The Substack Podcast

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Conversations with writers, bloggers, and creative thinkers about how they got here. Produced by Substack, a place for independent writing. on.substack.com.Read more »

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Substack Podcast #018: Corporate governance with Francine McKenna

5 days ago · 55 minutes

We spoke with Francine McKenna of The Dig, a newsletter about accounting, audit and corporate governance issues at public and pre-IPO companies. Through her newsletter, Francine analyzes the most widely-held and widely-shorted companies in the world.After two decades of working for companies like KPMG and PwC, Francine’s original goal was to write a book. She started an anonymous blog, just to help her get material on paper. Over time, she amassed such a loyal following that she quit consulting, fully dedicating herself to her newsletter as an independent journalist.We talked to Francine about her career journey from accounting to journalism, her rigorous approach to writing and research, and how she grew a loyal following of readers across her blog and newsletter.LinksThe Dig, Francine’s newsletterFrancine on TwitterMatt Levine, a business journalist that Francine admiresHighlights(06:20) Why Francine became an early Twitter adopter, even though others in her industry avoided it(09:27) How Francine grew her audience, despite starting under a pseudonym, by analyzing metrics and reaching out to readers(17:34) How Francine keeps up-to-date by developing meaningful relationships within the world of academia(29:26) Francine’s transition from blogging to writing a newsletter (41:43) How Francine differentiates paid vs. free content On writing for herself:Frankly, I wanted to just write what I want to write, the way I want to write it. I like writing long, I like writing detailed. I like writing for an audience that already knows that they want to read what I want to read. I'm not interested in converting the unconverted, but I'd be glad to teach those who are willing to learn. On the loyalty of her audience:I have students who were just seniors in college or just about to embark on their career when they first started reading me. Now they're partners at the firms or they're professors in the universities. I've been at it long enough that I've seen people grow and they've seen me grow.TranscriptNadia (00:34):You write The Dig, which you describe as digging into accounting, audit, and corporate governance issues at public and pre-IPO companies.Francine (00:43):Yes, it's very similar to what I've been doing for the last 15 years in terms of writing and journalism. But I put a new brand spin on it for my Substack launch.Nadia (00:56):Awesome. I'd love to dig into, I'm going to be saying that a lot probably, dig into your background a bit since you had an entire career it seems. Several decades working in public accounting at KPMG and PwC, and all these big firms. Then you later went on to become an investigative journalist. You've had multiple careers it seems like. How and why did you make that transition from working directly in accounting to becoming a journalist?Francine (01:27):Sure. I like to say that journalism is my second profession. Because accounting, being a CPA, is my first profession or at least my original one. If you're an account...

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