At the 2025 PPA Independent Publisher Conference, Chris Sopher (Co-Founder & CEO, Letterhead); Jessica Crouch Perry (Product Director, Condé Nast); and Mel McVeigh (Strategic Consultant – Digital Product, PPA) demonstrated how a strong newsletter portfolio amplifies your editorial voice, expands your owned audience, and unlocks commercial opportunities.

Listen to the audio from the session, and read the key takeaways below

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Key takeaways

1. Newsletters can be your biggest traffic driver
   Newsletters give you direct access to an audience that’s actually opted in. It’s been two years since Condé Nast’s newsletter traffic overtook social, and for some brands it accounts for a quarter of all traffic.
   
   
2. Most newsletters are too long
   Don’t try to do too much with one newsletter. Ask yourself, what is the purpose of this newsletter? Who is it going to, and what action do I want the to take? Different categories of content need their own newsletters and strategies.
   
   
3. Newsletter sign-ups can convert into paying subscriptions
   Newsletters drive business (subscription, ads, commerce, and affiliates), and readers are four and a half times more likely to subscribe to the brand (for example, 10% of the New Yorker’s subscribers have converted from being newsletter readers).
   
   
4. What works well for one audience won’t work for another
   To truly maximise the results, you need to be dedicated to providing what your audience wants. If you can’t answer why a newsletter exists, then it shouldn’t. Really tease out why they’re coming to you, and make it easy for them to see that you deliver on that.