Local Media HQ The Power Of Niche Newsletter Audiences
Dec 26, 2025
Dan Oshinsky, a newsletter strategist and founder of Inbox Collective with a rich background at BuzzFeed and The New Yorker, shares insights on building successful newsletters. He discusses why niche markets are still ripe for exploration, particularly local newsletters. Dan highlights how small audiences can yield significant revenue and details strategies for effective ad sales, emphasizing the value of relationships and persistence. The conversation wraps up with tips on combining newsletters with social media and community events to enhance audience engagement and monetization.
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Email Built Early Audiences
- Newsletters proved you can grow and monetize an audience even before social-first publishing dominated.
- Dan Oshinsky grew BuzzFeed email to over 2M subscribers without paid growth, showing email's enduring power.
Tools Made Newsletters Accessible
- The newsletter ecosystem is still early because tooling and creator options expanded recently.
- Better platforms and products lowered the bar, making independent local and niche newsletters feasible.
Niching Down Unlocks Opportunities
- Going narrower than a broad category uncovers underserved, monetizable niches.
- Dan recommends drilling down (e.g., Morning Brew → regional → industry-specific) to find sustainable opportunities.