The founder of The Charlotte Ledger, Tony Messia, writes about his success on the occasion of his fourth anniversary.
Mecia writes: “While looking at the numbers, I thought it must be possible to create a subscription local media business. Mecklenburg County has more than 850,000 adults. It didn’t seem far-fetched to think that The Ledger could find a few thousand subscriptions, which at $99 a year would be enough to hire a few reporters.
“Before I made paid subscriptions available in February 2020, The Ledger had about 3,500 free subscribers. Substack expects 5% to 10% paid subscriber conversion. We do much better than that, more like 15%-20%. Today we are approaching 2,500 paid subscriber accounts and we hope to get there by the end of this month.
“As The Ledger has grown, we’ve put more money back into the operation. As our revenue increases, we can do more and improve. If you compare the Old Books of March 2019 with today, it is a world of difference. instead of news from elsewhere and links to other articles, we produce original articles, news and deliver in-depth pieces, and no. just on business, but on education and other local topics.”
Read more here.