Business newsletter The Charlotte Ledger now generates around $12,500 in monthly recurring revenue from its 2,000 paid subscribers and is on track to generate $175,000 in revenue, reports Ted Williams of Axios Charlotte.
Williams reports, “Mecia started The Charlotte Ledger as an experiment a little over two years ago. Startup costs were basically $0. He chose Substack.
- He had only 300 Twitter followers and a paper rolodex of local newsmakers when he started.
- When he reached 3,000 free subscribers about a year into it, he launched paid subscriptions. ‘There was no revenue for the first year,’ Mecia says. ‘I had severance from a magazine job and I freelanced.’
- Subscriptions cost $9/month or $99/year (full breakdown here). There’s also an enterprise tier for $379/year. “I have no growth hacks; it’s about doing the little things right consistently.”
- Paid subscribers are currently growing at about 50-80 net new subscribers a month. The newsletter now has 2,000 paid subscribers and 6,900 free subscribers. Open rates for the paid list are around 60% and for the free list open rates are around 30%.
“My thought bubble: It’s an outstanding read. The Charlotte Ledger differentiated itself early with its mix of business scoops and aggregation — delivered with the experienced (and entertaining) voice. The publication has since broadened its coverage with more original reporting like a play-by-play look inside the making of Mecklenburg County’s Covid directive and the inside scoop on what’s behind the sudden push for residential development in west Charlotte.”
Read more here.
