David McWilliams

narommy

What do people think of this guy?

He's selling his newsletter (6 pages * 12monthts) €149/€199

It seemed a bit sparce. But what he says seems to make sense most of the time.

DadaKopf

He's good sometimes. Im an 'I'm ever so smart' Martin Prince kind of way.

But what's this about a €199 six page newsletter?

narommy

http://www.davidmcwilliams.ie/sub/

There's the link.

I can buy the SBP for €100 per year?

Nuttzz

I like Maccer, it was a shame newstalk & tv3 ditched him, however I think 200 euro is a bit pricey

Fudger

he is good but as the others have said........... a little expensive

Specky

He chaired a thing I was at recently and was very good (I thought), although not entirely impartial...

...he'd probably be a good after-dinner speaker too but I wouldn't pay €199 for his newsletter, even if he actually did write it himself

shoegirl

He probably needs the cash since the media ditched him.

Good wroter and probably a lot better than more sellable Dunphy, but thats the law of the jungle. His economic writing is good, better than most commentators, and he's not afraid to talk about scenarios that have no happy ending.

Angel28

Enjoyed listening to him on the radio but I have to agree with the others €199 seems a tad pricey!!!

trap4

Here's what I wrote on my blog. Sorry if it wanders a bit at first but it does also answer the question.... I think....

While I don't always agree with David McWilliams political and economic analyses I do admire his probing mind and sharp insights, and especially his articles in the Sunday Business Post. That's why I felt truly sorry for him after successively being dropped from TV3 (with his Agenda programme) and losing out to Eamon Dunphy on the Newstalk106 Breakfast Show.

So its good to have him back on the airwaves with RTE's The Big Bite which bills itself as...

"... a brand new concept in Irish Daytime Programming - a live discussion programme on the issues affecting Irish people. David McWilliams hosts the programme in which an invited panel of guests discuss issues of the day. Human-interest stories will predominate; so it's real people, real lives and real stories, with the added bonus of viewers being able to offer their opinions by text, phone and e-mail. 'The Big Bite' will bring its viewers the best of talk, be it a lively discussion or debate about something that concerns the whole country one day, or a sensitive one-to-one examination of a personal and heartfelt issue the next."

I don't normally watch daytime TV but found myself glued to yesterday's edition of The Big Bite. The question of the day was, "What type of Ireland do we want to live in, in the future?". Panelists included Michael D. Higgins, Constantin Gurdgiev and Jim Power among numerous others. With such a large panel there was a potential for chaos but McWilliams chaired the discussion even handedly and with authority. I may well set my alarm to watch the moring repeats.

The interesting thing for me about McWilliams resurfacing so soon again on Irish TV is how successfully he has managed to brand himself. Make no mistake about it "David McWilliams" is a brand and he has been making good use of the internet in growing that brand". And extending it. And now he's taking his first steps in micropublishing and paid content.

His plan is simple - to offer a PDF formatted specialist research newsletter called Agenda (obviously leveraging the name of the TV3 programme) -

"Where can you make money these days? How can you discern the truth from the sales spin? To whom can you turn for impartial advice? Today every bank, broker and advisor is compromised. They are all trying to sell you some product or other. So where can you get truly independent analysis, assessment and comment?

The Mc Williams Agenda offers just that. On a monthly basis, Agenda aims to cut through the spin and the spoofing to provide you with clear, original, independent thinking on the big issues of the day. "

The first two issues of Agenda will be available for free. After that, you can subscribe for a year to receive 12 montly editions at €199 per annum. I've already downloaded the first free sample and will try to digest its 6 pages during the week. In light of my post yesterday about blog-based research business models it will be interesting to see how this works out for McWilliams. Of course he should be blogging..... and podcasting too.


-Jim
http://eirepreneur.blogs.com

fintan

I really enjoy his article in the SB post, and agenda was good too and to be replaced by that muppet Dunphy was unfortunate.

But at 199 for 12 newsletters? Its more expensive than a subscription to the economist (print) and the financial times (on-line edition) added together.

He should offer it for free and just use it to build his brand, this way upping the price on guest appearances, after dinner speaking, newspaper articles etc. As there is no way he is going to compete with the Economist and the FT.

fintan

Ok having just read the first newsletter, im not impressed. Regardless of the prices, the articles are not very good, they seem rushed and generic (just stuff he had on file that he pulled together to make a report). Better reports are available daily off the bloomberg website. Williams needs to relate the international events to how they affect people in ireland, that should be his value added commentary. Maybe the second report will be better.

Nuttzz

Issue 2 is now out, its interesting but lacking a bit of substance.