TheSkimm Renames Business Podcast, 9 to 5ish

As professional women across the country return to the office, theSkimm wants to help them prepare for the new normal. This morning, the newsletter powerhouse announced a rebrand of its second audio product, 9 to 5ish, a weekly career podcast for millennial women hosted by company cofounders and co-CEOs Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg. The podcast is a refresh of its current business-focused podcast from theSkimm, called Skimm’d from the Couch, launched in February 2018. The new podcast will resemble its predecessor, but 9 to 5ish places a heavier emphasis on candid conversations and career advice. The hosts will also anchor the episodes around specific themes, such as navigating pay disparity, fighting imposter syndrome and taking maternity leave, said Jodi Patkin, SVP of brand marketing and communications at theSkimm. “We looked at our core audience of millennial women and those who identify as women and saw how much they had gone through in the last year and a half,” Patkin told Adweek. “We want to meet our audience where they are, and we feel like they are at a place where they can benefit from this kind of actionable advice.” These 12 Women Have All Been Named Editor in Chief of a Major Newsroom in 2021 The timing of the launch coincides with the return of women to offices across the country, on the heels of a pandemic that disproportionately affected female workers. The podcast aims to help women navigate the new, post-pandemic professional world, so the interviews will center on the defining moments of their guests’ careers and the lessons they learned from them. Advertiser interest In each 30-minute episode, Zakin and Weisberg will join in conversation with industry-leading women in professional roles, from Paris Hilton and Gayle King to journalist Rashida Jones and Esther Perel. The first episode will feature an interview with Whitney Wolfe Herd, the founder and CEO of Bumble, about entrepreneurship and growing her business. Readers can submit questions for guests via Instagram and episodes will air every Wednesday morning. This is theSkimm's second podcast—in 2019, it launched its first weekly news podcast, Skimm This. The company said 9 to 5ish has seen consistent advertiser interest, and the first three episodes under the new format will be sponsored by Saks OFF 5th. "Our goal is to empower our customers through fashion and self-expression, allowing them to show up with confidence for important moments by providing the most coveted brands at the best prices,” said Sara Griffin, the svp of marketing at Saks OFF 5th. “Given this focus, we are thrilled to partner with theSkimm on the launch of 9 to 5ish and support the next wave of female leaders as they listen in to these candid conversations." Consistent playbook = loyal audience Since its launch in 2012, theSkimm has accrued more than 7.5 million subscribers to its flagship newsletter product The Daily Skimm. The majority of its readership are professional women under the age of 35. The company has also built out a universe of ancillary products on the back of The Daily Skimm—including two complementary newsletters, an app, a 2019 New York Times Bestseller, a production studio and a virtual event series, SkimmU, which has attracted more than 70,000 free participants since March. The brand now reaches about 12 million people each month across all platforms, according to Patkin. In a rapidly consolidating media ecosystem, theSkimm remains one of the largest independent holdouts. The company generated $20 million in revenue in 2019, according to reporting from Axios, though Patkin declined to offer any specifics surrounding the financial health or reach of the publisher. In May 2020, founders Weisberg and Zakin laid off 20% of the company’s workforce in response to the pandemic. In May, the newsletter behemoth made headlines when it hired JPMorgan Chase & Co. to evaluate potential deal offers, a sign that it was actively exploring acquisition partners. The company represents an appealing acquisition partner, both for the size and valuable nature of its audience. Publishers like Axios and Politico have built empires out of newsletter networks, as the medium allows publishers to cross-promote new products internally and accelerate their adoption. TheSkimm has spent the last several years using the same playbook, said Mathew Passy, CEO of The Podcast Consultant, and it has built an expansive loyal audience as a result. “TheSkimm is essentially an information and entertainment company with a highly engaged audience,” Passy told Adweek. “The more ways they can monetize that audience and deepen their relationship, the stronger their brand is.” TheSkimm Partners With H&R Block to Help Female Millennials This Tax Season

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TheSkimm Renames Business Podcast, 9 to 5ish, as Women Return to the Office

Guests include Paris Hilton, Gayle King and Esther Perel

Mark Stenberg

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