Understanding Your Initial Investment

In this module, we discuss:

  • The four main categories of your initial investment


The Business of Media, as we discussed in this module, is not a one-time expense, nor is it a campaign-driven initiative.

Instead, The Business of Media is a systematic, scalable program — meaning it does not have a built-in end date — that is driven by always-on, always-evolving and always-optimizing execution.

The Business of Media also requires a substantial, ongoing investment, which will return itself in two ways:

  1. Generating more exposure, higher sales, new customers and increased lifetime customer value for your business, and
  2. Leveraging the revenue streams of successful media companies in order to recuperate a significant amount (if not all) of your investment


In effect, The Business of Media not only puts your business in a position to grow and prosper with regard to its core products and services, but it also minimizes your costs of execution by creating additional revenue streams based on the business model of an actual media company.


Breaking Down Your Initial Investment


Certainly, costs will vary from business to business, depending on — among other factors how big of a highly engaged, relevant audience your business already has (social media followers, emails, website visitors, etc).

In general, costs can be broken down into four main categories:

  1. Production - writers and editors, video producers and editors, photographers, graphic designers, podcast hosts and producers, special effects for videos and podcasts, project and community managers, web and mobile app developers, licensed music (such as Killer Tracks), stock photography and video (such as Video Blocks)
  2. Distribution - online advertising (social media and search engines) and media placement (Taboola or Outbrain)
  3. Software & Hardware - email marketing software, podcast recording software (such as Audacity or Cast), online file storage (such as Dropbox), equipment for video / photography and podcasting, project management software (such as Asana)
  4. Administrative / Miscellaneous - domain names and website hosting, transportation, accounting, legal


For a benchmark, at yarn we charge between $11,000 and $15,000 per month, per client, to build and manage the entire process of executing The Business of Media, including costs associated with all four of the categories above. This range represents about one third of what a business might invest if The Business of Media is executed in-house, since one of our production and distribution teams can simultaneously work with up to three clients.

In the module Expected Outcomes & Timeframe, we detail the process of recuperating your initial investment, and how long it takes to do so.



The Business of Media
is presented by yarn, a collective of talent across media, journalism, marketing and design that helps brands create, distribute and monetize memorable content experiences.

For more insights and observations about the future of marketing, check out our publication and podcast.

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