One owner = 38 newsletters.

One owner.

38 newsletters.

Over 14 million daily readers.

And hundreds of millions of value…

Today, we’re taking a deep dive into one of the greatest B2B newsletter companies in the world:

Industry Dive.

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❓ WHAT IS INDUSTRY DIVE?

Industry Dive is a media company that has 38 different newsletter publications.

📜 Their mission is simple: they help decision-makers stay ahead in competitive industries by producing the business world’s most respected journalism.

They have publications in fields spreading across all industries – from education to sustainability, and from financial services to holiday shopping.

Industry Dive has over 100 journalists in its newsroom and their publications get read by over 14 million people on a daily basis.

… and that’s because their content is great. There is no other place where you can get content so in-depth on a single industry.

👀 Look at this example for “Social Media Today,” its publication on all things social media, for instance…

Or “Restaurant Dive,” its publication on consumer behavior in restaurants…

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🪴 HOW INDUSTRY DIVE GROWS

Industry Dive’s growth seems to be a mix of organic, ad-driven and SEO.

📈 Ads

The company has countless Meta ads up and running. Here are some examples of the ads the company is running:

🎯 SEO

When you search for keywords like “marketing news” on Google, Industry Dive’s Marketing Dive is the second result on the first page.

🗣 Organic/word-of-mouth

When you’ve been writing about a specific industry for years and delivering value to a specific set of industry people, the organic word-of-mouth starts to compound. I’d be willing to guess that a big part, if not the biggest part of their growth comes from word-of-mouth and organic searches.

Also…

♻️ It seems likely that there is a rollover effect in subscribers, once they are in the Industry Dive ‘ecosystem.’ There are certain publications that have an overlap in terms of target audience – such as “CFO” and “CFO Dive,” “Food Dive” and “Grocery Dive,” “Hotel Dive” and “Restaurant Dive,” or “Healthcare Dive” and “MedTech Dive.”

It seems likely that subscribers that come in through one publication, also subscribe to another.

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💰 HOW INDUSTRY DIVE MAKES MONEY (AND HOW MUCH)

Industry Dive is a B2B media company, and companies like these usually make their money through paywalled content. Industry Dive is different – all their content is free-of-charge.

So how do they make money?

➡️ According to CEO Sean Griffey:

• Around 50% of the company’s revenue comes from advertising campaigns in its newsletter. These are regular newsletter ads, or PR releases.

• Around 31% comes from its content studio, which helps brands create marketing campaigns.

• 10% of its revenue comes from content and software licensing.

• The remaining 9% comes from digital events, webinars, and community-based products.

While there is no specific public number that can help us estimate Industry Dive’s ad revenue accurately, there are some figures available.

💵 We know that campaigns with Industry Dive start at $279 at the very cheapest, and that its cheapest options for ‘universal cross-post’ starts at $6,453.

Given Industry Dive’s B2B nature, it seems likely its CPM is high. It could very well be somewhere in the $40 - $100+ range.

According to Axios, a generally well-informed source, Industry Dive’s revenue, at the point of its sale to Informa mid-2022, was roughly $110 million with a 30% profit margin.

This valued the company at a total enterprise value of $525 million, at the time.

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🤔 WHAT WOULD SEAN GRIFFEY DO IF HE STARTED OVER TODAY?

Sean went on the podcast Media Empires a few months ago, where the host asked him “What would you do differently if you were starting over today?”

Sean replied:

1. Invest in PR and marketing of the Industry Dive brand. A good brand is everything in media, and this would attract great talent and new clients. Sean thinks Axios nailed their branding right out of the gate with “smart brevity”.

2. Focus on collecting valuable first-party data. 

3. Sean thinks peer-groups are a great way to monetize B2B newsletters and points to World 50. If you already have a loyal following of people in a specific industry, and they could benefit from networking with each other, setting up a highly vetted online peer group can be a lucrative way to monetize while delivering massive value to your customers.

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Industry Dive is a perfect example of a well-executed newsletter business – great content, high-value niches, simple and steady growth, and a revenue model that works.

👍 That’s it for now!

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Get in touch:

Reach out to me on Twitter.

My agency: Growjoy.

My email: [email protected]

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