The SciMark Report is moving to Substack
Blogging is so 2007
A little more than 15 years ago, on June 15, 2007, I introduced a new industry newsletter about short-form DRTV that I dubbed, “The SciMark Report.” At the time, the hottest new publishing technology was the so-called “blog” (short for “web log”), so that’s the medium I chose. The decision instantly made me a trendy new “blogger,” and I was soon the industry’s most popular blogger — but only because our industry is small and no one knew what the heck a blogger was. Anyway, it was there on Google’s Blogger platform that The SciMark Report launched and grew and has remained — until today.
Welcome to Substack. If you haven’t heard of it, you soon will. Like starting a blog in 2007, starting a Substack in 2022 is the hottest new trend in independent journalism. It seems like every time a famous reporter quits a major publication or a social media account gets suspended or banned, the writer starts a publication here. (I personally subscribe to about a dozen of them.) The main reason writers love Substack is that it lets them own and monetize their audience like no platform before. I also really like that it simplifies and integrates publishing and email subscriptions, which makes life easier.
But you probably don’t care about any of that. What you want to know is what this means for you as a reader — if and how The SciMark Report is changing. Well, you may have noticed that I haven’t been publishing very much lately. A few years ago, amid much controversy over what now seems like stupid things, I made the conscious decision to stop actively covering our industry. I moved all of my regular updates about new tests to The Library of DRTV, a private archive I maintain for research purposes. I experimented with posting about new campaigns in rollout, but soon lost my enthusiasm for the task. About the only thing I continue to post with any consistency is my annual True Top 50 ranking. All of that is about to change.
Going forward, my plan is to reboot this newsletter and return it to its former glory. One big difference I should mention up front: Some content will be available to paying subscribers only. I’ll still be posting free material, but if you want the really good stuff, you’ll have to support this newsletter by paying a modest subscription fee.
As for what I’ll be publishing, here’s what I’m thinking:
Mondays (free) - An update on the latest campaigns to hit the charts
Wednesdays (paid subscribers only) - A roundup of the latest DRTV tests
Fridays (paid subscribers only) - Interesting new products our researchers found that could be right for DRTV
Any day (free) - Opinions & analysis about the latest industry happenings
As for that annual True Top 50 ranking of mine, I’m thinking about retiring it. While I still think it’s important to talk about the top campaigns, marketers and producers of the year, I’m considering doing that in the form of #4 (opinion & analysis) instead of handing out virtual “awards” or creating a ranked chart. After all, it seems DRMetrix and PDMI have the award thing covered.
This is just a rough plan, so I welcome any feedback and advice from long-term readers of this report. And to those readers in particular, I’d like to end by saying: Thank you for your support!