New collective brings direct sales support to independent journalists
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Alltogether, a new collective founded by longtime news ad sales executive AJ Frucci, is helping independent creators tap into the corporate ad market, Frucci tells Axios.
Why it matters: Independent journalists have built loyal followings but often lose access to lucrative brand advertising once they leave legacy newsrooms.
- Frucci, who has led sales teams at major news publishers such as Axios, Puck and Vox Media, believes that dynamic has created "a white space" in the market.
Zoom out: While there are newsletter platforms that offer some automated and direct ad sales support, they don't always offer the same level of high-touch sales support and relationship building necessary to broker bigger cross-platform sponsorship deals for creators that span podcasts, events and newsletters.
- "When I talk to marketers, they almost universally agree with the premise that these journalists have incredible communities and valuable audiences, but they say there's no infrastructure to execute large-scale brand campaigns," Frucci says.
Zoom in: The new collective serves as a direct channel for premium brands to access the work of major journalists who have decided to go independent via their own podcasts and/or publishing platforms like Substack and beehiiv.
- Alltogether's founding portfolio of journalist creators includes some of the biggest names in business, technology and political news, including Alex Heath's Sources, Alex Kantrowitz's Big Technology, Casey Newton's Platformer, Alex Konrad's Upstarts, and Mosheh Oinounou's "Mo News."
- Frucci is also in advanced discussions with Rachael Bade, formerly the co-author of Politico's popular Playbook newsletter, to represent her for her forthcoming newsletter, which she will author as an independent journalist, Axios has learned.
The bottom line: "These journalists have built communities that have parasocial relationships that drive that much more trust. That's a gold mine of attention for marketers," Frucci says.
