136 successful media entrepreneurs share their top growth strategies
I'm building the world's largest database of media case studies.
I’m building 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. With every case study you walk away with actionable insights that you can incorporate into your own content operations.
So far, I’ve amassed an archive of 136 case studies and plan to add to it each month. Here they are:
How a newsletter for underserved sports fans reached 1 million subscribers
Ellen Hyslop, co-founder of The Gist, explained why most sports media companies ignored female fans.
How a bootstrapped blog became gaming culture’s most influential media company
CEO Joshua Nino De Guzman reflects on ten years at Dexerto—and how a focus on access, ad tech, and social video led to the creation of an independent powerhouse.
How a scrappy finance blog scaled into a media powerhouse with multiple revenue streams
Benzinga’s Chief Content Officer Brad Oleson explained how his editorial team serves both B2C and B2B audiences.
How a consultant built a massive following with unscripted TikTok and YouTube videos
Ashanti Bentil-Dhue explained how her viral videos about single women grew into a real business.
From war correspondent to media founder: how a journalist built a news business from the Ukraine front lines
Tim Mak walked through his decision to leave NPR to launch The Counteroffensive.
This startup is helping local news outlets outmaneuver legacy newspaper chains
Erin Millar explained how Indiegraf is powering over 180 news outlets.
How a revived print magazine attracted 33,000 paying subscribers
Mike Rogge bought Mountain Gazette in 2020 and turned it into a premium collector’s item.
How HubSpot transformed itself from a content marketer into a full-fledged media company
VP of media Jonathan Hunt walked through the company’s newsletter, podcast, and creator operations.
How a hockey coaching conference grew into a $1.5 million media subscription business
Aaron Wilbur explained how he built the “Netflix for coaches.”
How a niche newsletter turned its reporting into a data product
Will Richards explained how Overnight Success built a six-figure business with only 5,000 newsletter subscribers.
How a weekly PDF became one of Africa’s most innovative news products
Sipho Kings explained how he co-founded The Continent, which is distributed almost entirely through messaging apps.
This former TV writer now produces prestige audio dramas for Audible, iHeart, and Spotify
Aaron Tracy explained the economics of audio dramas and narrative podcasts.
This independent magazine publisher doubled down on print
Twenty Two Media Group founder Krista Faist explained how she bootstrapped two print magazines.
This media startup is trying to reach readers exhausted by political noise
How Straight Arrow News is trying to build a national news brand around trust instead of outrage
The 30-year-old PDF newsletter with a 98% market penetration rate
Communications Day founder Grahame Lynch explained why he doesn’t worry about social media traffic or the threat of AI.
This product review blog pivoted to video to protect itself from AI
Andrew Palermo built Prudent Reviews into the most authoritative media outlet focused on home appliances.
How a niche YouTube channel became a multi-platform travel business
Jessica Dante’s walked through her strategy for turning “drive-by” YouTube viewers into customers.
How a yoga teacher turned bedtime stories into a media empire
Kathryn Nicolai built Nothing Much Happens into the most popular sleep podcast.
How Axios Local is leveraging AI to expand into smaller cities
Editor Holly Moore explains her blueprint for leaner local newsrooms
How a professional voice actor built a hit indie game studio
Robbie Daymond explained how he makes most of his income from attending fan conventions.
From MrBeast to microdramas: Scott Brown’s bet on phone-native storytelling
The Second Rodeo founder explained how he went from producing a Larry King show to running The Rock’s YouTube channel to directing his own microdrama series.
How Starter Story grew from a side project into a multi-million dollar media business (and why HubSpot bought it)
Founder Pat Walls explained how he monetized thousands of entrepreneur case studies.
The playbook behind one of the fastest-growing social-first newsrooms
News Movement editor in chief Rebecca Hutson outlined the company’s platform-native storytelling strategy.
The accidental ad tech founder: Eric Hochberger’s 20-Year bet on the open web
How Mediavine Went from SEO Side Hustle to Powering 17,000 Independent Publishers
How a former hedge fund analyst built a six-figure newsletter covering Asia’s overlooked stocks
Michael Fritzell founded Asian Century Stocks in 2021 because he thought he had an information edge.
He Shut Down Time’s Moscow Bureau. Then He Built His Own Magazine
Co-founder Nathan Thornburgh explained how the magazine Roads & Kingdoms rebuilt itself after Anthony Bourdain’s death.
How a small journalism nonprofit is holding the largest pharma companies to account
Diane Salvatore explained how the MedShadow Foundation uncovers the hidden ingredients and side effects of prescription drugs.
A couple teenagers launched a media company that now drives 240 billion annual views
Pubity Group co-founder Kit Chilvers explained how the company scaled from a few Instagram meme pages to a global network.
This company wants to fix the broken economics of standup comedy
Co-founded by two former Meta executives, Punchup helps comedians own their audiences, sell tickets directly, and escape the whims of social algorithms.
How a few college students bootstrapped one of the largest sports media websites in the world
Suryansh Tibarewala explained how he and his cofounders bootstrapped EssentiallySports from a dorm room passion project into a media powerhouse.
This social-first news outlet turned street interviews into a 600,000-subscriber YouTube channel
Roca News co-founders Max Towey and Max Frost explained how their popular Instagram account expanded into a newsletter, mobile app, and longform YouTube channel.
Why a magazine geared toward political operatives wants to expand into a B2B media empire
After getting acquired in 2011, Campaigns & Elections cut its print magazine, rebuilt its events business, and refocused on attracting a high-value, B2B audience.
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 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
Founder Scott Brodbeck walked through his content distribution strategy.
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 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.
This Stanford lecturer co-hosts one of the most popular design podcasts
Eli Woolery and Aarron Walter launched Design Better as a branded podcast but then eventually spun it off into its own media company.
How a PR consultant launched a thriving tech news outlet
Kevin Raposo built KnowTechie into a meaningful side business while maintaining his PR career.
How two Hollywood writers launched one of the most popular parenting podcasts
Amy Wilson and Margaret Ables launched What Fresh Hell in 2016 and now run an entire network of women-focused podcasts.
How a former 60 Minutes producer raised six figures in donations to launch an LGBTQ-focused media outlet
Spencer Macnaughton formed Uncloseted Media to focus solely on investigative journalism.
How a professional sailing league built massive reach on YouTube and social media
Melissa Lawton’s previous stints at Red Bull and Meta made her the perfect candidate for taking SailGP into the mainstream.
Why a marketing consultant bought the largest real estate trade magazine in Canada
Andrew Fogliato was one of the earliest real estate agents to discover that online content could drive sales leads.
This former Amazon executive generates over $200,000 a year from a newsletter he sends just once a week
Dave Anderson retired in 2021 and now writes about tech leadership part time.
How an IMDB co-founder achieved three successful media exits
Alan Jay became extremely good at scaling up ad-supported media businesses without raising any venture capital.
How a San Francisco print zine evolved into a thriving local blog
Stuart Schuffman became a local celebrity through his Broke-Ass Stuart media brand.
How a government contractor built a media empire around his niche content
Eric Coffie built out multiple revenue streams, including online courses, events, and a paid community.
This local newsletter covering a Dallas suburb has the highest paid conversion rate on Substack
Dan Koller is often the only reporter covering government meetings in Coppell, Tx.
How Medium finally pivoted its way to profitability
CEO Tony Stubblebine reined in spending and figured out how to actually reward high quality writing.
Is there life after CNN? Chris Cillizza hopes so
After being cast off from the “most trusted name in news,” the political analyst is trying to forge his own path.
How investment newsletter The Daily Upside reached 300,000 subscribers
Founder Patrick Trousdale explained his growth and monetization strategies.
How ScoopWhoop became one of India’s most viral publishers
The BuzzFeed-like site has built two popular channels on YouTube, one of which serves as a counterbalance to partisan TV news.
Can a hit YouTube channel thrive after its founder departs?
The King of Random had 8 million YouTube subscribers when Grant Thompson suddenly decided he didn’t want to create videos anymore.
How Taegan Goddard built a thriving paid membership for Political Wire
He already had a robust advertising business, but he wanted to foster a deeper connection with his audience.
This YouTuber built a massive following with pop music guitar lessons
A lot of people conduct searches for instructions on how to play their favorite songs.
How Josh Spector monetizes his 25,000 newsletter subscribers
Through a mixture of consulting, advertising, and paid subscriptions.
Inside the career of a successful ghostwriter
Jonathan Rick’s writing appears in hundreds of mainstream publications, but it rarely includes his byline.
Inside Big Cabal Media’s Ambitious Plan to Build Africa’s Next Great Media Company
CEO Tomiwa Aladekomo explained how a company that started out as two blogs expanded into live events, a research firm, and even a film studio.
How a former USA Today columnist launched his own travel channel on YouTube
Jefferson Graham recently licensed his show PhotowalksTV to the Scripps News channel.
Why this business news outlet ditched advertising to focus entirely on paid subscriptions
Todd Scott believes the National Business Review’s sole mission should be servicing its readers.
Why a former New York Times editor launched her own women-focused magazine
Francesca Donner grew frustrated by the lack of female voices at the mainstream media outlets she worked for.
Why Business Insider’s former editor went all in on evergreen video
With Dynamo, Nicholas Carlson is building a library of prestige content designed to appreciate in value over time.
How the Kyiv Independent used global sympathy to generate membership revenue
Chief Operating Officer Zakhar Protsiuk explained how the outlet launched a Guardian-style membership offering without a paywall.
How a local newsletter company is leveraging AI to cover hundreds of counties across the US
6AM City co-founder Ryan Heafy insists he’s not trying to replace human journalists.
Why BroBible’s staff bought the website back from the media company that had acquired it
Publisher Brandon Wenerd explained how breaking free of BroBible’s parent company allowed it to adapt to the current media climate.
Why the founder of a popular cycling blog sold it and then left to launch a competitor
Wade Wallace launched Escape Collective in 2022 and grew it to 15,000 paid subscribers
How a failed horror movie director co-founded one of the most popular yoga channels on YouTube
Chris Sharpe co-founded two incredibly popular YouTube channels — Hilah Cooking and Yoga With Adriene.
This former Disney exec’s podcast company generates 100 million monthly downloads
Joshua Weinstein explained how Sonoro is building a creator-first media company for the Latino market
The Nonprofit News Playbook That Starts With Major Donors, Not Memberships
How Brookline.News Built a Sustainable Local Newsroom by Treating Fundraising Like a Profession
The unlikely local media giant you’ve probably never heard of
Schneps Media reaches more New Yorkers than the New York Times
How a mortgage newsletter became a modern B2B media company
JJ Hornblass explained how he built Royal Media.
The subscription strategy behind one of Britain’s fastest-growing local news startups
Joshi Herrmann explained how Mill Media produces highly differentiated journalism.
How a Colorado Springs food critic built a sustainable one-man media business
Matthew Schniper explained how he built Side Dish with Schniper.
How 1440 built a 4-million-subscriber newsletter empire by obsessing over unit economics
CEO Tim Huelskamp walked me through the company’s origin story.
How a former institutional investor built a six-figure media business — and then pivoted into fintech
David Stein explained how he built Money for the Rest of Us
How Salesforce Ben built a 20-person media company around enterprise software
Ben McCarthy explained how he built the B2B outlet.
How Joe Pulizzi built a media business servicing the Creator Economy
He described how he grew The Tilt to over 35,000 subscribers, launched a conference, and then sold the business.
How Brad Hargreaves turned a real estate newsletter into a six-figure media and data business
He walked through the origin story of Thesis Driven.
How Austria’s biggest explainer podcast built a sustainable independent media business
Andreas Sator walked through the origin story of his podcast “Explain The World to Me.”
How a cloud computing consultant built a community-first media business focused on Microsoft software
Tom Arbuthnot explained how he founded Empowering Cloud.
How a CFO turned accounting jargon into a 75,000-subscriber media business
CJ Gustafson explained how he built Mostly Metrics.
Inside the rise of Australia’s biggest social-first news brand
Sam Koslowski walked through the origin story of The Daily Aus.
How a teenage gamer built a 60-million-reader media empire
Riad Chikhani walked through the origin story of GAMURS Group.
How a former MSN.com editor built a sustainable local news startup from his living room
Mark Talkington launched The Palm Springs Post as a side hustle and grew it into a real business.
How a freelance tech journalist turned a niche Android newsletter into a thriving media business
JR Raphael explained how he built Android Intelligence into a membership-funded success.
How a failed consulting strategy led to a successful B2B media business
Philip Ideson explained how The Art of Procurement turned a niche podcast into a thriving B2B media business.
How Cityside turned a local news blog into a scalable nonprofit journalism network
Co-founder Lance Knobel explained how to build a sustainable journalism outlet without introducing a paywall.
