65 successful media entrepreneurs share their top growth hacks
I'm building the world's largest database of media case studies.
I’ve set a goal for this newsletter: to build out the world’s largest database of media case studies. I seek out the most successful media entrepreneurs and interview them about how they built their businesses. My goal with every case study is that you can walk away from it with actionable insights that you can incorporate into your own content operations.
So far, I’ve amassed an archive of 65 case studies and plan to add to it each month. Here they are:
How Living Cozy built a successful ecommerce business by reviewing furniture and household appliances
Founder Ash Read explained how he built up search authority in a crowded content niche.
How Freetrail carved out a media niche for one of the country's fastest-growing sports
Ultra marathoner Dylan Bowman grew a highly diversified company on the back of his personal brand.
How the Sunday Long Read newsletter built a thriving membership by curating longform journalism
Don Van Natta Jr. and Jacob Feldman grew the newsletter to over 25,000 subscribers.
How the GameDiscoverCo newsletter launched a data product for game developers
Simon Carless carved out a niche in the gaming industry by tracking the metrics around game releases.
How the Tangle newsletter reached 77,000 readers and $624,000 in annual revenue
Isaac Saul wanted to create an antidote to the hyper partisan media ecosystem that dominates the web.
This local news outlet carved out a lucrative niche by serving Indianapolis women
Leslie Bailey explained how Indy Maven grew from a weekly newsletter into an events and coworking company.
How Oovvuu grew its video platform to over 400 million streams per day
Ricky Sutton co-founded the company to help publishers claw back advertising dollars from the Google/Facebook duopoly.
How a blog about the VC industry generated over $1 million from online courses
John Gannon built an audience with VC job postings and then monetized through a mix of online courses, productized services, and sponsorships.
How a B2B outlet that covers the corporate travel industry built up a loyal subscriber base
The Company Dime mostly eschewed sponsorship revenue and focused instead on delivering high-quality journalism.
How Man of Many grew into the largest men's lifestyle media outlet in Australia
Frank Arthur and Scott Purcell realized early on that content consistency was paramount.
How a former travel journalist built a paid membership community for the PR industry
Kelsey and Derrick Ogletree designed Pitchcraft to serve as a liaison between PR consultants and journalists.
How Hubspot built a massive newsletter and podcast audience
The SaaS company bought the business newsletter The Hustle in 2021, and Brad Wolverton is in charge of driving synergies between the two.
How two graduate students launched the leading biotech publisher in Europe
Co-founder Joachim Eeckhout explains how Labiotech.eu filled an information gap for Europe's fast-growing biotech scene.
How a kids-focused podcaster reached 1 million monthly downloads
Jim Jacob accidentally stumbled upon a huge market opportunity when he launched Kids Short Stories.
How a former Cosmo editor built Australia's largest women-focused media company
Mia Freedman started Mamamia as a one-person blog and bootstrapped it into a multi-media outlet that reaches 7 million people.
How a college student launched one of the most influential B2B sports media companies
Adam White explains how Front Office Sports grew from a college project into a media powerhouse.
How a podcast for entrepreneurial parents generates $200,000 a year
Sarah Peck explains why she didn't chase scale when building her Startup Parent podcast.
How Starter Story grew to 1.4 million monthly visitors and $500,000 in annual revenue
Founder Pat Walls discussed how he automated his process so that the site now operates as a sort of flywheel.
How Big Cabal Media became one of the fastest-growing news outlets in Africa
CEO Tomiwa Aladekomo walked me through the company’s origin story, explained why he joined in 2018, and outlined its monetization strategy.
How an interest in whiskey birthed a thriving media company
The Whiskey Wash capitalized on the rise of craft distilleries and is almost entirely funded through digital advertising.
How Maria Brito used Instagram to build a 7-figure art consulting business
She eventually grew her audience to over 200,000 followers across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and email.
How an engineering student accidentally started a thriving science news site
Hüseyin Kilic grew Interesting Engineering into a media behemoth with over 15.5 million social media followers.
Was Randy Cassingham the first member of the Creator Economy?
In 1994, he launched This is True, one of the first email newsletters, and grew it into a thriving business.
Judd Legum proved that investigative journalism can thrive on Substack
The former ThinkProgress editor has over 150,000 signups and at least 7,500 paying subscribers to his newsletter.
How The Art of Manliness built its loyal audience
The publisher intentionally stayed small, choosing to focus mostly on his website and podcast.
How Richard Rushfield founded one of Hollywood’s most influential newsletters
Richard wrote the newsletter in a raw, unfiltered voice; he was an insider who wasn’t afraid to ruffle feathers.
How The Discourse scaled its business model to 34 local news sites
The media startup developed a membership model that involves asking the audience what news should be covered.
Daily Detroit is proving there’s a market for local podcasts
Jer Staes monetizes his podcast through a mixture of local business advertising and paid memberships.
How a VC investor grew her newsletter to over 100,000 subscribers
Codie Sanchez finds interesting ways to make money and then reverse engineers them for her audience.
How Political Wire built its successful subscription offering
How The Author Stack grew to over 31,000 subscribers
How the Geekout newsletter grew to 30,000 subscribers
How the Wonder Tools newsletter grew to 39,000 subscribers
How Android Intelligence built a thriving paid membership
How The Ankler converts its free audience into paid subscribers
How the Daily Upside grew to over 1 million subscribers
Patrick Trousdale explains why he partnered with a traditional news brand and how he works with finance influencers.
How TAPinto sells local ads across 90 news sites
Mike Shapiro developed a range of ad products and all sorts of unique incentives that allow his network operators to collaborate on selling sponsorships.
How Local News Now built its loyal audience
How The Future Party collaborates with the world's largest brands to host events
The outlet has over 200,000 subscribers to its newsletter, but it still generates significant revenue from its events.
How Project Brazen builds huge audiences for its narrative podcasts
The startup operates almost like a movie studio in how it produces shows.
How Dan Oshinsky used his popular newsletter to grow his consulting business
Dan's growing archive of case studies and advice articles have turned his website into a go-to resource for newsletter operators.
How Mignon Fogarty launched a massively successful series of online courses
She isn’t just one of the world’s most popular podcasters, she’s also an incredibly innovative media entrepreneur.
How Stacker distributes sponsored content to thousands of publishers
The startup devised a unique business model for its newswire service.
How Keith Pepper turned an Atlanta newspaper chain into a digital-first media company
He started by consolidating the publications into a single web brand.
How Eric Siu leveraged his hugely popular podcasts to grow his ad agency
He doesn’t bother with traditional media monetization models like advertising or subscriptions.
How Alts.co monetizes its massive newsletter with an investor membership platform
Its Altea community not only vets potential deals, but also allows members to invest in them.
How to market a book in the age of TikTok'
A 20-year publishing veteran dishes on the strategies that actually sell books.
How Lon Seidman used his tech YouTube channel to build a huge affiliate business
He specializes in reviewing non-sexy gadgets that sell in high volumes.
How the KC Sports Network is building a regional media empire
The network puts out 10 different shows and is monetized through a mixture of local and national advertisers.
How Eric Newcomer scaled his startups newsletter into a $2 million business
The former Bloomberg reporter is hyper focused on serving an affluent and influential audience.
How three Morning Brew alums are building their own network of niche media outlets
Smooth Media works with the largest knowledge creators and recently acquired a 30-year-old B2B media outlet.
This YouTuber amassed a half million social media followers by interviewing touring musicians
Josh Weidling launched Digital Tour Bus in 2010 and has since uploaded over 9,000 videos across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
How Jonathan Skogmo disrupted the viral video clip economy — and plans to do the same in travel media
Through Jukin Media, Skogmo mastered the art of licensing YouTube videos to media companies and brands. Now he's acquiring media outlets focused on travel.
How two college friends reunited to build a thriving politics podcast
Pantsuit Politics succeeded by not trying to cater to audiences in coastal cities.
The economics of ghostwriting books
Gotham Ghostwriters founder Dan Gerstein explains the ghostwriting process.
How Philip Taylor built FinCon, the leading conference for personal finance creators
You can’t open up YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram without encountering an influencer who gives advice on how to make and save money.
How Jared Newman built Cord Cutter Weekly, a TV streaming newsletter with 32,000 subscribers
A spinoff newsletter that gives tech advice has also grown to 1,200 paying members.
How Gary Arndt built Everything Everywhere, a podcast with 1.5 million monthly downloads
He's already published 1,400 episodes since 2020.
How Colossus built one of the largest investing-focused podcast networks
CEO Matt Reustle explained the vision behind the network.
How Mission Local spun off from UC Berkeley and became a self-sustaining news outlet
Lydia Chavez originally used it as a teaching tool for her journalism students.
How Alex Halperin built WeedWeek, a B2B outlet that covers California's cannabis industry
His revenue is split pretty evenly between sponsorships and subscriptions.
How Tim Burrowes helped build Mumbrella into a $7 million media brand
Its gossipy comments section quickly attracted an audience of bored office workers.
How Andrew Curtin built Construction Wave, a B2B outlet covering the UK's construction industry
He charges upwards of $15,000 for each sponsored webinar.
How State House News charges $4,000 for access to its journalism
What used to be a standard newswire service now sells direction digital subscriptions to a B2B clientele.
How Block Club Chicago reached 20,000 paying subscribers
A $183,000 Kickstarter campaign provided the seed capital to get it off the ground.