How often should a local newsletter send?

I once launched a newsletter and didn't send a single email for eight weeks because I was looking for a partner. That wasn't smart. I won't do it again.

My rule now is simple: start weekly, stay consistent, and add send days as fast as the ads (and your workload) can justify.

Is weekly enough?

Weekly is the floor I recommend. Every other week would probably work, and even monthly is something, but you get a lot less out of it. The real value is the habit of showing up every week as part of the community.

"You still have to have newsletters going out, probably at least once a week, even if they're not full, great newsletters."

Weekly is a treadmill. Once you get on it, you have to keep going. Keep the format the same every time, too. You're building a habit, and sameness helps people recognize you.

Weekly is where you start, not where you stay. Once a week is a habit, but it doesn't burn into people. Four times a month they see you, they probably like you, and it still doesn't feel like a brand that really matters to them. Two or three sends a week is where it gets sticky.

When should you go from weekly to twice a week?

The straight business answer: when you sell out of ad slots. More sends aren't more valuable to you until somebody is paying for them.

The math is easy. Say an issue holds three ads. Realistically three is the most you want, and two is the max when you're starting out. Here's how the inventory grows:

Sends per week	Ad slots per month (3 per issue)
1	12
2	24
3	36

Sell out the 12, go to twice a week. Sell out those, go to three. If a ninth advertiser wants in and you have no room, that's your signal.

The other trigger is size. We ran our first brand once a week for six months and didn't go to twice a week until we were over 7,000 subscribers. Somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 is a reasonable point to move up. I'd do it sooner now.

Market size matters. In a town of about 60,000, I'd send once a week for at least the first six months, and there may never be enough happening for five days a week. In bigger markets we can justify more. When we went to twice a week, the ads still sold out, so three was next. If you go to three, Monday, Wednesday and Friday means readers never get two issues on back-to-back days.

Until you're sold out, don't force a second send. I'd put that energy into Instagram instead.

Does sending more often hurt opens or unsubscribes?

Almost every very successful local newsletter operator I know sends four or five days a week. Every one of them says the same thing: it barely moves their numbers. One publisher told me that for the first couple of issues after going to five days, he lost 10 or 20 people an issue instead of five, and then it settled down. Others put it at about 1%.

Shane, who co-hosts podcast episodes with me, went from one send a week to three. He said unsubscribes went from about 3 to about 10 per send for two sends at roughly 1,500 subscribers, then flattened out. Louis Nicholls of SparkLoop told me on my podcast to judge a second email by whether you have more active subscribers 30 days later, not by the unsubscribes the day it goes out.

Then run the money. If a subscriber costs you 50 cents and a few unsubscribes cost you $4 total, while the extra send carries an ad you sold for $250, that's not a hard call. The way I think about it: maybe 5% of people get bugged, and you make 40% more money. Is it okay if a 12,000 list drops to 10,500 if you're making way more and getting more information out there?

Don't let one email steer you. Newsletter readers read a lot and reply very little. The two people who do complain feel like the whole audience. They're not.

Decide whether you're running a business or a hobby. If the goal is to never upset anyone for a quarter of a second, fine. If the goal is a media company with advertisers, frequency is smart. I'm not saying ignore your readers. The fear of overwhelming them is just backwards: the more they see you, the more they appreciate the brand.

Are shorter, more frequent issues better?

A lot of the smarter people in the space say yes: more issues that are shorter beat fewer that are longer. Two reasons:

• People get tired and don't finish a long one.
• Branding. If they see you three, four, five times a week, you stick.

The James Clear newsletter, about five or six sentences, is the model for concise. My own is really long. We hit the Beehiiv length limit every single week. As a reader, I'd rather spend one or two minutes twice a week than five minutes once a week.

It doesn't have to be more work. Split the issue you already make into two shorter sends. Monday and Thursday works: the Monday issue carries events through Thursday, and the Thursday issue carries Friday through Sunday. You publish more often without creating more content.

The flip side: don't send two emails the same day. One publisher I work with was sending a newsletter and a separate e-edition email on the same day. We merged them into one template with a "Today's Paper" header, a GIF leaderboard ad and a text link to the e-edition. They lost one story slot. In a market with limited local content, that was a feature.

What is a daily send actually for?

Getting eyes on the ad. One of the smartest guys in the space put it this way: send every day, your job is to get people to look at the ad, and once that happens you're done. It doesn't need to be perfect content.

My template for a short daily is one main thing, usually a news story, plus a couple of events, an ad and maybe one more item. With the right tools that takes maybe 10 minutes. I have no data behind leading with news. It's just my preference.

Theme the days so it doesn't feel like the same email five times:

• One day: news.
• Another day: real estate, or restaurants and businesses.
• Another day: a deep dive or a local history story.
• Thursday: events, because people are planning the weekend.

Schedule issues in advance, and if you use an AI tool, turn off AI rewriting on sections where your own editorial or sponsor copy should stand as written.

What does it take to send several times a week?

Original local content. Interviewing a business owner. Going to the shelter and featuring a dog. If all you're doing is regurgitating other sources, it gets hard to fill several issues a week.

The good news is you don't need a newsroom. Somebody on the ground for about three hours a day, or less, could probably crush it. But five days a week is a lot of work. Only go there when the ads and the content are both there.

And cutting back is allowed. An operator I talked to dropped from five sends a week to three because she didn't have time to sell the extra inventory. I agreed. Our brands send twice a week for the same reason: if you aren't selling the ads, a third send adds work without revenue.

What if my list is tiny?

Keep issues simple. I've told small-list publishers they don't have enough subscribers to justify hours per issue. Maybe at 5,000 or 10,000. One consolidated calendar section is fine at 500.

But simple isn't silent. Even before your first real issue, send something:

1. Week one: a warm "we're so excited you signed up, we're getting ready to launch" note.
2. Week two: "final touches, but here's a teaser": the four best events in town and a restaurant review, written in advance.
3. Then weekly, even if it isn't great yet.