Eric Newcomer on Scaling to 80,000 Newsletter Subs, How to Pitch Reporters

Eric Newcomer is the founder of Newcomer, a publication he launched in October of 2020 to cover the business of startups and venture capital. He had just left Bloomberg after nearly six years, and was previously the first employee at The Information.

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(02:46) The current state of media

(05:59) Anchoring his 4th grade newscast

(07:21) Becoming the 1st employee at The Information

(09:34) How reporters get stories

(21:12) The moment he quit Bloomberg to start Newcomer

(26:02) Why he writes for VC insiders

(32:19) The VC top fund survey

(34:01) The Founders Choice VC leaderboard

(35:51) Why leaked documents grow his newsletter the fastest

(39:45) When Eric knew Newcomer was going to work

(43:31) How events become Newcomers most profitable business

(51:56) Why Eric invested in Substack

(57:42) Why its harder to cover tech’s downturn than boom times

(59:10) How to pitch a story to a reporter

(01:02:59) Why the internet incentivizes negative media coverage

(01:06:06) Advice for starting a media company

(01:10:33) Why media works so well to sell adjacent products

(01:12:55) Newcomer Banking Summit

(01:14:27) The $1.3B acquisition that happened at his first conference

(01:20:05) New products Eric’s thinking about

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Referenced:

Newcomer Passes $1m in Revenue: https://www.axios.com/2024/01/04/substack-writer-eric-newcomer-says-his-revenue-surpassed-1m-in-2023

Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter: https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/

Lenny’s Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/

Mike Solana’s Pirate Wires: https://www.piratewires.com/

Mentioned Newcomer Articles:

VC Survey: https://www.newcomer.co/p/sequoia-founders-fund-usv-elad-gil

Founder's Choice: https://www.newcomer.co/p/founders-choice-vc-rankings-revealed

Paywalled Bill Gurley Interview: https://www.newcomer.co/p/above-the-crowd

SBF’s Leaked FTX Email: https://www.newcomer.co/p/exclusive-read-sam-bankman-frieds

Eric’s first article on Sequoia: https://www.newcomer.co/p/sequoias-political-paradox

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Where to find Eric:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/EricNewcomer

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericpnewcomer/

Newsletter: https://www.twitter.com/newcomer

Email: newcomer@newcomer.co

Where to find Turner:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/

Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/