Questions for Mr. Snyder

“Bottom line: Your personal economic future may depend on your learning how to apply your journalism skills and interests to the needs of those capable of paying better than “traditional” media,” Snyder said.

I am looking to start my newsletter with the topic of mental health and ways to self-care, especially self-care practices that might slip the minds of busy, stressed college students. I think on paper, this sounds like a fabulous idea, right? Providing struggling college students with the perspective and resources of someone who went through an extensive therapy program, while saving them the time of going through that program themselves. However, one other factor that plays into this is that most college students are also broke.

That is exactly why I am looking into starting my “side hustle’’ now, because I need it now. When I look at this from the other side, I can’t help but sigh a little bit. I definitely did not pick a potential audience with a large enough budget to devote a small amount of it to my newsletter. They’re going to save that $5 for an iced coffee after a long night of studying, and I say this confidently because that is what I would do, as a busy, stressed, broke college student.

The statistics, as Snyder brings up, also back me up: “Fewer than 1 in 5 millennials regularly use paid access to a digital news app (19%), a digital newspaper (15%), a digital magazine (15%), or an email newsletter (15%).”

I guess my first question for Mr. Snyder would be, what are your thoughts on this perspective of millennials? Do you think this will ever change, and if so, what do you think would be the thing that changed their mind?

“The two most popular types of paid subscriptions regularly used by millennials are those that access online movies and TV (77%) and cable television (69%). A majority of millennials also use paid content for music (54%) and video games (51%),” Snyder said.

Why do you think they are willing to pay for these things, and not things that they have to read? Is there any way for us, as entrepreneurial journalists, to change our content to better attract millennials to a paid subscription?

“Healthcare services is arguably the most promising post-pandemic field for comms-skilled grads,” Snyder said.

Although healthcare services is the most read field in communications now, would that not change post-pandemic? Wouldn’t people’s focus shift from all the healthcare services they have been listening to for the past year to travel magazines and writing, curation and aggregation writing about outdoor activities, and concert, movie, or show review writing? Don’t you think people will shift their focus to something that brings them more joy and hope, rather than focusing on the past year of listening to strictly healthcare news?

I saw Sydney threw in a fun question for Mr. Snyder, as well as her content-based questions. I’m going to steal that idea because that’s what we’re here to do for each other, right? :)

So, Mr. Snyder, what is your favorite quote to live by, or your motto or mantra, you could say?