Build or Partner? Two Powerful Models for Local Newsletter Expansion

This growth question confronts every successful newsletter publisher, but the path forward isn't always obvious.

Shane Brady, who runs two thriving newsletters in small-town Ontario with a combined 13,000 subscribers, has navigated this expansion challenge firsthand. His experience, along with insights from other successful publishers, reveals two distinct approaches to scaling a local newsletter business.

The most straightforward expansion approach is simply replicating your successful formula in new markets. This is the path Shane initially followed when launching his second newsletter.

After growing his first newsletter to 10,000 subscribers in Belleville, Ontario (population 55,000), Shane expanded to Kingston, a neighboring city. Within two months, the new publication reached nearly 3,000 subscribers.

The build-it-yourself model offers several advantages:

When you own the entire operation, you maintain control over content, monetization, and brand standards. This ensures consistent quality across all your publications.

By owning each newsletter outright, you capture all revenue generated. As Shane discovered, once you've sold out ad inventory in your first publication, expansion becomes the only way to significantly increase revenue.

"If you're practically sold out of ads, you've already said you're kind of tapped out on space for ads," notes TJ Larkin, a fellow newsletter publisher. "You normally can't add extra pages like in a magazine. So how do you think about growing financially?"

Operating multiple newsletters allows you to spread fixed costs (software, systems, administrative expenses) across more revenue-generating publications.

You can also repurpose some content across markets, particularly for topics with regional relevance.

However, this approach also presents significant challenges:

Launching each new market requires substantial time and financial investment. Shane spent thousands on Facebook ads to build his subscriber bases.

Each new market multiplies your workload. Without effective systems and possibly staff, quality can suffer.

The biggest challenge may be the local expertise required. Without deep community connections, new markets can be difficult to penetrate authentically.

Recognizing these challenges, many publishers are exploring partnership models that leverage local expertise while sharing the financial upside.

Shane stumbled into this approach when a reader from Kingston reached out about starting a newsletter in her area.

"She found out about mine and started following it," Shane explains. "She actually just emailed me one day and said, 'I'm interested in starting this where I live.'"

Rather than competing, they formed a partnership. Shane provides the infrastructure, systems, and monetization expertise, while his partner handles content creation with her local knowledge.

The arrangement includes a revenue-sharing model: "Once we start getting advertising, we're going to split the costs or split the revenue."

TJ Larkin employs a similar partnership approach, targeting "local business owners... multi six-figure or seven-figure business owners who want the value of having the audience in their town" primarily to build their personal brand, with ad revenue as a secondary benefit.

These partnership models offer unique advantages:

Partners who live in the community bring deep local knowledge and connections that would take outsiders years to develop.

"She worked in marketing and communications and she's written newsletters for some other organizations," Shane says of his partner. This combination of local presence and relevant skills creates immediate credibility.

Partners contribute sweat equity by creating content and building local relationships, reducing your financial risk.

Working with partners allows you to scale into multiple markets simultaneously, something that would be nearly impossible alone.

The partnership approach does present its own challenges:

Quality partnerships depend entirely on finding the right collaborators—people with local knowledge, consistent work ethic, and compatible values.

"When I found the person to do the second city... I lucked out that she was just engaged enough in her community that she wanted to do this," Shane acknowledges. "You have to find that perfect person."

What happens if a partner loses interest or can't continue? As Shane notes: "Even if you do find that person... and then that person goes, 'Hey, I don't really like this anymore, I don't have the time, I moved, I had a baby, I got a new job,' then what?"

Maintaining consistent quality across partner-operated publications requires clear standards and ongoing communication.

During their conversation, Shane and TJ explored another expansion model that combines elements of both approaches: serving as a consultant to existing local media organizations.

"I've gone through the trenches of doing this local newsletter, and all of that knowledge in the back of my head of how to get this done," Shane says. "I've even thought about going to the neighboring towns' local media and saying, 'I can get this started for you and I could actually probably operate it for you or help in some way.'"

This "newsletter toolkit in a box" approach offers several advantages:

Local media outlets already have content creation capabilities, local knowledge, and established audiences.

Traditional media organizations typically have existing advertiser relationships, eliminating the need to build monetization from scratch.

Many local media companies still use outdated engagement methods. As Shane discovered: "A couple of media outlets in my town weren't doing email newsletters before, and they've approached me saying, 'What you're doing is really cool. How do you do it?'"

TJ sees significant potential in this model: "Most companies either don't have a newsletter at all, or they do and it's so bad nobody reads it because it's just not created the way guys like us are creating them."

Which model makes the most sense for your newsletter business? Consider these factors:

If you have significant time and capital to invest, the build-it-yourself model offers the greatest long-term upside.

For those with limited resources but valuable systems and knowledge, partnership or consulting models leverage your expertise without requiring massive investment.

Play to your strengths. If you excel at systems and business development but lack the bandwidth for content creation, partnership models make sense.

If you're primarily a content creator, you might prefer maintaining full control of fewer publications.

Some markets lend themselves to different approaches. Smaller towns with limited existing media might require a ground-up approach, while areas with struggling traditional media could be perfect for consulting partnerships.

Consider your ultimate goals. Do you want to build a media company with employees and multiple publications? Or create a lifestyle business with steady income and manageable workload?

Different expansion models serve different visions.

Regardless of which expansion model you choose, one element remains constant: you need efficient systems.

Shane emphasizes this point: "If I was going to continue this once a week, I don't know if I'll ever monetize this to the point where it's worth it for me."

By implementing RSS feeds, Slack integration, AI assistance, and event calendar solutions, Shane reduced his newsletter production time to about an hour per issue—making expansion feasible even while maintaining a full-time job.

Without these systems, neither solo expansion nor partnership models would be sustainable.

Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of the local newsletter business is the opportunity it presents in smaller markets.

"I've cut out a little niche in my part of Ontario where we're doing this," Shane explains. "There's something to be said about those really neighborhoody kind of approaches."

TJ agrees: "In a smaller town... there's an angle where you can actually become the entire media organization in that town. You cover every single thing."

This comprehensive coverage becomes increasingly difficult in larger markets, creating a unique opportunity for focused local newsletters in underserved communities.

Whether you build it yourself, partner with locals, or consult with existing media, the expansion possibilities for successful local newsletters have never been more promising.

Before we dive into this week's insights, I want to make sure you know about all the resources available to support your local newsletter journey:

🎙️ The Podcast - Deep-dive conversations with successful newsletter operators sharing their playbooks and lessons learned | Link

📧 This Weekly Newsletter - Quick, actionable tips delivered straight to your inbox every week | Link

🧠 1:1 Consulting - Personalized guidance tailored to your specific newsletter challenges Link

🚀 Launch Accelerator - A structured program to help you go from idea to profitable newsletter in record time | Link

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