Today on Brand Story, Inc. we welcome (check out his earlier episode here) back the co-founder and CEO of Industry Dive, Sean Griffey. Industry Dive is a collection of 24 business to business media publications servicing niche, disparate industries ranging from utilites to waste management to marketing to name a few. Launched in 2012, Sean has been open book about his 25% EBITDA margins and how he bootstrapped every one of the publications to profitability.

 

Diving in to Industry Dive

Today, Sean is closing in on $100M gross revenue business and what I love about him is his no BS business discipline as a flag-carrying, proven member of niche media.  It’s one of the best examples of  creating tremendous value through quality of content consumers.

In 2020, Industry Dive acquired the content studio NewsCred and since then they’ve tucked in several other businesses.  I’m fairly certain every content studio and media publisher will take a golden nugget away from this conversation with one of my Mt. Rushmore of media publishers. Let’s jump in to this episode, which was recorded on December 10th, 2021.


 

 

 

 

 

 


Episode Highlights Include:

 

  • The Industry Dive origin story. Sean take us on a spaceship fast ride from the formation of Industry Dive in 2012 to today.
  • Go Niche or Go Home. Sean walks us through the business philosophy and brass tacks of market value by diving deep on B2B industry topics.
  • By the numbers. Sean breaks down the revenue pie chart for Industry Dive – what’s increasing, decreasing and where the future value lies.
  • Content Studio 201. The acquisition of NewsCred to bolster Industry Dive’s content studio for sponsors came with the buy vs build debate that may shed some light on increasing value for your company.
  • First Party Data Party. We dig into the nuances of email newsletters, cultivating customers and how to connect the dots on hand raisers who subscribe to your content.
  • Avoid the Pendulum. Sean shares his cautionary tales of not trying to chase trends and how to stay true to your core, while being open-minded.
  • Futurecasting. We pull out the business crystal ball and gaze into 2022 and discuss the top priorities for B2B media publishing.
  • Book Club. Like every single guest we have, Sean fesses up on what he’s reading for fun.

 

Sean is a fantastic follow on Twitter and you can get daily insights from him on b2b media publishing by following https://twitter.com/seangriffey or ping Sean on LinkedIn and let him know how you liked his appearance on Brand Story, Inc. https://www.linkedin.com/in/seangriffey/


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