NEW PODCAST
Why Nobody Cares About Newsletters Anymore
This week, Kolby and I chat about what everyone's feeling: AI is sucking the energy out of media.
But here's the thing…
Every disruption in media history created new fortunes.
Cable gave us CNN and ESPN. Mobile gave us Industry Dive ($525M exit). Content overload gave us Axios ($500M+ exit). And there are so many more examples covered in this podcast.
The winners all had one thing in common: A strong thesis.
We shared 7 trends and theses founders can act on now to build the next big thing.
Last thing — We're not saying newsletters and email marketing is dead. They’re more important then EVER, but overlooked right now.
If you've followed my work for a long time, you know that everything I say is nuanced, but titles oversimplify.
Check out the podcast for the full context:
Or search “Matt McGarry” on your favorite podcast player.
BEST LINKS
My favorite finds
📈 Growth
How this political publisher added 90k+ email subscribers (1,100% YOY growth) with a simple strategy (NiemanLab)
💰 Revenue
How a recipe creator built a $670K ARR paid newsletter (Creator Spotlight)
How The Ankler from a tiny newsletter into a multimillion dollar media company (Inbox Collective)
Newsweek is testing a new SMS program that lets paying subscribers text its newsletter writer directly (AMO)
How “public homework” is helping this creator launch a cohort-based course on track for $5M in sales (LinkedIn)
How much money does Substack's #1 bestselling in business, Lenny Rachitsky, make from his newsletter? (LinkedIn)
👀 ICYMI
My reaction to beehiiv’s Summer Release (YouTube)
🗞️ Industry News
The New York Times is launching a local newsletter pilot (NiemanLab)
Why some publishers are preparing to opt out of Google search (AdWeek)
X launches Mentions Boost, a brand new ad product on X. If your brand or account is organically mentioned on X, you can boost the post's reach (X)
🗃️ Misc
Alex Lieberman, co-founder of Morning Brew, is launching a new media company and hiring full-stack AI creators (Twitter/X)