2 Takeaways From Beehiiv's State of Newsletters Report

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Good day, people!

Beehiiv released its 2025 State of Newsletters Report™© this week. I highly recommend you read it in full, but there are 2 areas I’d like to call particular attention to.

In the email today:

• 1) Newsletter Monetization

• 2) Daily Newsletters Are Growing Massively, But Wh …

• Some X Posts I Liked or Wrote

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1) Newsletter Monetization

Beehiiv included 3 revenue streams for how much money was earned by publishers:

1) Ad Network

2) Boosts (paid recommendations to other newsletters):

3) Subscriptions

Obviously there is a long-tail of tiny newsletters bringing the average way down.

But no matter how you slice it, these are small numbers for building sustainable, standalone media businesses.

As with most things in online content, I’m guessing only the top 1% earns livable wages or business-scale revenue.

What I’m more interested in is the breakdown between the revenue streams.

Subscription income is 7x higher per newsletter than ad income through Beehiiv.

Makes sense— paid subscribers almost always generate more revenue than advertisers.

This is great for niche publications that produce high-value information.

But it's less great for general interest newsletters that won’t have much success with subscriptions. They’ll need to grow large audiences and send frequent emails (see #2 in this email) to earn ad money.

Of course, Beehiiv’s ad network just got off the ground in 2024, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the ad revenue paid to publishers 5x or more in 2025 through a combination of more advertisers, more publishers, and more daily emails getting sent (again #2).

What's missing from Beehiiv is the revenue per subscriber for each of these sources—that would better explain the efficiency of each.

🔥 HOT TAKES on the revenue breakdown

1) Ad network revenue will grow

More brands will commit advertising spend to email, and Beehiiv is best positioned to accept their money.

There are lots of engaged readers and underpriced attention in newsletters.

2) I don't think Boost revenue is sustainable

Yes, Boosts as part of the signup flow can help offset acquisition costs.

But that revenue will decline as your audience size plateaus... unless you want to constantly hawk attention-competing other newsletters in your emails.

I paid a higher multiple than I should have when I acquired Tip News (for $120k in November 2023) because so much of its revenue was from 1-time boosts (Spark Loop, in this case) associated with signups that required matching ad spend to support.

3)Products or Services are the best business models

Too many publishers think in the old paradigm of media:

create content -> have someone pay you for that content

It's straightforward enough, but the best modern media businesses sell products and services, host events, or build communities-- all of which can generate more than ads or subscriptions.

That's where the next frontier of newsletter monetization will be, though I am bullish on Beehiiv's ad network to provide consistent revenue much like Google Ads does for websites.

About that…

2) Daily Newsletters Are Growing Massively, But Why?

As more content newsletters move from hobby to media business, frequency of sending increases.

Especially as ad spend catches up with attention.

Hobbyists can send one cool email per week.

But media companies need to grow their audience and make money.

Ergo...

🚗 Advertising in newsletters is most akin to billboard advertising. Users see it once and then drive by.

💻 On the web, a single piece of content can have a long shelf life thanks to search visits, social shares, and other organic discovery.

 📆 But even the best, most in-depth newsletter pieces typically get most of their views in the first 24 hours.

🧐 This means if you are going to have an ad-supported newsletter business, you need to create more billboards -> more emails.

The Paradox: Niche publications have GREAT engagement. Typically the more niche you are, the more loyal the audience is.

But the more narrow your niche is, the harder it is to find compelling reasons to send daily emails.

This is why local newsletter folks like Michael Kauffman talk so much about building communities and selling products-- there simply isn't enough content on a daily basis to have a solely ad-supported newsletter in most cities (Naptown Scoop is an exception in Annapolis).

The Solution: With Beehiiv focusing so much on its ad network in 2025, your sweet spot for an ad-supported newsletter is:

-> a clearly-defined topic

-> with an audience big enough to get advertisers' attention

-> in a specific niche but one where stuff happens frequently enough to support daily sending...

... so you can create more billboards.

More daily emails.

Side note: This is why I think Beehiiv has also focused on their web builder early this year -> compelling websites can help extend the shelf life of newsletter content... and thus provide more advertising opportunities.

Again, more billboards.

Some X Posts I Liked or Wrote

Subscribe to My Podcast

Listen to the latest episode of my podcast, Monetize Media (or better yet, subscribe here)— LOL Newsletters Aren’t Dead:

My background:

15+ years experience in digital media

Founded CrossingBroad.com → sold to XLMedia in 2020 as one of the largest US sports betting affiliates

SVP, North America Sports, XLMedia 2020-2022: oversaw $40M annual SEO affiliate business

Now:

Local Newsletters: Founded WalkingTheBoards.com (18k subscribers)

President, Access Media: 15 hyperlocal news websites and newsletters throughout Philly area and South Jersey + sports site OnPattison.com 

Owner, Tip News: Tip.News Unbiased daily news newsletter (50k subscribers)

Affiliate Consulting: Help publishers monetize through affiliate marketing

Be sure to follow me on X (@KyleScottL) and LinkedIn.