How Do You Grow Your Media Industry Newsletter?

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Louie Woodall knows his way around a financial disclosure document. Since graduating college, he’s worked for several media outlets that report on the intricacies of financial risk. In 2020, he decided to combine this expertise with his interest in climate change and launched Climate Risk Review, a Substack newsletter that analyzed climate disclosure documents published by major corporations around the world.

The newsletter was a side hustle, but it eventually amassed an influential readership of bankers and other finance professionals, many of whom converted into paying subscribers. Eventually, Louie realized he needed to make a decision: should he continue it as a side hustle or try to make it his fulltime job?

He decided on the latter option, and to help ease that transition he found a company that would not only acquire the newsletter, but also employ him to be its full time editor. In our interview, we talked about the newsletter’s origin story, his monetization strategy, and how the publication will evolve under the umbrella of a larger company.