More Advice from Laurel Touby

During my conversation with Laurel Touby, she talked a lot about the significance of growing at the same pace as your audience. Both in terms of size and in terms of content.

One great example: When I asked Touby if there’s anything Mediabistro has been behind the times on, she answered, “no more behind the times than our audience.” She then explained that when your audience is media professionals, you actually don’t want to be too ahead of the curve. When it comes to digital journalism, she said, “media people in general are not exactly the most quick adopters.” Most media people are still “old media” people. So, many of Mediabistro’s users are playing catch-up. And they look to Mediabistro to provide them with the tools to do that.

It speaks to the importance of knowing your audience as well as possible. I would have thought, for example, that an online media company like Mediabistro would have to stay current and savvy in every way possible. But if that company’s audience doesn’t want or need that, what would be the point?

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