Creator Spotlight: Ryan Duffy

What is Creator Spotlight?

Each week we'll feature a newsletter on beehiiv that's experiencing tremendous success with their content and growth. It's a two part initiative packed into a single day:

1. an email showcasing their content, tips, and goals (this email here)

2. and a live Twitter Spaces today where you can join the conversation and ask questions directly

Tell me about ‘The Payload'

Payload is about Space! Our public-facing motto is to “cover the business and policy of space.” What does that mean, practically speaking? We aim to inform but also educate and entertain, and we write for a highly concentrated audience of decision-makers in the commercial, civil, and military space sectors. We publish ~1,200 words on beehiiv daily, with the vast majority of our newsletters featuring original reporting.

Where in the media landscape of space coverage does Payload fit in?

Our Archimedes lever, I think, is non-commoditized news and original content/analysis. SpaceX, NASA, and aerospace’s prime contractors command 80% of mainstream headlines and mindshare, as a rule of thumb, leaving just 20% for the rest of the ecosystem. We want to invert that with Payload’s coverage and curation.

We spend 80% of our efforts focused on the quote-unquote “rest,” ranging from seed-stage startups to SPACs to foreign space agencies. That said, the newsletter format still allows us to capture and convey the full scope of activity across the space ecosystem, along with what I’d call commodity news. That ranges from government contract awards to press releases to personnel changes to space startup funding rounds.

What is it about space that fascinates your team?

Space has captivated most people at some point in their lives. Even if it’s a passing interest, it is fascinating to many. NASA is one of the most iconic brands and symbols in the US and globally. You see it everywhere, NASA social media accounts are among the most followed accounts on each respective social media platform.

We love a good rocket launch, but we think that is just scratching the surface. Part of the goal of what we’re doing is to try and show people who are space curious or are maybe going down a career path in space that there is so much more to it. There have been a lot of massive changes in just the last ten years and the space industry is at an inflection point. The cost of launch has dropped and the price for going into space is now being commercialized. NASA is gearing up to return to the moon and head to Mars. They are pushing the envelope in deep space exploration.

It’s exciting stuff, technological advances are making space more accessible, we’re seeing a rise of compact satellites and advances in software and communications. We’re seeing it impact world events, the conflict in Ukraine has garnered lots of discussion about satellites. It’s becoming more relevant in our day to day lives. The 2020’s is a time of renaissance with greater exploration and commercialization around space and Payload is in on the ground floor.

Let's talk about your revenue goals

The $300K-400k, which we’re tracking to hit, includes revenue from non-newsletter products too. We just launched Pathfinder, our weekly podcast and we occasionally host sponsored events. We also have a job board and sometimes do webinars. More products are in the pipeline.

And you hope to grow to 25K subscribers in 2023—tell me about your growth strategy

On subscribers, I’m not allowed to say how many we have but let's just say the 25k list goal represents a stretch. We’re organically growing very quickly, double digits month over month, with very solid retention/engagement and low churn levels. But since we’re a mainly B2B/B2G publication, finding and converting each additional incremental reader within our target audience will get more and more difficult as we exhaust the easier levers and low-hanging fruit. And a daily newsletter requires a lot of buy-in.

We launched a referral program, which has meaningfully moved the needle on growth. This is the closest thing that Payload has ever done to paid acquisition, as we do create merch on demand and ship it to readers who pass certain referral tiers.

Another big growth driver for us is that we publish our articles on our website and plug them on social media, redistribute them when relevant in subsequent newsletters, and so on and so forth. Newsletters are inherently ephemeral and designed to be discarded, but by publishing our content on our website, we extend the half life and relevance of any given story and give them a permanent online home. Our website is filled with CTAs (Calls to action) to sign up for our newsletter, so if someone has happened on the site and isn't a subscriber, we're trying to convert them. If executed properly, ‘tis a virtuous cycle.

What do other media outlets get wrong about space?

I’m going to borrow the answer from a recent podcast guest of ours, Lauren Lyons, a space industry consultant. She spoke about the current discord around space, that it is about billionaires playing around. Her point was that those narratives put all the spotlight on billionaires and CEOs and obscure the work of so many hard working people. It also misses all the great ways space exploration is helping life on Earth, it’s improving us as a species.

Want more?

Join the conversation with Ryan on Twitter Spaces. We'll discuss changes in space economy and policy and how they plan to move forward with paid acquisition.

For those new to Twitter Spaces—you can join the conversation and ask them (and others) whatever you want!

When: Tonight at 6:30pm ET Where: Twitter Spaces (link below)

In the meantime, be sure to follow Ryan on Twitter here and Payload here and be sure to subscribe to their newsletter here!