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- đź“Ś 2 newsletter models - pick your fit
đź“Ś 2 newsletter models - pick your fit
Which one is yours?
Anatoly Zaslaver
January 24, 2025
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Hey! đź‘‹
Local newsletters are booming, offering tailored news to communities and lucrative opportunities for businesses.
Today, we’ll dive into two other successful models, Naptown Scoop and Lookout Media, to explore which approach might fit your goals.
This week’s 3 handpicked email gems…
Backstory
I was so excited about the local newsletter trend that I launched my second newsletter two weeks ago, and it’s already hit 628 subscribers (check this out)
Why is this niche so hot?
Local newsletters balance accessibility and scalability, though they demand consistent effort.
Last week, I analyzed 6AM City, a standout newsletter network with 28 locations and 1.3M subscribers. If you missed it, check out my breakdown of their scalable systems [here].
On one side is Naptown Scoop, thriving in Annapolis, Maryland (40K residents), with a hyper-local, personality-driven approach.
On the other is Lookout Media, operating in Ottawa (1M residents) and Vancouver (700K residents), leveraging a scalable, systematized model.
What's in it for you?
Learn Scalable vs. Personality-Driven Approaches
Uncover Monetization Insights for Local Newsletters
Discover the best local newsletter strategy for your city
Get a ready-to-use combo of templates from two successful newsletters
Open, Clicks & Email Delivery
Deliverability ensures readers see and engage with the newsletter.
And these brands approach this challenge differently.
The team uses a data-driven deliverability system.
Their onboarding process includes:
Optimized sign-up page
Segmentation surveys
Engaging welcome emails
Their results?
The open rate is 58%.
The click-through rate is 12%.
Ryan’s deliverability strategy is refreshingly straightforward, built on trust and hyper-local relevance.
No surveys, no thank-you pages - yet he achieves an impressive 60% open rate!
Fridays are a standout, packed with restaurant reviews and weekend plans that consistently drive engagement.
Why does it work so well?
It’s all about the tight-knit, engaged community of Annapolis - 41K residents, 17K+ subscribers, and a newsletter that feels like it’s written by a neighbor who just gets them.
Content
A Formula vs. A Personality
Content is the backbone of any newsletter.
Both Ottawa Lookout and Naptown Scoop create tailored content for their audiences, but their methods differ significantly.
Ottawa Lookout
Lookout Media thrives on a structured, replicable content system.
Each newsletter follows the same content formula that balances utility, entertainment, and community engagement.
From a personalized editor’s note to weather updates, local news, food recommendations, and interactive games.
Lookout Media delivers consistent, high-value content.
This plug-and-play template minimizes creative guesswork, enabling rapid onboarding of writers and easy expansion into new cities.
Naptown Scoop
Ryan Sneddon’s approach is less formulaic and more conversational.
The newsletter feels like a neighbor sharing updates over coffee, with a mix of local events, restaurant reviews, and community highlights.
Its hyper-local charm is rooted in Ryan’s personal connection to Annapolis, which fosters a sense of intimacy and exclusivity for readers.
Similarity: Both newsletters prioritize relevant, engaging content that delivers value to their communities.
Difference: Ottawa Lookout’s structured framework is ideal for scale, while Naptown Scoop’s personality-driven style creates a deep, unreplicable connection to its single-city audience.
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Growth
Subscriber growth is the lifeblood of any newsletter. Here’s how each team tackles it.
Ottawa Lookout
Geoff Sharpe, with a digital marketing background, leads a paid acquisition strategy.
They also leverage cross-promotion between sister newsletters, such as the paid versions, of Capital Eats & Vancity Lookout, to amplify reach and accelerate growth.
This approach hits multiple goals at once:
boosting growth
introducing paid versions for free, and
increasing exposure across all three newsletters
Naptown Scoop
Ryan Sneddon initially used Facebook ads, spending $1,000 on a test and scaling up to $5,000.
After reaching 15,000 subscribers, he paused ads and let organic growth take over. Word of mouth, referrals, and his presence as a local personality keep the subscriber base steadily growing.
Similarity: Both newsletters use paid ads to jumpstart growth.
Difference: Lookout Media treats paid acquisition as an ongoing strategy for scaling its network, while Naptown Scoop uses it as a short-term tool to build a foundation for organic growth.
Monetization
Ads vs. Memberships (and a Proven Alternative)
Revenue models reflect each newsletter’s size, audience, and strategy.
Ottawa Lookout
Lookout Media generates 75% of its revenue from memberships offering tiered pricing and annual discounts to build loyalty.
Exclusive content - such as deep dives into city politics and premium recommendations - creates a compelling reason to pay.
Ads account for the remaining 25%, diversifying income streams without overshadowing the reader-first focus.
Naptown Scoop
Advertising makes up nearly 98% of the revenue.
Local businesses sponsor sections, seamlessly blending into the content.
Ryan plans to diversify with events, branded products, and partnerships, leveraging his strong community connections.
For now, he's just opened up for direct support. While this revenue stream isn’t fully active yet, even a modest 1% conversion could bring in approximately $20K per year (1% of 17K subscribers x $11/month x 12 months).
As the largest local newsletter network with 28 locations, 6AM City demonstrates a fully ad-supported model, avoiding subscriptions to keep content free.
Their co-founder (Ryan Heafy) argues that viable local newsletters can thrive on ad revenue while maintaining accessibility.
This approach contrasts with Lookout Media’s memberships but complements Naptown Scoop’s ad-centric model.
Key Takeaways
Ottawa Lookout scales by prioritizing reader loyalty and membership.
Naptown Scoop thrives on local ad revenue, while 6AM City proves an all-ad model works.
Lookout Media stands out with its scalable local news system, combining a standardized content template with room for local flavor.
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