12/7/2024: The Future of Morning Martini
Big things ahead for Morning Martini in 2025!
TL;DR VERSION
Beginning Monday, December 16, the full newsletter will only be available to Top Shelf subscribers.
Free subscribers will still get a scaled-back version, with about a half-dozen pieces from the Hit List, Showbiz News, and Casting Call sections.
The regular Saturday newsletter will be put on hiatus, for now, but we have new ideas to roll out next year.
There will be no regular newsletter from Monday, December 23 - Wednesday, January 1. We will publish our Year in Review series December 26, 27, 30, and 31, and return to regular production for Thursday, January 2, 2025.
THE FULL STORY
Morning Martini has existed in various forms since about 2013: First as a blog about Wisconsin politics, then as a podcast with similar content. Then it went dormant, until it resurfaced as a radio show prep service that was a side hustle while I ran an events-based media production company. That company thrived until covid hit, and after almost two years of white-knuckling through it all, I gave up, lost everything, and between late 2021 until a few weeks ago, made things work as an unemployed entrepreneur trying to figure out what to do next.
At the start of that limbo, continuing to build this newsletter as a show prep service seemed the obvious next step, but starting over required energy I just didn’t have. Even fielding emails from subscribers over technical details caused a kind of nervous tension I couldn’t handle. The thought of selling this as a product, enduring rejection, figuring it all out again, from scratch, triggered crippling anxiety. I’m not proud of it. But spending nearly a decade building a business, then losing it for reasons both out of my control and my own really dumb mistakes made starting over from zero a non-starter.
But we kept this running, knowing someday it would turn into something. The new-media creator- economy overflows with opportunity, but thriving in that space requires wanting to be a somebody, develop a personal connection with readers in a way we’re just not wired for. I’m decent at sales, but certainly not selling myself or turning myself into a “brand.” Bleh.
In writing MM, we’ve become skilled at curation, summarization, and synthesis. It hit me like a ton of bricks after writing the editorial a few weeks ago about the New New Media economy, how in these waning days of legacy media’s influence, there’s more appetite for independent creators than ever, and those creators need resources like the information we compile here every day. Instead of creating our own multimedia content, we can carefully curate what’s already out there, just like written reporting, in a way that’s useful to so many broadcasters, podcasters, and creators.
And that’s how MM will live on as a business. Starting Monday, December 16, the free version of Morning Martini will be scaled back. Free subscribers will get a few Hit List pieces and some Showbiz News and Casting Call.
To keep getting what you’re used to, including the media clip embeds, This Day in History and Birthdays, By the Numbers, and the full-length sections, we invite you to become a Top Shelf subscriber. You’ll also get full access to our Year in Review over the Christmas and New Year break, plus ongoing special reporting, editorials, and content.
We’re also hitting pause on the Saturday newsletter for now. Once we get this new model implemented, it’ll be back.
Thank you for being a consistent, loyal subscriber. We’re still figuring some things out as we go, and we’ll communicate with you all the way through it.
Thanks,
NDN