Newsletter Sales Infrastructure

Sam and Shaan discuss the hidden infrastructure required to build a successful newsletter business at scale, using Morning Brew as an example. They emphasize that most people only see the surface level of newsletter businesses but miss the complex operational requirements needed for significant revenue.

Key Points:

• Revenue Scale Requirements:

  • Need ~80 salespeople to reach $70-80M annual revenue
  • Requires additional 30+ support staff to handle sales operations
  • Must have substantial infrastructure beyond just content creation

• Content Strategy:

  • Can't be mercenary about content creation
  • Need to drive reader action, not just accumulate subscribers
  • Content must be compelling enough to get people to:
    • Show up to events
    • Take specific actions
    • Engage meaningfully with the brand

• Audience Value:

  • Subscriber count alone is wrong metric to focus on
  • Need valuable audience demographic that advertisers want to reach
  • Example: Crypto newsletter readers were valuable because they were active investors

• Long-term Sustainability:

  • Need evergreen content strategy
  • Can't rely solely on trending topics
  • Must build durable audience relationships
  • Requires significant operational expertise beyond initial growth phase

• Common Mistakes:

  • Over-relying on overseas writers and AI for content
  • Focusing only on subscriber growth
  • Not understanding advertiser value proposition
  • Missing infrastructure requirements for scale