👋🏻 Welcome to Newsletter Examples, where I highlight the formats, strategies, and best practices of leading newsletters to help you improve your newsletter.

Today, I share examples of effective native ads (h/t to subscriber Jeff Selingo of Next for the idea) with insights from Ryan Sager of Who Sponsors Stuff and Katy Huff of MadRev. Total examples: 5. Total reading time: 3 minutes.

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Example 1: 1440

Ryan and Katy, two of the sharpest people I know in the newsletter ad business, both highlighted the popular daily news digest 1440 for its exemplary native ad format.

Example 2: Exec Sum

Former Hustle copywriter Bobby Durben, one of the funniest people I know, writes ads for several newsletters MadRev works with. Here’s an ad he wrote for Plaid, which advertises in Exec Sum, a witty finance newsletter.

Example 3: The GIST

The GIST, a female-founded sports media company, provides equal coverage of men’s and women’s sports, an unusual approach in the male-dominated sports industry. Their approach has resonated with some big advertisers.

Example 4: Elevator & Jimmy

Elevator and Jimmy, two Rotary Digital newsletters that cater to men, are characterized by “punchy/voicey roundups of the kinds of stuff you would have found in men’s magazines of old,” Ryan says—with ads that generally match.

Example 5: The Pulse

Hope you enjoyed this week’s examples. I’ll be back next week with a new set!

☮️ -Brad

P.S. Have more examples of good native ads? Send ‘em my way—I might highlight them in a future issue!

P.S.S. After subscriber Nic Conley of The Follow Up read Aine Stapleton’s advice about meme ads in last week’s issue, he DM’d to say he had recently shut down his paid ads to go all-in on building an IG meme account to drive subs. I told him to let me know when things start to pop. Two days later, he sent the below screenshot👇…

ICYMI: Links to past issues

🔉 How The Hustle thinks about voice
🏅 How Yahoo Sports AM reimagined the sports page
👟 How The Kicks You Wear became a community hub for sneakerheads
💒 How Marriage Minute became a must-read for marrieds
🎒 How After School capitalizes on youth trends
🥾 How Huckberry reimagined the marketing email
🗞️ How Semafor reinvented the news brief
😂 How SatPost meme-ified business news
✍🏻 6 things I learned at The Newsletter Conference
🩺 How Expert Witness protects doctors from lawsuits
🌐 How International Intrigue grew 750% in 2023