Media mergers, subscriber insights and Rampart’s next chapter
This week's subscriber note from Joe.
Welcome to the weekend, and please enjoy my latest column for the AFR, out today. This month I've written on the contentious merger of Seven West Media and Southern Cross Media, another masterstroke by Kerry and Ryan Stokes. Nobody in corporate Australia is more brilliant at gaining control of companies without paying a premium.
Joe Aston
Let me also commend to you Alexandra Carlton's latest restaurant review for Rampart, this time of 24 York, the latest Sydney venue by hospitality industry legends Metrics Credit Partners.
Alexandra Carlton
It is hard to believe we've entered the final quarter of 2025. I've been peddling like a maniac since January and this year feels like a complete haze. October will be even more frenzied than usual. My intrepid sidekick Ivor Ries is taking a well-earned break for the next three weeks and I'm flying all over the place filming Rampart's upcoming vodcast series (keep reading for more on this). So please, bear with me!
The pressure to deliver my subscribers the best content, and sufficient volume of content, is intense and relentless but it really is an honour to be serving such a smart and engaged audience. Thank you, again, for your support.
Back in July, we launched Rampart's first reader survey and received many hundreds of completed responses – from 15 per cent of total paid subscribers and 4 per cent of total free list members. This data was invaluable in informing what I do next to develop Rampart's offering.
I was chuffed to learn that 90 per cent of respondents rated the quality of Rampart's content as "very good" or "exceptional" and that 73 per cent discuss Rampart's articles with their work colleagues. I was also relieved that 70 per cent find our usual publishing frequency of 3-4 times per week is "just right".
Even so, my ambition is absolutely to increase the volume of content over time, but only when I can do so without compromising its quality. Finding the right voices to add to the Rampart stable is my foremost priority. I'd even be interested to hear your suggestions.
Not all of the survey feedback was gushing. I now know that Rampart's pricing is a deal-breaker for the majority of free list members. That is not really surprising and also, frankly, not something I can change. The labour intensity of the journalism we produce combined with its limited potential audience demands that we are expensive. Full transparency: I can't and won't be fundamentally changing our strategy on price.
What I can do, however, is continue to increase and improve what subscribers get for that price. The survey data was also critical in telling me how to do that. The thing Rampart subscribers want most is the ability to gift individual articles to their friends, family and colleagues who are not subscribers. I'm excited to share that my tech team has been working away on this functionality and we will be launching gift articles for all subscribers next month.
The other offering Rampart subscribers are seeking is audio and video content. Again, I've listened, and next month we will launch a limited interview series, Rampart Talks, in which I will sit down with some of Australia's biggest names in business. I won't reveal those names yet, but I'm confident you'll be impressed. We are also still looking for a commercial partner for the series – if anyone is interested, please reach out to the team at hello@rampart.news.
In December and January, we will also be offering a summer series of columns from some terrific guest writers on a range of subjects.
Another promotion we are debating internally is whether to put one article each month outside the paywall for free list members. As an experiment, here's the most popular one I wrote in September, on Melbourne property developer Tim Gurner and his cult gym franchise Saint Haven:
Joe Aston
I really hope subscribers find all of these new initiatives valuable and for those who are not yet subscribers, even more reason to take the plunge!
Thank you again for supporting Rampart and – if I dare say so – quality journalism.
Have a great weekend.
Cheers,
