Expanding Categories, Building Communities, and Growing Newsletters

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The chapter delves into the challenges of potentially expanding their current 10 categories to 100, limitations posed by their focus on B2B SaaS companies, and interest in creating highly specialized content. It also explores the differences between running a community and their current media business, strategies for growing newsletters through various channels, minimizing churn rates, and developing a go-to-market strategy for newsletter operations with a focus on working with startups and larger clients like Google Cloud and AWS.

Dan Ni, CEO of TLDR Newsletter, a leading modern media company that operates 10 curated newsletters with over 8 million readers, joins Erik Torenberg to talk about the success of TLDR. In this conversation, Dan shares the secrets behind TLDR’s rapid growth, the importance of building an audience on your own platform, challenges and strategies of launching new content formats, monetization tactics, and exploring the different niches and media formats.

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SPONSORS: BEEHIIV

Head to https://Beehiiv.com and use code “EMPIRES” for 20% off your first three months.

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LINKS:

TLDR Newsletter: https://tldr.tech/

Subscribe to the Media Empires Newsletter: https://media-empires.beehiiv.com/

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X / TWITTER:

@eriktorenberg (Erik)

@tldrdan (Dan)

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TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Intro

(00:59) Unpacking TLDR’s success

(05:39) Aspirations for TLDR

(07:57) Role of original reporting in business

(09:02) Curator’s role in TLDR

(14:55) TLDR’s team set up

(15:21) Sponsor: Beehiiv and Turpentine

(17:09) Building a sales organization

(20:37) Identifying different niches and demographics

(26:35) Strategies for audience engagement

(28:21) Monetization and adjacency in newsletters

(31:46) Targeting and scaling with advertisers

(38:21) Building a defensible media company

(42:05) Importance of building audience on your own platform

(44:22) Wrap

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This show is produced by Turpentine: a network of podcasts, newsletters, and more, covering technology, business, and culture — all from the perspective of industry insiders and experts. We’re launching new shows every week, and we’re looking for industry-leading sponsors — if you think that might be you and your company, email us at erik@turpentine.co.