In July 2025, our newsletters were driving about 1.09 million monthly page views. While the team was working hard to push this already impressive number higher, a ~5x growth was honestly not expected. But that’s exactly what happened. By January 2026, the number reached 5.25 million. Many would attribute this to an editorial strategy change or a paid acquisition push, but it was actually something far simpler: catering to what fans actually wanted.
We launched eleven newsletters in those five months, each one chasing a specific thing readers had already shown us they wanted. The idea of a “newsletter network” sounds like something that requires heavy planning. And while it does, we learned that the planning can’t be driven purely by numbers, metrics, and industry trends; it also has to be driven by what real sports fans aren’t getting from their favorite sport’s coverage.
What we had going into the second half of 2025 was a handful of established titles: Lucky Dog on Track for NASCAR readers, Essentially Golf, She Got Game for women’s sports, and The Huddle for NFL. They were working well, with open rates above 45 percent, click-through above 20 percent, and an unsubscribe rate sitting around 0.05 percent on main sends. The industry benchmark for sports email is in the low-20s for opens, and we were running more than double that.
So the question going into August wasn’t “how do we grow?” It was closer to: why are Cowboys fans reading The Huddle at a disproportionate rate, and what happens if we give them their own edition?
Cowboys launched in August, and Chiefs followed in September, alongside Buckeye Daily for Ohio State fans and an MMA title. Next, October brought Essentially Dunk for NBA readers. November added Essentially CFB and a Steelers edition, then Bills, Bama, Patriots, and Bulldogs by December. Soon, several newsletters scaled into six-figure monthly reach within their first season, which, honestly, we didn’t expect that quickly.
None of this was a bet on newsletters as a medium. It was a bet on specificity. A Dallas Cowboys fan and a general NFL fan are two different readers, with different levels of investment, and different tolerances for what counts as relevant.
By January 2026, the network had 17 titles reaching close to 1.5 million daily subscribers, sending more than a million emails every day. Over the second half of 2025 alone, newsletters drove 11.6 million page views back to our reporting.
The Huddle’s “NFL Kills ESPN Experiment” edition ran at 60 percent opens and 61 percent click-through. Moreover, She Got Game’s “Clark Penalized in Fever’s Win” hit 61 percent opens. Against an industry sitting in the low-20s, those numbers say something about who’s actually on the list.
There’s also a second distribution layer running through NewsBreak, which re-sends to recent clickers that pull additional reach from the most active segment of each list. It’s less visible than the main sends, but it accounts for meaningful incremental reach on high-performing editions.
We’re still working out the right ceiling for how many titles the network should carry. Adding a newsletter isn’t free, as each one needs experienced editors, a production rhythm, and enough sourcing depth to not just repurpose wire copy under a different masthead. The titles that have scaled fastest are the ones sitting on top of strong content operations of sports we cover deeply, with credentialed reporters and real sourcing.
The 5.25 million page views in January weren’t a one-off. Since then, the network has held at 3.4 to 4.3 million page views per month, which means most of that growth from five busy months has actually stuck. A 0.05 percent unsubscribe rate from readers who keep finding a reason to stay is the only honest explanation for it.
