Guest Host “This Week in Digital Media”
Our text-based newsletter is a “take-over” account. That means we invite people to be the host of “This Week in Digital Media” for a week at a time.
As a team that includes some former journalists, we run our own text campaign called “This Week in Digital Media,” which we emcee, but frequently invite others to host as well.
How it works
On Friday we announce our next host for the following week. On Monday, the guest host will send two texts — a personal introduction and the second, an introduction to the topic they will discuss during the week. Throughout the week, we recommend the guest host send on average a text per day that includes a fresh perspective as well as any feedback from the community from the day before. On Friday, we recommend one more thought-provoking text and a second farewell text wrapping it all up and letting people know how they can stay in touch with you.
Of course another aspect of Subtext are the 1:1 conversations that a host can have with the community. Over the course of the week, subscribers will respond to the broadcasts with their thoughts and questions. We encourage our guest hosts to share with the group via broadcast a summary of individual responses as well as to pursue those 1:1 conversations.
We estimate the total time commitment of the host to be about one hour/week. Maybe 90 minutes over the course of the week, if you spend a lot of time researching your broadcasts and answering all the direct messages.
Want to give it a spin as a subscriber first? Sign up below:
The Technical Details
Being a guest host doesn’t mean having your personal phone blow up or even giving out your personal phone number. Everything is handled on the Subtext dashboard.
We can train you in about 5–10 minutes. You can also schedule your texts in advance. So, you could write 6–7 texts on Monday and schedule them throughout the week, only logging back in to check for replies from subscribers.
What should you text about?
We picked you because you’re part of the digital media chatter going on all over the internet and offline too. You may have a particular niche or you could be a generalist. All topics are on the table: The latest storytelling methods, platforms, business topics, diversity issues, industry movement or gossip, etc. We ask that you keep it professional and friendly.
Previous hosts include
- Kevin Loker — America Press Institute
- André Natta — Tiny News Collective, Resolve Philly
- Christopher Wink — Publisher of Technically Media
- Yvonne Leow — CEO @bewildercamp
- Shannan Bowen — Executive Director @NCNewsWorks
- Simon Owens — Tech and media journalist
- Sara Fischer — Axios media reporter
- Anthony DeRosa — WSJ Strategy Editor
- Kerry Flynn — Media reporter CNN
- Mark Stenberg — Media reporter from Adweek
- Anita Zielina — CUNY Journalism School
- Irving Washington — CEO of ONA
- Hanaa’ Tameez — Writer at Nieman Lab
- Aparna Mukherjee — Digital Strategist
- Mark Luckie — Digital Strategist
- Jarrod Dicker — Washington Post
- Nicole Barton — Audience at KQED
- Matt Karolian — Boston.com
- Adriana Lacy — Senior associate for audience and growth at Axios
- Robert Hernandez — USC professor of journalism and VR expert
- Joseph Lichterman — LenFest Institute
- Khari Johnson — VentureBeat reporter on AI
- Don Day — Founder and publisher of BoiseDev
- JulieAnn McKellogg — Subtext audience lead and overall badass
- Brian Morrissey — The Rebooting. Ex-president/EIC at Digiday Media
Want to host? Reach out to us hello@joinsubtext.com
