Blog, niche site and newsletter case studies — 2/4
Blog and niche site cases
25–48 of 83
Daily Lodging Report: A $450/Year Husband-and-Wife Hotel Newsletter Sells to Skift
The Daily Lodging Report, a daily newsletter covering the hotel and lodging industry, was run by Alan Woinski and his wife, who sold annual subscriptions at $450 to thousands of readers before selling the business to travel-industry media company Skift in 2021. The endpoint of a business built simply on summarizing the industry, every single day.
Courier: An Entrepreneur-Focused Print Magazine Sold to Mailchimp — a Contrarian Exit for Paper in the Digital Age
Courier, a UK print magazine covering small-business and entrepreneurial culture, was acquired by email giant Mailchimp. In an era when anyone can start a newsletter, a media brand built deliberately on paper was bought as a brand vehicle for a digital company.
SEO Blog Backlinko, 500K Monthly Visits, Sells to Semrush for Seven Figures: The Rare Strategy of Doing the Opposite of Mass Production
Brian Dean's SEO blog Backlinko drew 500,000 monthly visits with a strategy of publishing few articles but polishing each one to perfection, and was sold to SEO tool giant Semrush for seven figures (hundreds of millions of yen). A classic case in content strategy: winning at the polar opposite of "write a lot."
Why We Buy: Subscribers Up 1.4x, Revenue Up 3.3x — the Structure Behind a ¥150M Year in 2024
Marketer newsletter "Why We Buy" grew from 50,000 subscribers and $300K in annual revenue to nearly 70,000 subscribers and roughly $1M. This piece examines the mechanics behind subscribers growing 1.4x while revenue grew 3.3x.
WFH Advisor: A Pandemic-Era Side Project Sells for 34x Monthly Revenue — How to Exit a “Trend Niche”
WFH Advisor, an information site about remote work setups, was launched as a side project by three co-founders during the pandemic, grew through SEO, and was sold for 34 times its monthly revenue. A concise case illustrating the standard lifecycle of a niche site riding a trend.
Parenting Media Site Red Tricycle Sold for $6.5M — Riding Out the "Winter of Ad-Supported Media" Through the Exit
Red Tricycle, a parenting media site that suggests what families should do on the weekend, grew to millions of monthly users under founder Jacqui Boland and was sold to family app company Tinybeans for $6.5M (about ¥975 million). A realistic exit for ad-dependent media.
UNO Magazine: Buying a Dying Magazine, Turning It Around, Selling It Again — the Business of “Media Flipping”
UNO, a New Zealand magazine, was rescued from the brink of closure by Jenny Rudd and rebuilt before being sold to SAO Media. It shows that the same business as real-estate flipping — buy distressed, fix, sell — works for media too.
Canada's Business Newsletter The Peak Sells to Young-Skewing Media Company ZoomerMedia: Replicating Morning Brew All the Way to the Exit
The Peak, a three-founder Canadian business newsletter and podcast billed as "Canada's Morning Brew," was sold to ZoomerMedia. A case showing that "geographic transplantation" of a proven format can be replicated from launch all the way to exit.
Developer Media The New Stack Sold to Investment Firm Insight Partners: An Unusual Buyer Purchasing "Engineer Trust"
The New Stack, a specialized media outlet covering cloud-native and DevOps, was acquired by major VC/PE firm Insight Partners. Not a media company, not a tech company — an investment firm buying a developer media outlet symbolizes how diverse the pool of media buyers has become.
VC Industry Newsletter StrictlyVC Sells to TechCrunch: Ten Years of an "Industry Insider" Becoming Media
StrictlyVC, a venture-capital industry newsletter started single-handedly by former TechCrunch reporter Connie Loizos, was acquired by her old employer, TechCrunch. A rare shape of deal where an industry insider's personal newsletter gets imported back into the industry's biggest media outlet.
CSS-Tricks, 7 Million Monthly Pageviews, Sold to DigitalOcean: A Personal Blog's 15-Year Journey to Becoming "the Textbook"
CSS-Tricks, started by Chris Coyier as a personal blog, grew into a web-development reference site with 7 million monthly pageviews and was acquired by cloud provider DigitalOcean. The biggest exit of its kind for a technical blog, and a demonstration of the asset value of "searched-for technical knowledge."
The Coast, Founded in 1993, Joins Local Media Coalition Overstory: The Landing Point of 30 Years of Local Reporting
The Coast, a weekly alternative paper published in Halifax, Canada since 1993, was sold by its founding couple to Overstory Media Group, a coalition of local media outlets. A long-established local media succession that navigates the print-to-digital transition through a capital injection via acquisition.
A solo operator earning 102 million yen a year. How an affiliate marketer who fell from 75 million to 50 million broke his own record
Kuroneko-ya reported annual income of 75 million yen in 2016, 69 million in 2017, and 50 million in 2018 — three straight years of decline — before recovering to 102 million yen in 2021. With zero employees and almost no outsourcing, he has published, year by year, the story of shifting his main revenue from SEO affiliate marketing to selling his own courses.
The Half Marathon Guide: “Just Half Marathon Race Info” Adds Up to $1.2M — Sold to an Individual Buyer
The Half Marathon Guide, a site cataloging half marathons across the U.S., earned founder Terrell Johnson roughly $1.2M (about ¥180M) cumulatively before being sold to individual buyer Michael Mazzara. A case study in the compounding power of unglamorous information curation: "the race calendar."
Wellness Blog Root + Revel Passes from One Individual to Another: An Everyday Scene from the "Used-Blog Market"
Root + Revel, a holistic wellness blog, was transferred from founder Kate Kordsmeier to an individual buyer, Sarah Ware. A record of "person-to-person blog sales" — not a headline deal — functioning as an ordinary, everyday transaction.
CBWG: From a Local Sports Blog to a $25M Sale to XLMedia — Riding a “Change in the Law” at Full Speed
CBWG Media, which started as a Philadelphia sports blog, rode the wave of sports betting legalization triggered by the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling and grew rapidly as a bookmaker-referral media business. In 2021 it was sold to the UK's XLMedia for $25M (about ¥3.75 billion). A case of seizing the market moment created by regulatory change.
Crypto Newsletter Milk Road Sold 10 Months After Launch with 250,000 Subscribers: A Textbook Case of Getting Off at the Peak
Milk Road, the crypto newsletter launched in January 2022 by serial entrepreneur Shaan Puri and Ben Levy, reached 250,000 subscribers in just 10 months and was sold to Bitfo within the same year. A case that ran the full "build it, grow it, sell it while the boom lasts" playbook at record speed.
Madison Minutes, a Small-City Indie Newsletter, Joins the Local Media Network City Cast
Madison Minutes, a local newsletter in Madison, Wisconsin, was sold to City Cast, which operates a network of city-specific podcasts and newsletters. One example of a broader trend: in regions where newspapers have declined, indie newsletters pick up local reporting and are then bundled into national networks.
Ladders: A Job-Site Newsletter With 2.2M Subscribers Sold to Industry Dive — an Exit Priced on List Size Alone
The daily newsletter arm of job site The Ladders (2.2M subscribers) was sold to B2B media company Industry Dive in 2021. An asset-carve-out deal: selling just the mailing list, a single division of the business, rather than the company itself.
TravelMamas: From 19,500 First-Year Visitors to 2 Million a Year — a Family Travel Blog’s 13-Year Road to $15,000/Month
Colleen Lanin started a family travel blog in March 2009. From under 19,500 visitors and 96,000 pageviews in year one, it grew to 2 million unique visitors a year and $15,000/month (about ¥2.25M) — with no single dramatic turning point, just 12–56% compounding annual growth.
"Budgets Are Sexy": 13 Years of Anonymous Personal Finance Blogging, Sold to a Motley Fool-Affiliated Network
Budgets Are Sexy, the personal finance blog masked blogger J. Money wrote for 13 years, was sold to the Motley Fool-affiliated Soapbox Financial Network. Proof that a long-term brand — and an exit — can be built on a "character" without ever revealing your real name.
Arvid Kahl: From 23 Subscribers to 7,600 — a $3,000/Month Newsletter Built Across 183 Issues After Selling His SaaS
Arvid Kahl sold a SaaS with $55,000 MRR in 2019, then started a newsletter from 23 subscribers. By issue 183 it reached 7,600 subscribers and $3,000/month, sold through 6 sponsor slots per issue.
Bitches Who Brunch: A Brunch Review Site Sells to a Sports-Community Company — Buying “the Readers’ Weekend Hours”
Bitches Who Brunch, a brunch review site with over a million monthly pageviews, was sold to Volo Sports, an operator of adult recreational sports leagues. A buyer seemingly unrelated to media came for "the same demographic's weekend hours" — a case that widens the lens on buyer selection.
BarBend, a Strength-Training Media Site With 31 Million Monthly Users, Joins Pillar4: A "Sale" Before Becoming a Buyer
BarBend, a strength-focused fitness media site started by three people, grew to 31 million monthly users and was sold to Pillar4 Media in 2023. BarBend itself then turned around and acquired Morning Chalk Up — one company embodying the entire media food chain.