How To Start & Scale A Profitable Local Newsletter (Over $200K!)

Starting a local newsletter may be the key to increasing your profits in less time and with less stress.

As creators, it’s exhausting trying to keep up with every algorithm update and fighting for a spot on page one of Google.

With a local newsletter, you’re building for a platform you truly own. Plus, you can stop worrying if search and social engines like you and instead write from the heart and build from a place of authenticity.

To help you see success, Michael Kauffman shares the roadmap he used to grow his local newsletter to 40,000+ subscribers and multiple six figures in revenue in under two years.

In this guide, Michael breaks down:

• How to choose the perfect local newsletter scope for your geography
• The community-first approach that turns subscribers into active participants
• Why he chooses creative monetization over a traditional Substack paywall
• His exact strategy for scaling a local newsletter to over 40,000 subscribers
• Tips for balancing content across platforms without burning out
• And more!

Plus, you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at Michael’s anti-funnel newsletter workflow and how he uses his platform to make a tangible impact on his local community.

1) To start, can you share more about yourself, your business, and what led you to launch a local newsletter?

After 15 years of building everything from beverage companies to tech startups, a period of heavy burnout in 2023 led to a total existential crisis.

My love for creating brands and telling stories was still there, but the desire for capital raising, spreadsheets, and complex operations had completely vanished.

The goal shifted toward building something with a direct connection to the subscriber — something that didn’t require a penny of outside capital or a plan to eventually sell. Staring at the open road during a long drive home from Montana, the realization hit that the next project should be about home.

Bookshelves filled with local history and a deep-rooted love for the nature and people of the Catskills made a local newsletter the obvious, if slightly unconventional, path forward. The idea wasn’t to build a traditional news outlet or a deep journalism site, but rather a community-first brand called Catskill Crew.

Having grown up with the nickname “The Mayor,” the vision was simply to be a conduit for people to engage with where they live, trading the startup grind for a brand that remains fun to run every day.

2) For travel bloggers who are used to covering entire countries or broad niches, what makes the local model such a smart business move? And how can someone decide how local they should get in terms of neighborhood, city, state, etc?

Transitioning to a local model allows you to move to an owned audience while building a high-impact business that addresses the desire for real-world connection.

De-risk your business through owned audience. Moving followers from rented land like Instagram or TikTok to an email list protects your business from big shifts in platform algorithms. Your email list also represents the bottom of the funnel, which means deeper engagement with your audience.

Embrace the depth model. Going deep into a single market is often more rewarding than broad coverage because it allows you to build true community and see your impact firsthand. We are in a loneliness epidemic, and being a conduit for IRL (in real life) human connection is a massive competitive advantage.

Define your geography by natural travel patterns. Choose a scope — whether that’s a neighborhood, city, or region — based on how people actually live and move in that area. For example, I cover the Catskills but include the Hudson Valley because locals frequently travel between the two.

Prioritize depth over breadth. Because you are focusing on a specific region, you don’t need a million subscribers to be successful. If you have a thousand engaged people who love attending your events and purchasing your products, you have a sustainable, six-figure business right there in your own backyard.

3) You mentioned Catskill Crew takes a community-first vs. advertiser-first approach. Can you explain the difference, as well as how this has helped you grow?

A community-first approach builds deep trust by making the subscriber the primary focus, which naturally creates a more valuable platform for advertisers in the long run.

Prioritize your newsletter subscribers. Traditional local media often fails by prioritizing advertisers over readers, leading to lower-quality content and overwhelming email cadences. If you prioritize the subscriber, you’re making decisions that serve the community as a whole, even if they aren’t best for the immediate bottom line.

Set an incredibly high content standard. Make your newsletter authentic to who you are and treat it with such a high standard that you would be proud of it even if you were the only person receiving it.

Make subscribers active participants. Use tools like polls and surveys to let readers help design products and decide on future events. This turns your list into a community where subscribers are an active part of your brand rather than just being consumers.

4) While many creators launch paid subscriptions on Substack, you keep the newsletter free and use what you call “creative monetization.” What are your current revenue streams, and how do you recommend a local creator decide which monetization options are the right fit?

Creative monetization is about building a revenue model that respects the audience while leveraging the unique strengths of a local brand.

Shift to community-focused language. If you’re going to monetize your email list through the “Buy Me a Coffee” route, switch your call to action from asking for “tips” to inviting your subscribers to become “contributors.” When I shifted to inviting people to become a “Crew Contributor,” I saw an increase from earning $1–$5 to earning hundreds of dollars in support per newsletter send.

Monetize through physical products and events. Revenue can come from IRL events like dinner clubs or high-quality physical products like board games, puzzles, and seasonal snail mail letters. For instance, a Catskills-themed Monopoly board project eventually led to a thriving wholesale business in local shops and hotels.

Incorporate sponsorships and affiliate marketing. While community is the priority, I still work with advertisers ranging from local small businesses to larger brands. The trick is being an expert for your niche — like a hiking newsletter partnering with a specific boot brand.

Structure “win-win-win” partnerships. When negotiating brand deals, focus on monetization models where the subscriber gets value, the business partner makes a profit, and you as the newsletter operator are fairly compensated.

5) How do you use the newsletter to promote these revenue streams? Are you using traditional email marketing strategies like sales funnels?

I avoid aggressive marketing and instead rely on the fact that my newsletter subscribers are already at the most engaged part of my business funnel.

Leverage the bottom of the funnel. Because newsletter subscribers are already highly engaged, you don’t need complex sales funnels. A simple welcome sequence highlighting current products is often enough. For instance, I include a “P.S.” in my welcome sequence to mention board games, merch, or limited edition hat drops so new subscribers know what we offer.

Achieve negative customer acquisition costs. If it costs $0.25 to acquire a subscriber via Meta ads — which are great for fast growth — and a welcome email results in a product sale, you’ve effectively been paid to grow your list.

Practice respectful promotion. Avoid hammering subscribers with constant sales pitches. Instead, promote projects authentically for a limited time — such as a two-week window for a product launch — and then pull back to protect the subscriber experience.

🎁 Don’t forget to grab your free Launch & Scale A Local Newsletter Cheat Sheet inside Travel Blogger Resource Library! You’ll also get access to 75+ resources that can help you grow your traffic, email list, and income.

6) You’ve scaled to over 40k subscribers, but everyone starts at zero. What strategies helped you get those first few hundred people on the list quickly?

Scaling from zero is about combining organic collaboration strategies with targeted paid growth once you’ve found your voice.

Ride the coattails of local businesses. Tag local businesses in Instagram event roundups or features or use the platform’s “Collaboration” feature, which allows others to re-share your IG Reels and posts to their main feed. This leads to instant and free visibility to the local audience you want to reach.

Don’t ignore Meta ads. While organic growth is valuable, Meta ads are the most effective way to scale quickly. Local content often sees very low subscriber acquisition costs. Personally, I see costs around $0.25 per new subscriber.

Collaborate with other operators. Joining communities like The Newsletter Club allows operators to share tactics and masterclasses to grow together.

Maintain a high performance from day one. Even when your mom is your only subscriber, put on your best performance. Early content sets the standard for the natural progression of the brand.

7) How do you decide what to actually put in your newsletter each week — and how do you balance that content across your various platforms?

When I create content, every platform supports the newsletter as the central hub, though it’s important to also respect your own creative limits.

Ensure platforms support rather than cannibalize. Each channel — YouTube, website, Instagram — should funnel into the newsletter. Offer unique value on each so readers have a reason to follow you in multiple places. If the newsletter is just a mirror of your website, you’ll lose engagement on one.

Don’t feel the need to be everywhere. While you should have a social presence, you don’t need to burnout running every platform. Avoid diminishing returns by protecting your creative energy and only focusing on what moves the needle and lights you up.

Keep it as simple as possible. To streamline, you can follow the strategy of creators like Justin Welsh who posts on one platform (like LinkedIn) and then simply share screenshots of that post as content for other channels.

🎥 By the way, if you want help creating your newsletter content, check out this video:

8) You’re clearly passionate about the Catskills. How has having this platform allowed you to make a tangible impact on your community — and how can other local newsletter creators go about developing a plan to make a difference where they operate?

There are several ways running a local newsletter can help you make an impact, from supporting small businesses to environmental conservation and beyond.

Align brand growth with community success. One of the most rewarding parts of a local newsletter is hearing that a promotion led to a record-breaking day for a small business.

Support local causes and nonprofits. Offer mates rates or free ad space to nonprofits doing great work. At Catskill Crew, we raised nearly $1,700 to sponsor rescue animals like Penny the cow and Leroy the pig at Woodstock Farm Sanctuary.

Build a feedback loop of real-life joy. Meeting subscribers in person — like running into someone at a restaurant who is ordering a cocktail recipe you shared in your newsletter — is one of the best feelings. It fires me up to hear what excites people about reading my content.

9) You’re balancing content creation across platforms, a product shop, live events, and more. What does your actual workflow look like so that you get everything done without burning out?

A sustainable workflow requires staying aligned with your goals as well as outsourcing tasks that drain your energy.

Double down on strengths and outsource weaknesses. Hire help for tasks you dislike early on — such as bookkeeping or social media management — to protect your creative energy. I hired a bookkeeper before I ever made a penny for peace of mind.

Embrace a seasonal focus. Accept that your workflow will fluctuate. You might push hard on physical product shipping one month and then pivot back to ad partnerships or strategy the next.

Use a “North Star and Lighthouse” strategy. To build a business that lasts, identify a North Star — a long-term vision or goal. Support this vision by choosing two Lighthouses, which serve as specific values or filters for every business decision you make. For example, my North Star is to build a company I can run forever, using “is it fun?” and “is it building community?” as the two lighthouses to ensure I stay on track.

10) Thank you so much for sharing your local newsletter tips! Can you just let everyone know where they can find you?

• Catskill Crew (website + newsletter)
• The Newsletter Club (membership)
• @MikeyPesto (X)

Recommended Tools For Newsletter Growth

Kit (30-day free trial of their Creator Plan included, no credit card required). A creator-friendly email platform designed for simplicity, perfect for bloggers who want engagement tools without complicated automations. They also have additional features to help you grow and monetize a local newsletter, like a referral system, a Creator Network, a commerce platform to sell digital goods, and more.

MailerLite (30-day free trial included, no credit card required). Intuitive and affordable, with strong automation, tagging, and landing page features ideal for travel creators growing their lists.

ManyChat (30-day free trial of their Pro Plan included). A powerful tool for capturing email leads via Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook — perfect for bloggers using social media to grow their newsletter.

➡️ Click here for a full list of recommended tools and resources for creators.

Bonus Newsletter Growth Strategies:

Learn how to:

• Grow Your Email List Step-By-Step
• Start & Scale A Paid Newsletter
• Grow & Monetize A Substack Newsletter
• Grow Your Email List Fast With A Free Bundle Giveaway
• Create A Free Challenge That Grows Your Email List & Income

➡️ Click here for the full Profitable Travel Blogger Podcast episode list!

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Have you considered launching a local newsletter business?