How much is a local newsletter reader worth?

Each local reader is not nearly as valuable as a B2B newsletter reader. Most of the newsletter benchmarks you read about come from B2B and big national newsletters like Morning Brew, where each reader can be worth a lot from the newsletter alone.

Local doesn't work that way. And that's fine, once you know it.

A B2B newsletter is the opposite. A founder I talked to runs one for insurance agents with about 1,200 subscribers. The value per subscriber is insane. That list would probably easily be worth as much as a 20,000-person local newsletter.

What's a local reader worth in ad revenue?

One guest on my podcast estimated a local reader at 10 to 20 cents a month. Compare that with a single local business paying $3,000 a month for SEO help. One service client can be worth more than thousands of readers.

A well-sold local newsletter does far better than that. A local operator I know has about 11,000 subscribers and makes about $11,000 a month in recurring ad revenue. That's roughly $1 per subscriber per month. He works on it 40 hours a week, and his packaging and positioning are the reason.

How long is a local reader worth something?

Much longer than most customers. I learned lifetime value from my insurance agency. A policyholder technically stays about five years, nowadays probably three or less, so you take what you make per month and multiply by 36. That's the LTV.

In a local newsletter, churn means unsubscribing. And almost nobody unsubscribes from a local newsletter. Projecting it out the way a business would, the lifetime is close to forever.

"Next year we make seven dollars on them, the next year we make seven dollars on them."

That $7 a year per subscriber was a figure I'd heard on a podcast, and a projection when I said it, not a result. The point holds anyway: you pay once to acquire a local reader and keep earning from them every year they stay.

What's a reader worth in other ways?

What you sell	Rough value	Whose number
Paid local news subscription	$200 to $500 lifetime	Mine, for legacy local news
Realtor lead from the welcome survey	$30 per lead	A partner's
Low-intent local discount lead (med spa)	$2 to $5 per lead	A guest's
Interested lead for a national investing platform	About $60 per lead	A guest's

A lead is worth what the intent behind it is worth. Someone buying a home is worth far more than someone who might want a facial discount.

How does a buyer think about lead price?

From the cost of a customer. With a 25% close rate, the advertiser's cost per customer is four times the lead price. A $30 lead becomes a $120 customer. Know that math before you set a price.

Can several small amounts add up?

Yes. One guest shared his whole stack: about $1.80 to acquire a subscriber, against about $2.15 recovered. Roughly 80 cents from paid recommendations, about the same from lead gen, and about 50 cents from a paid tripwire product. No single line carried it.

What's the cheapest revenue line to add?

A permanent "advertise with us" form in every issue. Another operator's standing advertiser form in a 25,000-subscriber newsletter brought in two clients paying close to $1,000 a month each, at no cost.

So what do you do about low reader value?

Don't try to fix it. Add revenue surfaces around the reader: leads, paid plans, events, a directory, a back-end business. That's why I run a local media company, not just a newsletter. More in the best way to monetize a local newsletter.