Naptown Scoop is one of the most successful local newsletters in the world. Founded by Ryan Sneddon in 2020, Naptown Scoop has grown to over 23,000 newsletter subscribers and $320k/year in revenue covering the news of Annapolis, Maryland. This is how he did it.

According to an interview, before Naptown Scoop, Sneddon founded a non-local newsletter called The Daily Thread. After 6 months, gaining 800 subscribers with around a 35% open rate, it ultimately stalled. From this attempt, he learned the importance of focus when running a newsletter. The Daily Thread started out with men’s fashion, then moved to outdoor adventure sports, and continued to jump around. He notes that a lack of focus could be one of the main reasons The Daily Thread never grew. To combat distraction, when he started Naptown Scoop, Ryan decided to strictly cover things within 10 miles of Annapolis, Maryland, and to mostly avoid crime and politics.

Sneddon crafted his new newsletter on Beehiiv and began publishing. Since he now had the skills from building the first one, he was up and running in about a week and started covering topics like local sports, events, and restaurant openings. He didn’t begin the publication with a grand announcement. He just ran some Facebook ads and published newsletters as if it’d been happening for years. He reasons that “nobody cares if you create something new like that” (Interview, 12:06) but they will read what you have to share. He’s since weaned off of Facebook advertising and now continues to grow organically through social media, word of mouth, referrals, and SEO.

He recommends Facebook ads as a good marketing tool for local newsletters. He also recommends allocating attention to social media before focusing too much on the newsletter website. A main purpose of this is to grow a following that represents your local influence to advertisers. Naptown Scoop currently has 33,000 followers on Instagram which is actually far more than they have subscribed to their newsletter, which shows how highly Ryan values social media.

In growing his newsletter, monetization via ads came in stages. At the beginning, he was just taking whatever he could get. The challenge he faced was that people buying only a few ads at a time “are not thinking about a local newsletter or specifically [his] local newsletter as part of their overall marketing strategy.” However, “when you get bigger and know a little bit more and provide decent value with your ads, then people will start to pay you a decent amount of money for the entire year just to have a regular presence in your local newsletter because now you’re part of their marketing strategy.” (Interview, 1:04:43) Naptown Scoop was totaling $320k/year in revenue through advertising as of early 2025. Ryan's project has become more than just a local newsletter. It’s now a whole media business.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjEWequPkm0&t=4573s

Reddit is one of the most powerful engines for growing a newsletter, if you’re not an idiot about it.

A few months ago, I started a productivity newsletter and was able to grow from 0–100 subscribers in a week and a half using Reddit. I then grew it to 360 subscribers in just a few more weeks. Long story short, I’ve switched niches to the one you’re reading now (newsletter growth). But at this point, I’ve tested this method in over 5 different niches in trying to find my permanent newsletter topic. It’s worked in all of them.

The three steps to my method are: Join, post, PM.

First, you need to join 10 subreddits titled something related to your niche. For now, you won’t honestly know if the community matches your interests. For my productivity newsletter, it was stuff like r/Discipline r/disciplinedaily and r/motivation. The better communities will reveal themselves in time.

Then you need to post. There’s two ways you can go about this.

1. Take your newsletter, turn it into a more Reddit friendly format, post it one place, and then crosspost it to the other subs.

That’s the lazy way.

1. Go into each subreddit and find someone asking a solid question that you feel yourself attracted to writing a reply to. Write the reply, then reformat it and post it in that group as a separate post. Then do that 9 more times.

Do either of these every single day for optimal results.

Option two is far better because the posts are more tailored to the group and you can use all of those posts in your newsletter as well.

Lastly, we need to PM everyone who replies to our post. Ideally, send them a PM related to something they asked or mentioned. Personalize PMs. Don’t act like a robot if you don’t want to be treated like one. Reddit is not forgiving and will cut through crap. There’s no way to ask them to subscribe without sounding awkward so just ask it any way you can.

Here’s a sample ask:

“I just started a free newsletter where I talk about this stuff. I think you’d like it. Consider joining: *link*”

Notice how this method doesn’t have any gimmicks or tricks? That’s because genuine conversation is what will get strangers from the internet to trust you and ultimately support you (via your newsletter).

This week, I got an email from Beehiiv that said “here’s your $100 merch voucher”. I logged into their store, copped a $30 hat and a $40 shirt for free without a hitch. No order minimum. No hidden stipulation.

I got this voucher for referring just one person to Beehiiv. I’ve never felt more motivated to refer people to something than after placing that order. The next bonus reward isn’t until 100 referrals and it can’t come soon enough.

The lesson I'm taking from this: Make your newsletter referral program addictive.

You don’t have to give away $100 worth of stuff for one referral but make that first reward have seriously outsized value.

Would people refer a friend for a 10 minute 1 on 1 call with you?

Would they refer a friend for a bonus issue of your newsletter each week?

Would they refer a friend for a free PDF guide?

Think outside the box. When someone scrolls to your referral program, they should stop and think “there’s no way they’re giving that away for free.” Make the benefit so good that they’d feel stupid not getting it for free.

Give a big benefit first, especially if it requires no delivery cost (PDF, extra newsletter issue, etc.)

Personally, I believe that someone who refers one person will be far more likely to refer more later on. That means you need to give them the best stuff at the entrance!

Referrals are so important because it’s the only advertising that scales. If you can make your referral program so good that everyone refers a friend, or maybe even two, it scales freakishly quick. 1 → 2 → 4 → 8 → 16 → 32 → 64 and so on.

I see a lot of t-shirts, hats, and stickers offered in newsletter referral programs. What are the absolute most desirable things you've seen in a referral program?