A journalist's local newsletter, and why reporting is the moat

Phat Chiem runs The 518, a newsletter for the Albany Capital Region in New York. He was nearly a year in when we recorded, with about 2,300 subscribers and very little spent on ads. We talked about why he builds every issue around a reported story, how a rebrand changed his numbers, and how Reddit and relationships did the work most people pay Meta to do. This is part one. Part two, on selling The 518 to advertisers, is here.

A reporter among curators

Phat started at the Chicago Tribune, then moved from print to online as an editor at Yahoo in Southern California. There he led a team of editors curating content for the Yahoo homepage, which pulls huge traffic because people come for mail and stay for celebrity news, sports and personal finance.

He says most of the local newsletters popping up right now are not run by journalists, and that is fine, because you don't need to be one. But it gives him an edge. Every issue of The 518 has a lead story that is original, reported and written by him, usually a profile of a local personality, a business or a local issue.

His read on readers: they want local news without the crime, the politics and the pile of ads, plus a complete roundup of events. People tell him the newsletter is easy to read for exactly that reason.

Why Albany is the right size

Albany proper is about 100,000 people. The Capital Region adds towns like Saratoga Springs, Schenectady, Troy and Latham. When I looked it up, the metro area came out to 1.1 million people, and Phat agreed.

He likes that size. It is smaller than Los Angeles, Boston or Atlanta, but big enough for plenty of service businesses, real estate agents and events. It is also about an hour end to end, so people in one part of the region don't know what's happening in another. A newsletter that collects the best events across all of it is useful.

Reporting is the moat

New local newsletters are popping up across the country, and Phat expects someone to start a competitor in Albany. They won't have the journalism, the design chops or the brand, he says. Writing talent is expensive to hire, and he has it himself, so he doesn't have to pay for it.

There is plenty to report on. He mentioned a proposed $500 million soccer stadium downtown, and what locals call "small Albany," the idea that the city is sleepy and boring. His stance is that if you think Albany is boring, you're not paying attention.

He also named the bigger players doing reported local news, like 6AM City and the Lookout newsletters in Vancouver and Ontario. Those are fully reported with paid staff and paid tiers. Phat does a lighter mix, and the fact that they succeed tells him readers want it.

From a borrowed logo to a beaver

At launch, The 518 had a generic design and a logo of the Egg, Albany's performing arts center. That logo didn't say anything about the brand, because the building doesn't belong to the newsletter.

Phat got on a call with Mike at Catskills Crew, whom he calls probably the best local newsletter designer he has seen. They landed on Albany's history: it is the second oldest incorporated city in America, he said. Phat worked with his wife, an artist and photographer who is his partner in the newsletter. They built an archival look from old maps of Albany and the Hudson River, with a yellow-beige background instead of white.

The mascot is the beaver, New York's state animal, tied to the state's fur trade. The tagline is "the best damn news you can use," with dam spelled like a beaver dam.

When they switched to the new branding, they were testing Meta ads. Phat says engagement lifted and their cost of acquisition went down. They stopped the ads only because there was no spare cash to put behind them. His advice: spend a couple of hours with Canva or AI, then keep fonts and colors consistent so people recognize a graphic as yours without seeing your name.

How Reddit found the first readers

Phat and his wife get most of their income from StoryCraft, so the newsletter doesn't have to pay the bills yet. That let them grow slowly and think about quality. He actually says that forces you to think about the content and the audience, rather than chasing a spike.

Reddit did most of the early work. The first 500 to 800 subscribers came organically from Reddit, mostly through the Albany subreddit, which has about 64,000 members.

The Albany subreddit later put The 518 in its right rail as one of the things to know about Albany. His own events subreddit grew to about 2,000 followers in roughly six months. Phat adds that he gets subscribers every time he posts on Reddit.

Instagram follower counts sell to advertisers

Instagram is about 5,000 followers and, with Reddit and Facebook, the total is just under 10,000. Phat treats that number as important as the subscriber count, because local businesses don't understand what a newsletter is. Many think it is something printed and left on a doorstep, so they ask how big your Instagram is.

They have not done many reels because of the work involved. Phat points to Jas in Winnipeg as the standard he aspires to. His goal when we spoke was 10,000 subscribers by the end of the year.

Two sponsors in one month

That month, The 518 collected its two biggest advertising checks. The first was from New Scotland Spirits, a local alcohol brand. It took months: going to their events, visiting the tasting room, talking with the owners, and slowly bringing up the newsletter. They already understood audiences because they have a big social following. The deal was a sponsorship slot plus a couple of stories about their new products and events.

The second sponsor was inbound, a promoter for a May rock concert at the Egg. The show has a band playing 16 of the most iconic rock songs while the stories behind them are told. They asked for ads. Phat offered a behind-the-scenes editorial piece with the band and the researchers, plus ads and ticket giveaways. He says that kind of collaboration takes a sponsorship from a couple hundred dollars to roughly $4,000 to $5,000.

He is careful about who gets in. If an event is poorly done and you're paid to write about it, you risk eroding trust. It only works if it makes sense for your readers.