Case 01 · Finance & markets

A boutique asset manager builds a research relationship with our finance audience

Three co-authored market briefs, published under a labelled partnership masthead and sent to readers who asked for exactly this kind of work.

Editorial seriesThree partsQuarterlyFinance & markets
01 · The brief

What the partner needed.

The partner — a boutique asset manager with a strong research desk and a quiet public profile — didn't want clicks. They wanted qualified conversations with allocators and finance professionals who actually read.

Banner inventory and paid social had produced volume without substance. What they hadn't tried was long-form research, co-authored and placed in front of an audience that opted in to read long-form research.

02 · What we built

The shape of the work.

01
Co-authored briefs
Three long-form market briefs, written with the partner's macro team and line-edited to our standards. Their analysis, our editorial discipline.
02
Labelled masthead
Published under a clearly-marked partnership masthead — disclosed on every page, separated from our independent reporting.
03
Sequenced sends
Each brief went to the full finance list; readers who engaged deeply received the follow-up invitation to speak with the partner's team.
03 · How it performed

Outcomes, indexed.

We publish direction and multiples, not our partners' absolute numbers.

Reading time vs. house average2.6×

Long-form held attention — median time-in-piece ran multiples above our own editorial baseline.

Reply rate vs. typical partner feature3.1×

Replies came from the exact seniority the partner wanted, and their team took the conversations from there.

Engaged-segment conversion vs. cold outreach

The sequenced follow-up to engaged readers outperformed the partner's cold-channel benchmark several times over.

Figures indexed against house benchmarks. Absolute numbers, list sizes, and partner-identifying data stay under NDA.

“The replies read like the start of mandates, not like ad clicks. We've stopped comparing this to our paid channels — it's a different instrument.”
Head of Distribution, partner firm