When Jared Newman launched his Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter in 2016, the streaming landscape looked nothing like it does today.
Netflix and Hulu existed, but most networks still locked their content behind cable subscriptions. Streaming bundles like YouTube TV hadn’t yet taken off. And for consumers trying to ditch cable, the experience was fragmented, confusing, and often frustrating.
For Newman, that confusion wasn’t just a coverage opportunity—it was personal.
“I was living in L.A. in 2008,” he says. “I had very little income coming in. And so that was my impetus for not having cable TV anymore. It was just sort of like a necessity.”
What began as a personal workaround evolved into a decade-long reporting niche—and eventually into a newsletter business with tens of thousands of subscribers and a six-figure revenue stream across multiple products.
But unlike many newsletter success stories, Newman didn’t build his audience through viral growth hacks or social media dominance. Instead, he relied on something far more durable: a steady freelance career, a well-timed niche, and a deeply practical editorial philosophy.
In a recent interview, we discussed his motivation for launching the newsletter, why his editor let him promote it at the end of his columns, and whether he ever wants to leave his freelance career entirely to just focus on growing his two newsletters.
From Freelance Journalist to Streaming Expert
Newman’s path into newsletters began long before Substack—or even the modern creator economy—existed.
After studying journalism at NYU, he entered the industry through local newspapers before transitioning into freelance tech journalism around 2008. Over time, he built a stable of recurring clients, including TechHive, PCWorld, and Fast Company.
“I’ve been self-employed pretty much my entire career,” he says. “Just racking up freelance clients and kind of building things.”
Streaming, in particular, became a natural beat. Not because editors assigned it—but because Newman was living it.
That personal experience translated into editorial authority. By 2014, TechHive asked him to write a dedicated weekly column on cord cutting, just as the first wave of streaming disruption began accelerating.
At the time, the ecosystem was still immature.
“If you didn’t have cable and you didn’t want to pirate things, you just didn’t watch things,” Newman says. “It was a wild west back then.”
His column focused on helping everyday consumers make sense of that chaos—explaining pricing structures, reviewing new services, and demystifying how TV bundles actually worked.
That consumer-first lens would later become the foundation of his newsletter strategy.
The Accidental Launch of Cord Cutter Weekly
Unlike many newsletter founders, Newman didn’t set out with a grand vision to build an owned audience.
The idea came from a simple question on Twitter.
“Somebody was like, ‘Do you have a newsletter?’” he recalls. “I can’t say that I really had thought about that much.”
But the suggestion stuck—especially because freelancing had one major limitation: distance from readers.
“You’re this hired gun,” he says. “You write stories for a publication, and they get all the feedback and everything.”
A newsletter offered something different: direct connection.
Still, one key question remained—distribution.
Newman’s solution was straightforward but powerful: leverage the audience he already had.
He asked his TechHive editor if he could include a signup link at the end of his column.
“He said, yeah. And that was kind of what I needed to know that I could maybe have a good go at it.”
That single decision—embedding a call-to-action inside a high-traffic column—became the engine of his growth.
A Growth Engine Built on Existing Distribution
From the beginning, Newman’s newsletter growth strategy was almost entirely dependent on his freelance work.
“That was driving the majority of signups,” he says. “I would venture to say that nearly all of them have come from just reading my stuff online and clicking through.”
Over time, that steady pipeline compounded into a substantial audience. Today, Cord Cutter Weekly has more than 32,000 subscribers.
Importantly, this wasn’t explosive growth. It was gradual, consistent, and tied directly to his publishing cadence.
And because it relied on editorial distribution—not platform algorithms—it proved highly resilient.
Newman acknowledges he could diversify his growth channels. But he’s also pragmatic about what works.
“For better or worse, I’ve been dependent on that,” he says.
In an era where many creators chase platform virality, Newman’s approach offers a counterpoint: build on top of stable, predictable distribution—even if it grows more slowly.
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