Can a local newsletter make money from the newsletter alone?
Short answer
Rarely. Morning Brew and B2B newsletters can live off the newsletter because each reader is so valuable. A local reader is worth far less per impression, and your subscriber count is invisible to everyone not on the list. So I build a local media company around it: Instagram, a website, a podcast, events, a directory and a job board.
Yes, there are newsletters like Morning Brew and B2B ones that make a ton from the newsletter alone. That's because each reader there can be so valuable. In a local newsletter, each reader just isn't nearly as valuable.
What's the problem with a newsletter-only business?
Two things. Lower value per reader, and no public number.
"You could have 50,000 newsletter subscribers and... nobody knows it. It's a hidden number."
Unless someone is on the list, you don't exist to them. Instagram is the public number of your brand. A reel is easier to share than a newsletter. A newsletter is also limited on space. A website is not.
What should sit around the newsletter?
- Instagram first, then other social.
- A full website with real articles, aiming to show up in search and Google News.
- A local podcast.
- Events, for brand and relationships.
- A business directory, so every business has a page and some pay to upgrade.
- A job board. An operator in the Waco area got a sponsor at $1,500 a month just to have their logo and jobs on his job board.
An automated event calendar on the site replaces tools businesses pay about $100 to $200 a month for. Usually media companies and entrepreneurs start random directories as separate things. What if you put them together and made them good?
Does more surface area take away from the newsletter?
I worried a website would make people pay less attention to the newsletter. I don't think it's a big issue. The bigger risk is adding channels that need brand new content. My test: does the new channel consume content you already make? If yes, add it. If it needs net-new production, wait until someone other than you can produce it.
How do the small pieces add up?
When I worked through the math on one ad going to 5,000 homeowners, small amounts from three sources added up to about $200. No single surface was big. Together they were. That's the idea behind the octopus model.
Newsletters are great as an additional thing. You don't want them to be your only thing.
Answered by TJ Larkin. From TJ's own podcast episodes and strategy calls in 2025 and 2026. Last updated .