Normally my Thursday emails are just for Affiliate Tribe members, but I had so much feedback (and over 400 new signups!) after yesterday’s newsletter that I figured I should share more with y’all. So here we are.
I’m going to format this in the usual way, and we’ll get to the “why does editorial look so different right now?” stuff under the musings heading.
Pitches, please:
Reader’s Digest: Best flannel sheets! Updating/editing my guide from last year to reflect the current best flannel sheets on the market. Must be affiliate-friendly and overflowing with excellent reviews. bryce@theluxuryspot.com
Family Handyman: Need smart trash can pitches! Ya know, the brilliant kind that’ll open/close/sort/perform magic thanks to technology. We love big retailers like Lowes.com, Amazon (500+ ratings), Wayfair, etc. bryce@theluxuryspot.com
Jobs:
COACH needs an associate manager of global PR. Drape yourself in logos and leather, bubbeleh.
Alzheimer’s Association needs a media relations manager. You’ll make an impact.
Sesame Workshop needs a PR manager. If you meet Elmo send me a pic pls. Not kidding.
Hearst needs a senior commerce editor. Pay is about $90-100k.
Things I couldn’t use in stories this week but you should def know:
With thousands of pitches coming in for editorial work each week, it’s no secret that I can only cover so many. That doesn’t mean there aren’t TONS of really good ones that I love, though. These’ll end up in my collection of what-to-read and check-this-out stuff over on Extra Good by next week.
The ones I’m listing below though are super short-lived though, so no time for all that. A lot of ‘em were your pitches, so thanks!
This article on salary transparency is an important read if you’re reading all the way to the end.
Airpods Pro marked down to $159! (limited supply though, it seems)
These very cute + high-end feeling Nordstrom pajamas are under $30 right now. Get a bunch!
An early Walmart Black Friday deal for a whole 23-piece set of mixing bowls for $10.
The Revlon One-Step Brush that everyone loves is about $30 right now (and probably a good holiday gift for your sister/friend/mom).
HOLY SHEET! This colorful, bestselling Great Jones sheet pan is 25% off and makes cooking/cleanup super easy. Forget about gift season, you need it for yourself.
Musings:
The first quarter or so of this is entirely open because we started the conversation yesterday about why content is often lagging in the first quarter. But there’s more, and oodles of questions rolled in so I want to tackle ‘em one by one to give you a fuller picture.
Budgets are smaller on every end in Q1
It’s no secret that all the big dollars come whirling around in the second half of the year to chase the holiday season and use what’s left of spare budgeting. This is easy to think about on the PR and brand end, but it leaks into the edit world as well.
A friend of mine at Hearst told me last week that she thinks native content is actually their fastest growing department, and it spills over into the mighty world of commerce. How? Well, let’s say there’s a guide to the best dog treats, right? It exists as a commerce story with big ole’ disclosures, but a dog food brand realizes they’d LOVE to be somewhere in that story because it ranks so well or just has plenty of prestige. So they pay for an inclusion there. A list of 10 becomes a list of 11, and so on.
That means that editors are churning out plenty of keep-the-lights on content in Q4 when brands have a little extra ad/marketing budget but not a ton. Those deals are typically $5-15k each and have a shelf life of a quarter or two from what I understand.
Anyway, it takes a shitload of time to write/edit/commit art/syndicate a brand new piece. It takes just a few hours to update and sponcon-up an existing piece. If a title had a goal of 250 stories in Q4, they may end up adding another 15-20 sponsored pieces on top of that thanks to remnant budgets. That’s significant, and adds to the perceived slowdown come January/February when far fewer of those happen.
This, in addition to all of yesterday’s factors (mentioned here) makes Q1 feel like it’s in slow motion compared to how everything right now in November.
Yesterday, I told a PR pal, Lauren Bartel, that all the commerce teams are dead inside and our fingers are numb. That’s what Q4 is… but wow, January is going to be so cute. So much “here’s a coffee that tastes good” and “wow, this blanket helped me keep my resolution to actually sleep without anxiety attacks” content.