A 15yr Local Media Veteran Shares All!

Hi newsletter operators!

Been a few weeks since the last issue. Sorry about that. But I have been doing a lot of interviews, which have all been killer. Highly recommend you check them out. Lots of smart operators and creators who have some great insights for you.

One of the best things about this business model is now you have two reasons to go do all the cool things in your town; because it’s fun, and so you can create content.

Cool new restaurant with a wiffle ball field!

Steam train ride to the Bluebonnet festival

Show insights

🎤Scott Brodbeck from ARL Now

Can’t recommend this two part episode highly enough. Scott comes at the space from a completely different angle than me, and 98% of people in the local newsletter space.

He’s been building a local media company for over 15 years with his website being the primary value driver, newsletter second. As always, there are many ways to run any business and ours is no different. So much we can learn from his style, while he admittedly has a lot to learn from ours.

Here are my big takeaways:

• Scott runs a website-first operation rather than a newsletter-first model - Unlike many of us new players in the local news space who focus primarily on crafting custom newsletters, Scott publishes content on websites first, then distributes it through automated newsletters. This approach has worked well for his established audience while requiring much less manual effort than the handcrafted newsletters many of us produce. Scott acknowledges that starting with a newsletter is the right path today. But having a full website will be key to long term success.
• He's built his business on quality local journalism - Scott employs six editorial staff across two sites to create original reporting, including breaking news with on-scene photos. Despite our different approaches to distribution, he reinforced that creating valuable, original local content that nobody else provides is essential for building a sustainable local media business that can endure long-term. Curation is great to start, but original content will be needed to grow for years.
• His operation relies heavily on automation - Scott has invested significant time building automation systems using tools like Zapier, Airtable, and custom WordPress configurations to eliminate repetitive manual work. These automations save tremendous time and resources, handling everything from content distribution to ad stats reporting automatically - something I plan to implement in my own operation.
• He's diversified revenue with programmatic advertising - Beyond direct ad sales, Scott's sites generate substantial revenue through programmatic advertising ($5-10 per thousand pageviews), which can fund an entire editorial position at scale. He suggested newsletter operators like me should consider expanding to website platforms that allow this revenue stream once we reach sufficient scale (around 10,000 subscribers with 50%+ open rates).

Follow Scott here to learn more

🎙️Trenton Hughes from Wilmy Weekly

Trenton is an extremely successful entrepreneur, who comes at this space to build community and audience first, with monetization not being a concern in the short term.

He and his partner Nic recognize the power of a local audience for local businesses, in which they might want to own or partner with one day. So they’re building the audience and brand today, worrying about monetization when they get to scale.

Which is very similar to what I’m doing, and encouraging others in the space to do.

Here are my four takeaways:

• A local newsletter works best as an indirect path to success rather than a direct revenue source - Trenton views his newsletter as a long-term community-building asset that creates opportunities beyond ad revenue. Instead of expecting immediate financial returns, he sees it as a way to establish local presence, build distribution, and potentially develop other business ventures in the community.
• Local newsletters can be powerful brand-building tools with multiple extensions - Trenton's newsletter has grown to 10,000 subscribers in just 6-7 months, allowing him to expand into hosting events, considering merchandise, and building an active social media presence. The newsletter serves as the foundation for a larger brand that connects with the community through multiple touchpoints.
• Instagram is a critical growth catalyst for local newsletters - Trenton emphasized that active Instagram usage significantly drives newsletter growth and engagement. When they produce more content on Instagram, they see direct correlation with subscriber growth and increased advertiser interest due to the visual representation of their brand in the community.
• AI-generated local newsletters lack community connection and authenticity - Trenton thinks competitors using AI to create local newsletters from outside the community, but finds they miss important local context and relevance. He believes successful local media requires a human element with real local presence, as readers quickly recognize when content isn't created by someone who truly understands their community.

Highly recommend following him on X/Twitter here

Actionable ideas

Start using (and paying) for Claude

It is just so much better for writing than ChatGPT. And it’s not even close. Not only does it write in a much more human way, it will create a ton more content from a single prompt than ChatGPT will.

Lately I’ve asked them both to create multiple pieces of content from transcripts. ChatGPT will give me the outline of the content, while Claude will actually write it all out. Just a no brainer from my experience.

Sadly, I do still think you need a paid ChatGPT account as well, for the voice mode and the new image generator. Personally, I’ve been paying for both for almost a year, and don’t plan on stopping. They both have their strengths and weaknesses, might as well have both.

Great reads

How to Use AI to Streamline Your Weekly Newsletter Process - Catherine Lavery

Catherine gives a ton of detail on how she leverages AI to create her newsletter. This is a great intro with a lot of specifics on things you can be doing to leverage the tech. Read it here

He wanted to fix local news. It’s harder than he thought. - Katherine Sayre

Interesting article about a guy who acquired over 30 local papers and is struggling to keep most of them afloat. Worth a read. Check it out here.

Tech tools

📈Sign up for RSS.app

Got this tip from Shane Brady, who’s episode is coming up later this week. You do not want to miss it!

I had tried an RSS system before, but just found it too clunky and not valuable enough to continue with.

One of the reasons was that the system could not track any facebook pages or instagram pages, which is where we get a lot of our info from.

Shane showed me RSS.app and that they can do that, which is amazing.

And the second key was that once the info was curated, it wouldn’t be an overwhelming system, with either too many pages to click, or just long scrolling per story.

He solved that too, by using the build in integration with Slack (or Discord, which I’m using now). So when a new story comes in, it goes directly into your messaging platform, into a specific channel you designate.

And you can turn off images and anything else you don’t want to see. This is great because it makes scrolling through the news so much faster.

I’ve only been using it a couple of days, but this seems like a no brainer tool for local newsletter operators.