Ep 68: Creating Content for 3+ Million Subscribers at Morning Brew | Neal Freyman (Managing Editor, Morning Brew)

Neal Freyman is the Managing Editor at Morning Brew, a new media
company that provides informative and digestive business news to
over 3 million subscribers. He oversees Morning Brew’s flagship
product - a daily newsletter, as well as the weekend light Roast
edition and native advertisements. 


The Morning Brew happens to be one of my favourite newsletters so
I was excited to dive into the behind-the-scenes with Neal!


Highlights:


4:43 Studying at the University of Maryland College Park

7:16 Teaching geography and urban studies 

8:07 Applying to work at Morning Brew as a writer (and being
rejected!)

9:00 Sending a nice rejection letter

10:05 The newsletter industry in 2017

13:05 Working as a young newsletter startup out of a room in
NYU

14:41 Morning Brew’s ideal customer and how that definition
has evolved over time

18:12 Having readers get super pi**ed at them

18:45 Creating a political newsletter

20:18 “Write, grow and sell” as the tactic for Morning Brew’s
explosive growth from 2016-2019 

22:51 Writing continuously for 5 years 

24:24 Milestones that contributed to Morning Brew’s growth

26:19 Main reasons for Morning Brew’s subscriber count going
from 100k to 1.5 million in the 2018/19 period

27:01 The importance of Morning Brew having its own in-house
referral system

29:40 How Morning Brew manages to get 25% of its signups from
its referral program

32:29 Capitalising on momentum, as Alex Lieberman discussed

34:24 How Morning Brew launched the Emerging Tech newsletter

37:18 The importance of having a strong online following like
Alex Lieberman & Austin Rief

41:44 Checks & balances

42:49 Becoming Managing Editor of Morning Brew

44:23 Maintaining a close knit working culture

45:43 When Neal felt that they had created a great product
with the newsletter

47:59 Staying relevant

49:35 Retaining talent staff

51:40 Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

53:01 The Essentials

54:02 Impact of Morning Brew’s reported $75 million
acquisition by Business Insider

54:35 Creating the podcast arm of Morning Brew: Business
Casual & Founder’s Journal

56:23 Building in public

59:39 Entering the education space with the MBA Accelerator






Show notes:
www.sothisismywhy.com/68       


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