but I don't understand why that merits the #1 ranking on HN :)
>> "I don't understand why that merits the #1 ranking on HN"
Because enough people upvoted it to get it there. The Magazine, although not focussed on tech, I assume attracts a large tech audience (the people on HN). Marco is a well known person in the development community and I'm sure quite a few people saw the post on his blog and submitted here gaining it upvotes.
Because enough people upvoted it to get it there. The Magazine, although not focussed on tech, I assume attracts a large tech audience (the people on HN). Marco is a well known person in the development community and I'm sure quite a few people saw the post on his blog and submitted here gaining it upvotes.
"Relevance by proximity" is the cousin of "just add internet!" stories.
Instapaper, right?
I also keep making that same mistake.
As do all people who discuss it - it's funny when Marco is on a podcast and you hear people pause before saying Instapaper. An inaudible please-don't-let-me-screw-this-up.
I think it's interesting to see the evolution of a startup engineer/now entrepreneur.
Instapaper was a little product made by this one guy at home that grew big and I think for that reason, Marco Arment's story appealed to a lot of people here that are hoping to build their own bootstrapped product. And now he's at a later stage where he used the Instapaper success as a stepping stone for more projects, like The Magazine.
Instapaper was a little product made by this one guy at home that grew big and I think for that reason, Marco Arment's story appealed to a lot of people here that are hoping to build their own bootstrapped product. And now he's at a later stage where he used the Instapaper success as a stepping stone for more projects, like The Magazine.
An entrepreneurial success story doesn't belong on HN?
My only problem with vague "X sold Y" stories that have no dollar amounts is often it's not a success story. I've seen TechCrunch report on sales of companies where literally no money was exchanged and there was no upside for the acquirer (basically just one dude decided to give up his failing startup to join another one, and they framed it as an acquisition). I'm not saying this is the case here, but without any numbers we can't say it was a success for sure.
The Magazine is a digital publication. Are you saying we shouldn't be allowed to talk about digital publishing because it's not tech enough? Seriously?
Wow, Marco really does hate the idea of having employees. In this case, he accomplished the goal of many small business owners: a successful product where a trusted employee handles the day-to-day operations and the owner can be hands off and take the profits. But his immediate reaction is to sell it because he doesn't want to be a product owner, he wants to be the entire business.
I am so confused as to how you came to all these conclusions. To me, it seemed pretty clear that he wants to develop things, and to program as his job, rather than run a business.
"without doing much of the kind of work I actually enjoy."
"without doing much of the kind of work I actually enjoy."
You seem to be saying the same things as I did. My point was that is very unusual for a small business owner, to sell a profitable business because it's not taking up enough of your time.
I guess ultimately, Marco's just a good guy.
Under him The Magazine as a product probably would stagnate like Instapaper did. Then he would have sold it anyway.
And, advisory role usually means a decent chunk of shares too. With what Glenn have in mind, this might be a smart financial step.
Under him The Magazine as a product probably would stagnate like Instapaper did. Then he would have sold it anyway.
And, advisory role usually means a decent chunk of shares too. With what Glenn have in mind, this might be a smart financial step.
The reason a lot of people want that is they want a passive income to give them security.
Given the success of instapaper and the fact he'll have done fine out of Tumblr, I suspect Marco has no need for that and would rather devote his time and attention (something can be distracting even while taking little actual time) to something he'd be happier doing.
Given the success of instapaper and the fact he'll have done fine out of Tumblr, I suspect Marco has no need for that and would rather devote his time and attention (something can be distracting even while taking little actual time) to something he'd be happier doing.
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I think he's probably underestimating his responsibilities and overestimating those of the other employees. It also sounds like he has to deal with things he doesn't want to deal with, not that he has nothing he has to do.
The details of the sale aren't public either, and he's now an "adviser" to The Magazine. He may still have some equity in the company. One could also analyze the profits from a sale compared to estimated profits down the line, and feel that they would rather cash out now, to pursue other interests. A lot of "savvy" business-people and businesses divest themselves from businesses that they feel have outgrown them or are not a part of their core business model.
The details of the sale aren't public either, and he's now an "adviser" to The Magazine. He may still have some equity in the company. One could also analyze the profits from a sale compared to estimated profits down the line, and feel that they would rather cash out now, to pursue other interests. A lot of "savvy" business-people and businesses divest themselves from businesses that they feel have outgrown them or are not a part of their core business model.
I would agree with that. I would guess the initial draw was developing the iOS app and the web app, and the fun image of being an editor. Except that being an editor was a lot of work, without that much fun parts. So he outsourced the editing, but now all that was left was the business side, like writing checks, and that is not fun at all. And the apps are done, so no fun there.
I highly recommend everyone to listen to his latest atp.fm podcasts. I found it is easy to misinterpret Marco (as if he wanted to be a public person, ha) but after hearing from the guy, I can only applaud him.
Just a bit from ATP #14: "I'm terrified of doing anything that would make me look like a jerk in front of my family and friends"
Just a bit from ATP #14: "I'm terrified of doing anything that would make me look like a jerk in front of my family and friends"
>"I'm terrified of doing anything that would make me look like a jerk in front of my family and friends."
That just doesn't seem true. He consistently goes out of his way to engage in trivial arguments with people, especially on Twitter. Literally days after the sale, he called out Anil Dash in a needlessly confrontational way about some minute error in his history of Tumblr (http://dashes.com/anil/2013/05/seven-years-ago-my-wife.html). Not to mention the time when got in some squabble with a writer for one of the Apple rumor sites, then blacklisted said site from every Instapaper account.
As far as I'm concerned, he's made a jerk of himself in public innumerable times already. He just seems like an abrasive guy. That's not to say that his work is inferior (certainly assholes have created incredible work before), but any fear of looking like a jerk is moot. He has been a jerk forever.
That just doesn't seem true. He consistently goes out of his way to engage in trivial arguments with people, especially on Twitter. Literally days after the sale, he called out Anil Dash in a needlessly confrontational way about some minute error in his history of Tumblr (http://dashes.com/anil/2013/05/seven-years-ago-my-wife.html). Not to mention the time when got in some squabble with a writer for one of the Apple rumor sites, then blacklisted said site from every Instapaper account.
As far as I'm concerned, he's made a jerk of himself in public innumerable times already. He just seems like an abrasive guy. That's not to say that his work is inferior (certainly assholes have created incredible work before), but any fear of looking like a jerk is moot. He has been a jerk forever.
Many geeks are too cynical and abrasive over the internet, but good people when you talk to them (or when you can hear them talking). This is the case for most of HN people, most geek websites, and Marco, too. What the heck, I can include myself there.
One thing is to write angry tweets, and in a very different level, would have been shutting it (or Instapaper) down just because he's burned out. He cares about his users.
One thing is to write angry tweets, and in a very different level, would have been shutting it (or Instapaper) down just because he's burned out. He cares about his users.
Tumblr, co-founder, acquired by Yahoo. Instapaper, founder, acquired by Betaworks. The Magazine, sold to the other founder, so kind of an acquisition?