👋🏻 Welcome to Newsletter Examples, where I highlight cool sh*t I’m seeing in newsletters that you can borrow for your newsletter.

This week I’m sharing 6 things I predict will happen in the newsletter space this year. Reading time: 3 minutes.

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#1: More newsletters will (rightly) use AI

An estimated 10% of Substack’s largest newsletters publish AI-generated or AI-assisted content, according to a recent analysis published by WIRED.

I predict that number will grow by 2-3X this year. And there’s no reason your newsletter shouldn’t be one of them (as long as you still write the thing).

Here’s a breakdown of how one popular AI newsletter, The Neuron, uses AI to assist with its daily research and writing:

Entire newsletters exist to tell you how to use AI to assist (or mimic) your writing.

• Write With AI, written by Dickie Bush and Nicolas Cole, examined the playbooks of some of the world’s best newsletters, sharing how you can use AI to replicate their approach.

• Their piece breaking down the Axios “SmartBrevity” style (i.e., “write less, say more”) has lessons for almost any kind of newsletter:

#2: We’ll see more newsletter exits

There are two kinds of newsletter exits:

• The good kind: When someone buys your newsletter for sh*t tons of cash.

• The bad kind: When you stop writing your newsletter because it’s just too much work.

We’ll see more people than ever try to sell their newsletters in 2025. But most won’t get anywhere near what they expected.

And we’ll see newsletters continue to shutter (some 45% of Substack newsletters are inactive, according to this excellent analysis by Ciler Demiralp of Newsletter Circle).

The good news for the biggest and best newsletter operators:

• You can grow your list fast by acquiring newsletters that don’t have the stamina to stay in the game (some AI newsletters added hundreds of thousands of subscribers last year through multiple acquisitions)

Fun fact: I spent an inordinate amount of time helping HubSpot acquire an AI newsletter, after helping Sam Parr sell The Hustle to HubSpot in 2021—so I’ve been on both sides of the newsletter negotiating table.

My take? Companies are scrutinizing those deals more closely, which likely won’t lead to as big of a payday for newsletters looking to sell. But if you have a large, engaged audience in a business that companies are looking to expand into, you can still make seven figures.

Go deeper: Want to see inside some of the biggest newsletter deals? Check out They Got Acquired’s Newsletter Deals Report.

#3: More newsletters will rethink their cadence

If you’re running an advertising-based newsletter, publishing every day is an imperative; the more copy you produce, the more ads you can sell around it.

But do people really want to hear from you that often?

Probably not.

Which is why more newsletters will start publishing on a weekly or semi-weekly cadence this year. And more daily publishers will roll out weekly versions of their emails.

Some newsletters are using their weekly cadence as a selling feature.

One of my favorite weekly emails is Paul Armstrong’s “What Did OpenAI Do This Week?” (he also writes similar weekly newsletters about Amazon and Google; they all have thousands of paying subscribers).

I’m gonna write more about Paul’s newsletters in an upcoming issue. But here’s a quick peek at his OpenAI newsletter to show you how simple this can be:

#4: The best newsletters will help people do their jobs better

The best newsletters in the future will be job-specific, providing content that compels people to open every time so they stay ahead in their field.

Below are a few emails I open every time. The one thing they have in common? They all help me do my job better:

• Simon Owens’s media newsletter (which helps me think about the future of the media)

• Matt McGarry’s Newsletter Operator (which shares link and insights on things I need to know as a newsletter operator and media consultant)

• The Artificially Intelligent Enterprise (which gives smart prompts to help me use AI more effectively)

#5: Guest editors will become a thing

Another one of my favorite newsletters, The Sunday Long Read, has dozens of contributing editors who are called upon as occasional guest editors.

Rather than detracting from the newsletter’s value, guest editors add to the value:

• I love knowing what some of the best writers and editors in the world are reading that week

• Guest editors also give the founders, Don Van Natta Jr. and Jacob Feldman, a much-needed break

Other newsletters are using guest editors as they transition editors, like Nieman Storyboard is doing right now.

Guest writing or editing can pay off in other ways. Last year, Dan Oshinsky and I wrote each other’s emails one week (here was his piece; here was mine).

People loved reading Dan’s insights, and his NPS was as high as mine. I also appreciated the 58 sign-ups I got from the piece I wrote for him.

#6: We’ll all get serious about YouTube

Most newsletter writers spend too much time on X, where the dwindling audience and shifting algorithm have led to lower and lower ROI.

One bright spot in social media is YouTube, where many newsletter operators are seeing outsized returns.

Here’s a great breakdown of how to drive high-quality organic newsletter subscribers through YouTube. Among other things, it suggests:

• Adding a newsletter sign-up link in every video description

• Using worksheets and prompts to drive leads

• Showing viewers how you’re solving problems or using tools

Even if you’re not great on video, it might be worth taking the plunge for numbers like these.

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

☮️ -Brad

P.S. Planning to launch a newsletter this year? Check out the “virtual launch” plans for this new Gen Z newsletter. I predict everyone will be doing this soon.

ICYMI: Links to recent issues

💰️ How Petition made a 7-figure business out of going out of business
📧 What I learned taking Sam Parr’s email copywriting course
📨 The 5 coolest things I saw in newsletters in 2024
🤖 Want to write killer subject lines? Borrow this prompt
📈 The secret to Semafor’s growth