ARLnow is approaching its 16th anniversary next month and much has changed in media during that time.
On the digital side, the blogging era gave way to the Buzzfeed era of scaled, social media-driven audiences, which has since given way to a more atomized era of niche media, podcasters, YouTubers and email newsletters.
While that happened, traditional media has seen continued secular decline, leading to greatly diminished fortunes for former print powerhouses like the Washington Post, plus ARLnow’s 2024 acquisition of our main weekly print competitor’s assets. The bell is tolling for broadcast, though it hasn’t experienced the steep diminishment that print has suffered — yet.
In this ever-changing media landscape, it’s important to evolve smartly and chart a course somewhere between the cutting edge, where ahead-of-their time organizations struggle for sustainability in the current moment, and the back edge, where organizations that lack the will and/or skill to continuously adapt get whittled down to shells of their former selves, at best.
To that end, ARLnow and its sister sites are about to embark on a significant change: switching to a new email service provider. After 16 years of delivering our daily newsletters from the same email provider we are switching to Beehiiv.
Unlike our old provider — the one with an iconic simian mascot — Beehiiv is laser-focused on serving media clients. We think the suite of services Beehiiv is building will help us better serve email subscribers and Press Club members, while providing more flexibility to evolve our business model over the next 5-10 years as AI brings even more changes to the way readers are acquired and engaged.
Current email subscribers and Press Club members can expect a transition period starting later this month, during which time we’ll gradually move subscriptions and accounts over to the new platform. Little will change in terms of our newsletters and membership offering, at least at first, but some readers may experience minor disruptions.
Additional information will be sent to subscribers and members in the coming weeks. Technical changes like this can be fraught and we appreciate everyone’s patience during this time.
