theSkimm Launches New Virtual Course Series, SkimmU

Independent media company theSkimm announced Tuesday morning the return of its virtual event program SkimmU, the latest effort from the publisher to expand its editorial offering beyond newsletters. The free, virtual series—called SkimmU Well—will run weekly for four weeks beginning Feb. 23. Each course will tackle a theme related to wellness, including mental health, nutrition, sleep and financial literacy and consist of a 25-minute class followed by a panel discussion and audience Q&A. In March 2021, 77,000 people signed up to attend the inaugural SkimmU and the publisher hopes to surpass those numbers this year, said Jodi Patkin, svp of brand marketing at theSkimm. The series will be presented by Eden Health, Athleta and Fidelity, which sponsored the first iteration of SkimmU. The publisher declined to provide revenue numbers or attendance predictions. Publishers have embraced virtual and hybrid events as a low-lift, high-margin method of generating sponsorship revenue and collecting attendee information. For theSkimm, one of a dwindling number of independent media companies in a quickly consolidating ecosystem, the additional business line also makes it a more appealing candidate for acquisitions, said Erica Gruen, a senior advisor at investment bank Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips. “It's clear that in media today, you have to have a diverse revenue-stream operation going on,” Gruen said. “You can't just be a single stream operation and expect to show the kind of growth that investors are looking for.” theSkimm Announces a New Podcast and Names Its First Editor in Chief Beyond financial literacy The first SkimmU explored issues relating to financial literacy, a subject that sparked renewed interest due to the explosion of cryptomedia and meme stocks that emerged in the beginning of 2021. This time, as the pandemic enters its third calendar year, the publisher chose to focus on health and wellness, Patkin said. The subject has received heightened engagement from Skimm readers, as women have suffered disproportionately from the pandemic, according to research from The Brookings Institution. “From burnout to lack of sleep to prioritizing others’ health above their own, health and navigating covid is really top of mind for our core audience of mostly millennial women,” Patkin said. The publisher has also adjusted the format of SkimmU to reflect insights it gained from the first round of the program. SkimmU Well classes have been shortened to 25 minutes to allow more room for audience engagement, as the first iteration of Skimm U generated over 7,000 questions and lacked the time to address them. The abbreviated classes were not a response to diminishing attention spans, Patkin said: more than 89% of attendees to the inaugural SkimmU completed the course, watching more than 30 minutes each time. Instead, the structure of the courses offered theSkimm a rare opportunity to have two-way engagement with its readers—and the publisher wanted to allot more time for that exchange. Virtual events diversify theSkimm’s newsletter model When theSkimm first launched in July 2012, its newsletter-centric approach to reaching millennial women helped distinguish it in a crowded field of new media companies. This summer, however, the publisher will mark its 10-year anniversary—and the single-minded focus on email that once helped differentiate theSkimm has grown outmoded in the publishing ecosystem. In response, the publisher has worked to evolve into a diversified media company in recent years, launching three podcasts, hiring its first editor-in-chief and now strengthening the foundation of its virtual events business. The revenue diversity makes the business more stable, insulating it against a collapse in any one department. It also makes theSkimm a more appealing prospect for acquisition, said Gruen. The publishing ecosystem has seen a frenzy of mergers and acquisitions in the last six months, as publishing giants like The New York Times, Axel Springer and Dotdash Meredith snap up smaller properties to fill out gaps in their portfolio. Newsletter-centric outfits smaller than theSkimm, such as The Hustle and Morning Brew, have been acquired since the onset of the pandemic. For theSkimm, whose newsletter audience has not reported significant growth in several years, expanding the number of ways it can monetize that audience could sweeten the pot for an acquisitive partner. TheSkimm Renames Business Podcast, 9 to 5ish, as Women Return to the Office

Publishing News

TheSkimm Launches the Second Iteration of Virtual Course Series, SkimmU

The program is the latest push from the company to expand beyond newsletters

Mark Stenberg

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Mark Stenberg