Is it easier to grow a local newsletter than a national one?
Short answer
Yes. National niches like AI or tech are very hard to break into, while local has far less competition and a built-in reason to care: people care about where they live. I tried a national senior newsletter and it didn't work. Framed locally, that audience signs up for about 50 cents each.
We tried running a national newsletter for seniors. It didn't work. It's too hard. The same audience, approached locally, signs up for about 50 cents a subscriber.
Why does local beat national?
Location is the hook. If you run ads or talk about things locally, that's all you have to do to get people's interest. They're highly engaged because they care about their community.
"Nobody cares, and nobody's going to sign up, but they all care about their location."
Compare that with a national newsletter about home insurance. There's no built-in reason to care.
Isn't local a smaller market?
The total audience is smaller. But building a media brand is especially hard at a national level or in popular niches like entrepreneurship, AI or tech. Where it's not difficult, especially if you put real effort in, is local. There's way less competition.
A guest on my show put the other half of it well: local total addressable market is smaller, but value per subscriber can be much higher.
So should every brand be purely local?
No. My senior brand plan mixes the two. The model is a national media brand plus a business directory, with local senior newsletters around the country where about 80% of the content is national and 20% is local. The ads stay local, because that's how we get leads cheaply. The local framing does the acquisition work even when most of the content is shared.
The same template works for other niches: a national media site for a group like commercial insurance brokers or public adjusters, with directory pages broken out by state or city.
When does national make sense?
When each reader is worth a lot. Morning Brew and B2B newsletters can make a ton from the newsletter alone because every reader is valuable to advertisers. A local reader is worth less per impression, which is why local operators build a full media brand around the newsletter. See can a local newsletter make money from the newsletter alone.
What to do with this
- If you're picking a first newsletter, go local.
- If you want a niche, test it inside a location: seniors in one county, business owners in one metro.
- Frame every ad around the place, even if the content is broader.
Answered by TJ Larkin. From product planning sessions and Local Media HQ podcast conversations in 2025 and 2026. Last updated .