In today’s digital age, journalism isn’t what it used to be, as the lines between ethical writing and distribution have been significantly blurred. Unfortunately, we are now accustomed to “fake news” and voluminous amounts of information surrounding us 24/7, without knowing what ‘quality’ is and what is ‘garbage.’ Consequently, both media and journalism have collided and conflicted.
For national media outlets like Foundr, owned and operated by Nathan Chan, there are still ways to break conventional wisdom, without blurring ethical lines.
Foundr Magazine is one of the largest digital resources for self-made entrepreneurs, boasting a community of over 250,000 subscribers and over 1 million podcast listeners from over 170 countries around the world, according to Forbes. Its founder, no pun intended, Nathan Chan, has interviewed over 240 of the world’s most brilliant minds, including, but not limited to Sir Richard Branson, Tony Robbins, Tim Ferris, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Arianna Huffington.
By all metrics, he is considered to be an extremely successful entrepreneur–but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t had his fair share of obstacles. In a recent interview with ABC7 News, Chan explains how he has stayed above water in a competitive media space.
If you were to compare Foundr’s business model to other mainstream media outlets, there is quite a difference. Rather than producing 50-100 articles a day, Foundr produces five to six articles a week.
“The reason we do that is because we cannot compete with the sheer volume that other media publications in our space produce,” Chan explained. “But at the same time, I’d much rather us create every piece of content we put out, is potentially life-changing for the person, versus putting something out that is sub-par, mediocre, that just adds to the noise, like most outlets, with the purpose of creating listicles or click-bait articles to get the most possible views or clicks to sell the most amount of advertising.”
Chan and Foundr have focused their attention on quality content that is extremely actionable, tactical, and strategical-based.
“We don’t care about ads, so much as we do about putting content out there that provides value,” Chan shared. “We don’t care about the number of views with respect to selling more ads.”
According to Chan, that’s what’s wrong with mainstream media today, which he believes is fueled by this “constant advertising frenzy,” where most old-school outlets and most media publications are trapped within a broken advertising model.
“The only thing these outlets seem to be doing to fight this frenzy is to create paywalls. I don’t know how successful that is, because it’s mainly fueled by producing as much content to gain as many possible views with the purpose of selling the greatest number of ads.”
“For Foundr, its only goal is to produce the best possible content out there to provide the most amount of value for people, and if they like it, and if they feel as if they need more help or guidance on a particular topic, then we will create an educational course to help and service founders. We don’t believe in using paywalls for content unless it’s for premium content like our educational courses, which cost tens of thousands of dollars to produce.”