Can a local newsletter be only events?
Short answer
Yes. I've seen newsletters that are literally only events, and that's a complete product. In my post-subscribe surveys about 80% of new subscribers, and up to 90% in some markets, say events are what they care about most. An events-only newsletter gets you roughly 80% of the value for 20% of the work.
My wife and I were spending about 60 hours a week covering everything a local newspaper would. Most of that surface area turned out to be optional.
"I've seen newsletters that are just events, literally only events, and that's probably the 80-20 of this model."
Why events?
Because that's what readers tell me, every time. My post-subscribe survey asks new subscribers what they care about most. Roughly 80% click events. Restaurants are usually second. Across some multi-location surveys it's been closer to 90% events, in every location.
People still care about everything else. Events is what they care about most.
Two honest caveats:
- That 80% is a stated preference from a survey. It's not a click rate and it's not willingness to pay.
- Don't assume it for your market. Run the survey and know for a fact.
Why are events so valuable to readers?
Because finding them is shockingly hard. There's rarely one central place to see what's going on. People are tired of missing things, digging through Facebook saves and Meetup, and piecing together news from TV sites and weak local paper sites.
Curating that into one email is easy for you and valuable for them. It's a great place to start, then build more on top.
Do the events have to be the absolute best ones?
No. I asked myself what changes if we publish six pretty good events we found quickly instead of the ten best. I'm pretty confident the answer is nothing. That's a prediction, not a measured test, and my own team still struggles to act on it out of habit.
"People just don't pay that close attention. They glance at our emails to see if there's something they like, and they're off."
Readers aren't analyzing your issue the way you do when you build it. In most towns your competition is nothing.
Should events be your marketing hook too?
Yes. Events are what people gravitate to most on Meta, so I use them as the broad hook to bring in everybody, even for publishers whose real product is news or business stories. Readers often end up loving the other sections more. Once you have the everybody angle, hit narrower segments with specific messages.
One rule: deliver what you promise. I won't run ads saying "we keep you up to date on events" for a newsletter that never has events. Check that the events section exists before the ads go live.
The full process is in how I build the events section.
Answered by TJ Larkin. From Local Media HQ podcast episodes and client calls in 2025 and 2026. Last updated .