Unconventional Career Idea💡 Start a Modern Newspaper

And give yourself an $800,000 raise, LOL

I have a theory, friends: offline is the new online. 😱

Everyone loves the idea of a simpler life—and current trends prove it.

• First, there’s the Cottagecore craze.
  People are ditching the city hustle for the pastoral dream. Think cozy cottages 🏡, homegrown veggies 🥕, baking bread from scratch 🥖, and flower crowns. 🌷 It’s all about living that slow, dreamy, rustic life. (Minus snakes showing up in your bathroom sink! How am I even coherent right now?!) ANYYYYWAYYYYY, speaking of rural dreams: you know which state’s the top state for incoming residents right now? OKLAHOMA. And let’s not forget about the plethora of countries who are offering people hard, cold cash if they want to move to a rural area. (Japan, for example, is offering $7,600 per child for families moving out of greater Tokyo to counter urban overcrowding.)

• You know what else is trending? Analog everything.
  Film cameras are cool again, mechanical watches are in-demand, fountain pens are making writing sexy again, shows like Strangers Things give us major 80s nostalgia, paper planners and notebooks are HUGE, and vinyl records are outselling CDs for the first time in decades. (I’m so on board with this.)

• “Dumb phones” that do literally nothing are all the rage.
  They’re basic. You can’t browse. No apps. All you can do is call, text, and take pics. DOESN’T THAT SOUND LIKE A BREATH OF FRESH AIR? My point exactly. (Vice rates the best dumb phones for 2024 here.)

• Smart typewriters, which let you type like you’re typing on an old-fashioned typewriter, but save your work to the cloud, are deeeefinitely trending.
  My favorite one is this super freakin’ cute lemon-yellow Free Write. 🍋 📝 ⌨️ Obsessed! But also, The Traveler version is so cool, too—for obvious “Gotta go to Scotland on a whim” reasons. (Seriously, I think I need to get that lemon one, gahhhhhhhhhh.)

• Vintage AF aesthetics.
  We’re seeing retro fashion throwbacks (think bell bottoms, neon colors, oversized blazers, high socks, high-waisted jeans), old-fashioned board games, original consoles like Sega and Gameboy, vintage bikes, and retro appliances (like Smeg).

• Anything hand-crafted = 🔥.
  Think woodworking, knitting, crocheting, needlepoint, macramé, resin art, calligraphy, hand-lettering—alllllllllll things done with the hands. A few years back, I started knitting these big, chunky wool blankets for the express purpose of giving myself something to do offline. (We Are Knitters is AMAZING. I order from them all the time. Then, while walking through Madrid one day, I came upon an actual We Are Knitters store and almost fainted. But, to my point, even their official company mission is “to help create and support a “knitting renaissance.” YES TO THAT WORD. This is what I’m talking about.)

• Gardening is also, like, cool????
  It’s that whole reconnecting with nature thing. And, companies worldwide are making it chic again. Lettuce Grow (co-founded by Zooey Deschanel!) sells ADORABLE hydroponic farm stands that make it easy to grow fresh produce at home. Modern Sprout sells smart, stylish, supppper cute grow systems like this insane wallmounted planter that looks like a picture frame. (If only my mom could have afforded one of those back when I was growing up—I wish I could buy it for her now as a gift.) Back to the Roots is all about reconnecting with nature through urban gardening kits. The Sill is a gorgeous website where you can order designer houseplants. (I sent one to my literary agent last year and she loved it!)

• Slow, experiential travel is in, vacations are out.
  You know, where you get to actually experience unique, meaningful activities that let you connect to a place authentically, rather than just getting drunk on $20 margaritas with loutish Americans at Señor Frogs? 🤢 This study showed that 93-96% of Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X respondents were down to slow travel, with 85% of Boomers also showing interest​. Italy, by the way, is the #1 spot in the world for slow travel. (No surprise there, have you ever eaten CHEESE?) And this, right here, is where it really lands for me: average “vacation-ey” activities, like staying by the pool, shopping, and nightlife were the least popular incentives to travel. (Thank fucking god.)

Yup, offline is cool for the first time since online became a thing.

Online is exhausting.

Right now, people want to wrap themselves in a warm, cozy blanket of nostalgia, yearning for a time when things felt a bit simpler and more authentic and grounded.

And THAT is why I have a mega hypothesis that old-school newspapers—believe it or not!—are going to make a come back—big time.

But, not the old, stodgy newspapers of the past.

The modern newspaper is Instagram meets newsletters…in print.

It’s fun and lightweight. It’s artsy and stylish. There’s funky typography. Bright colors. Cool photographs. And the voice-driven, opinion-riddled content of a blogger, not a journalist. (Because blogging is coming back too—you’ve heard, right? 🤩)

I predict this is going to make a comeback because of the way “offline” is massively trending upward—it only stands that we would want to do more reading offline, too.

While books are the obvious offline choice, a fun and lightweight “lifestyle paper” is actually more in line with today’s diminishing attention spans.

Books take days to read.
Papers take moments.

So, I started thinking about how this would work as a modern-day business model.

And, of course, you know who I found WHO IS ALREADY DOING SOMETHING SIMILAR?!

The Happy News, by Emily Coxhead. 😍 😍 😍 😍 😍 😍 😍 😍 😍 😍

How amazing is she?! It’s precisely what I was picturing. According to the website, The Happy News has 20,000 subscribers in 33 different countries.

The newspaper comes out once per quarter.

A subscription costs ~$10 USD every quarter.

That’s $40/year per subscriber…….and 20,000 subscribers……which is $800,000 USD / year in revenue.

I’D SAY NEWSPAPERS ARE PRETTY COOL.

(P.S. This was based on the cost of shipping worldwide.)

So, you can have a million-dollar business printing your own adorable newspaper—and guess what?

People are going to love reading it offline.

While Emily’s is a global pub, I actually think it would be neat to begin with a local publication if you were just starting. Why???

• It’s easier to get traction when you’re local

• Marketing is so much easier (thanks, word of mouth)

• You can make a name for yourself in your community (which could be a great springboard to other opportunities)

• You can create something you’re proud of

• You can make a local impact

• And you can choose a topic that is personally fulfilling—and, isn’t that the point of creative work?

You might not have 20,000 people in your town or county or place or prison, but your publishing cadence could also be monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly. That means that even if you only had 5,000 subscribers, if they were paying $10/month (instead of $10/quarter), that’s $120/year/subscriber.

$120/year/subscriber x 5,000 subscribers = $600,000 annual revenue.

Ugh, can you stand the juiciness?! MATH.

You can get paid to do what you love—sometimes it’s just a matter of getting out there and making an ass out of yourself first. 💪

Curious about this career? Want to go down the rabbit hole? Want to daydream about how you’d get started, how much it would cost, and how it would all work? Or, do you do something similar (newsletters, publishing, books), and just want some fresh ideas?

I’ve written up an advanced-level Cool Creative Career Plan just for you. 💨 ⬇️

Cool Creative Career Plans are available exclusively to paid subscribers of The Middle Finger Project for those seeking fresh ideas and inspiration! 🥳

Highly, highly recommend if you’re feeling burned out and looking for some exciting new options.

Next: The Modern Newspaper Publisher Career Plan (Advanced)