Newsletters Outperform Websites

Sam Parr and Shaan Puri discuss the monetization differences between newsletters and traditional news websites, drawing from their experience running media companies.

Key Points:

• Newsletter Monetization Potential:

  • A 1 million subscriber newsletter should generate $5-10 million in revenue annually
  • Newsletters monetize significantly better than traditional news websites
  • Email format helps solve some of the content quality vs. clickbait tension

• Website Traffic Challenges:

  • 1 million monthly website visitors "ain't shit" in terms of revenue
  • Websites require much higher traffic for comparable revenue
  • Volume game is much harder with website destinations vs. newsletters

• Content Strategy Tensions:

  • Traditional media companies face constant tension between:
    • Need for trust and factual reporting
    • Pressure to create clickbait for traffic
    • Requirement to generate outrage/reactions for shares
  • Even subscription models don't fully solve these tensions
  • Email format provides better balance between quality and engagement

• Personal Experience:

  • Sam ran a media company with advertising revenue
  • Switched to newsletter format to address content quality issues
  • Later added subscriptions generating $5M revenue in first year
  • Still faced some of the same fundamental tensions despite format changes

The key insight is that newsletters provide a more efficient path to monetization compared to traditional websites, though content strategy challenges persist across both formats.