Should a new local media brand start with a website or a newsletter?

Starting over right now, I would not do a newsletter first. I'd do the website and social, then add a newsletter later. That's a reversal for me, and I want to be upfront about it.

What did I used to say?

In April 2025 I agreed with the "new model": start with the newsletter. It's the acquisition channel and how you get the brand going. The old model, from the early 2010s, was website first. A long-running operator I talked to did it website first and was slowly adding a newsletter, and I was honestly torn. I knew someone running a lighter model like his who was crushing it while working way less than us.

Why did I switch to website first?

"A newsletter is limited on space; a website is not."

• Unlimited inventory. A site can hold ads cheap enough for any business, at any size.
• A public number. A big list is invisible unless you're on it. A site is visible to everyone.
• More ways to get paid. An operator in the Waco area got a $1,500-a-month sponsor just for a logo and job listings on his job board.
• Wider coverage. One operator's newsletter covers four small cities while his site is set to cover 40 cities and about 4 million people. That's the area he'll be selling when he networks.

What goes on the website?

My current model combines three things on one local site:

1. An automated event calendar, which replaces tools businesses pay about $100 to $200 a month for.
2. A job board.
3. A business directory where every business gets a page, linked from articles about them.

Free submissions through a form lower the friction for businesses to get on it. Media companies usually start random directories as separate things. Put them together and make them good.

What if I already have a newsletter?

Import the archive first. When we launch a site for a city that already has a newsletter, we pull everything they've published into the website before launch. We did that with WilCo Guide, and a Las Vegas brand had about a year of content ready to bring over. That gives a new site real depth on day one. Cities with no archive start thin.

What order would I build in now?

1. Website and social in one county.
2. Prove the outreach, the funnel and the operating process there.
3. Add the newsletter.
4. Repeat the operating system in the next market, not copied content.

The newsletter still matters. It's just better as one arm of the brand than as the whole thing. See why a newsletter should become a media brand.