- Newsletter Creator
- Posts
- 🥇 Newsletter First
🥇 Newsletter First
In this issue, we discuss newsletter first media companies, The Tilt gets acquired, and the importance of paid products in a newsletter funnel
The Wisdom Group
August 04, 2023
Powered By
Hey there 👋,
In this issue we discuss:
Newsletter first media companies
The Tilt gets acquired
The importance of paid products in a newsletter funnel
Cheers!
🥇 Newsletter First
Sam Parr who founded The Hustle in 2015 (and sold to Hubspot 2021 in a deal Axios valued at $27M) posted earlier this week that he was discouraged from starting a newsletter:
In 2015 I told a CEO of a large media company that I was starting a newsletter.
You all know this CEO. Was one of the darlings during Buzzfeed era.
He told me a newsletter would barely make $2m/year. I was bummed for a week and I almost believed him.
There are a few… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
— Sam Parr (@thesamparr)
Aug 1, 2023
A CEO of a large media company said that it would barely make $2M a year.
Fast forward to 2023, and Sam states that:
There are a few newsletter first media companies started around that same time (2014) that are doing now doing $50-$100m!
Reminder: no one knows anything!
It really is possible to become a digital media mogul by putting newsletters first.
✅ The Tilt Gets Acquired
The community for content creators turned entrepreneurs The Tilt just got acquired by the online self-publishing book company Lulu, as founder Joe Pulizzi announced:
Big news! @Luludotcom has acquired @TheTiltNews and our event, Creator Economy Expo (CEX).
Here's my full article on the news.
#CreatorExpo
— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi)
Aug 1, 2023
The Tilt started in 2021, grew its newsletter to 25K subs and launched the annual Creator Economy Expo (CEX) which became the conference to celebrate content entrepreneurs.
📰 Classifieds
Duuce is the #1 marketplace for buying & selling newsletters. See what your newsletter is worth with their free valuation calculator. Check it out
Sponsorships(.com) Newsletter Agency helps newsletter operators earn more revenue through sponsorships with top brands. Check it out
The Newsletter Is The Business is everything we know about launching, scaling and selling editorial newsletter businesses. Check it out
☝️ One More Thing
We’ve written about it previously in our Tripwires for Newsletters issue, so it’s great to see Gunnar post about the importance of adding a paid product into a newsletter funnel:
A paid product in a newsletter funnel changes everything...
Let's use The Hustle as an example:
If they pay $2/sub, 10k subs costs $20k.
Those 10k subs can yield $4k/month in ad rev (already pretty good)
And then their paid product (Trends) comes in and adds $22k in revenue. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
— Gunnar S. Holm (@holmisthename)
Aug 1, 2023
Disclaimer: Not financial or business advice. This newsletter is strictly for information and education purposes. There are no affiliate links in this issue.