How to run your first 30 days of a local newsletter
A week-by-week plan to go from an empty Beehiiv account to 800 to 1,000 subscribers, with the budget and the publishing rhythm set.
By the end of this plan, a reader has a named local newsletter set up in Beehiiv, a publishing rhythm of 2 to 3 issues a week, Meta ads and personal outreach running, and a first sponsor pitch ready for the day the list crosses 800 subscribers. The plan takes 30 to 45 days to reach 1,000 subscribers in the markets the Local Media HQ team has run. Before starting, a reader needs under $1,000 in startup funds, a Beehiiv account, a Meta ads account, a Canva account, and a domain.
Every figure below comes from Local Media HQ's own published guides, and the team presents these numbers as what it has seen across 20+ local publications with 175,000+ subscribers. Results vary by market, and the team says so plainly: markets differ, and the numbers are observations from a portfolio, not guarantees.
Week 1: pick the market, set up Beehiiv, write the first issues
The market choice sets the ceiling for everything that follows. Local Media HQ's playbook calls for a growing suburb of 50,000 to 150,000 people. Pick a town, pick a name, and set up the newsletter on Beehiiv, which the team recommends starting from day one on the free tier, which works fine until 2,500 subscribers. Connect the domain, which runs about $12 a year, and open a Canva account at $13 for the design work.
- 01Pick the market
Choose a growing suburb of 50,000 to 150,000 people and write down the town the newsletter will cover.
- 02Name the newsletter
Pick a name tied to the town, the way Local Media HQ's own Leander Scoop and Round Rock Scoop are named.
- 03Set up Beehiiv
Create the publication in Beehiiv, connect the custom domain, and set up the branding. The free Launch tier covers up to 2,500 subscribers.
- 04Write the first issues
Draft 2 to 3 issues, each with 5 to 8 news items, an event calendar, a business spotlight, and deals.
- 05Budget the month
Set aside the monthly overhead: Beehiiv at $49 to $99 once past the free tier, Meta ads at $300 to $1,000, the domain at $12 a year, and Canva at $13.
Week 2: start Meta ads and personal outreach
Meta lead-generation ads are the fastest path to subscribers the team has found. The setup that works, per the first-1,000 guide: a lead generation campaign objective, geographic targeting of the city plus a 10 to 15 mile radius, ages 25 to 55, and a daily budget of $10 to $20 to start. The creative that performs is a carousel showing 3 to 4 actual screenshots from the newsletter, real content rather than stock photos, because readers are deciding whether the email is worth their inbox.
- 01Create the lead generation campaign
In Meta Ads Manager, choose lead generation as the campaign objective, not traffic and not engagement.
- 02Set the targeting
Target your city plus a 10 to 15 mile radius, ages 25 to 55.
- 03Set the budget
Start at $10 to $20 per day. At $0.15 to $0.30 per subscriber, that pace compounds quickly.
- 04Build the creative
Build a carousel of 3 to 4 real newsletter screenshots in Canva. Expect weeks 1 and 2 to bring 50 to 150 subscribers total.
- 05Message your personal network
Send about 200 direct messages. The team has seen that volume bring 40 to 80 subscribers.
- 06Hit the ground locally
Visit community gatherings where locals talk. One Texas operator the team works with gets 50 to 80 subscribers per farmers market visit.
Weeks 3 and 4: keep the rhythm, start the referral program, prep the pitch
Weeks 3 and 4 are about holding the publishing rhythm while the ads run. With paid ads, the team expects 30 to 70 new subscribers a day in this stretch. At 300 to 500 subscribers, start the Beehiiv referral program, the built-in tool where readers share a custom link and get perks. Across the team's publications, referrals typically drive 8 to 15 percent of new subscribers once momentum builds.
- 01Publish on rhythm
Send 2 to 3 issues a week, every week, with 5 to 8 news items, the event calendar, the business spotlight, and deals.
- 02Start the referral program
Turn on the Beehiiv referral program once the list passes 300 to 500 subscribers.
- 03Draft the sponsor pitch
Write a short pitch email for local businesses: restaurants, real estate agents, med spas, and home service companies already spending $500 to $2,000 a month on Google or Facebook ads.
- 04Set the price
Plan one sponsor slot at $100 to $200 per issue for a list of 500 to 1,500, and raise prices every quarter as the list grows.
- 05Hold the ads
Keep the Meta campaign running. Total ad spend to reach 1,000 subscribers runs $70 to $300.
Where people get stuck
The ads bring subscribers but too few
Check the creative first. The team's guidance is specific: show 3 to 4 actual newsletter screenshots in a carousel, not a stock photo with a generic headline. Then check the objective, which must be lead generation, and the targeting, which must be the city plus a 10 to 15 mile radius at ages 25 to 55. The team's record low cost per subscriber is $0.07, and its typical range is $0.15 to $0.30, so a cost well above that range points at setup, not at the market.
The publishing rhythm slips
Two to 3 issues a week is the rhythm the team runs on, and each issue carries 5 to 8 news items, an event calendar, a business spotlight, and deals. Local Media HQ built its own publishing tool, lightbreak, to pull in the news, homes, events, pets and jobs and turn a week of local news into a finished issue in under 15 minutes. That is one way to keep the rhythm without writing every issue from a blank page.
Nobody replies to the sponsor pitch
The most common mistake is waiting too long to sell. The team has closed sponsorships at 800 subscribers, and its guidance is to start pitching at 800 to 1,000 rather than at 5,000. Call businesses already spending $500 to $2,000 a month on Google or Facebook ads, keep the pitch to a short email, and frame the offer as the most targeted local audience a small business can buy: people who specifically subscribed to a newsletter about their town.
What comes after the first 1,000
The team's published targets for a local newsletter business: month 6 at 5,000+ subscribers and $2,000 to $4,000 a month, month 12 at 10,000+ subscribers and $5,000 to $10,000 a month, with typical margins of 80 to 90 percent. SEO compounds over 6 to 18 months, so the paid ads and outreach carry the early growth while the archive builds.
