How 1440 Scaled to & Monetized 4.5 Million Subscribers

The 1440 Newsletter has emerged as one of the fastest-growing independent news publications in the country, landing in 4.5 million inboxes every morning (per their daily email). 

The founders, Tim Huelskamp and Andrew Steigerwald, built it without big media backing or heavy VC money. Instead, they focused on one thing: trusted news in five minutes. Today, it’s one of the biggest and most profitable newsletters in the world.

What is the 1440 Newsletter?

Founded in 2017 by Tim Huelskamp and Andrew Steigerwald, 1440 aims to be a purely unbiased source of daily news stories. With most news sources catering to a political bias, 1440 makes an effort to include only “verified facts and impactful action.” 

Part of remaining impartial can also be seen by their commitment to operate with little outside pressure. For example, they don’t belong to a larger media brand. 

They’ve also made an effort to chase very little venture capital money (around $2.5 million mix of debt and equity), choosing to focus on driving revenue to fuel their own growth. In addition, they choose advertising partners that align with their brand rather than political agendas. Their website specifically notes: “We’re committed to delivering facts without motives every day. If our standards align with your brand, let’s connect.”

This stance is seen in their advertising as well, with Meta ads pushing their “without motives” mission:

How 1440 Started + Growth Timeline

Steigerwald used to spend 90 minutes each morning clicking around to various news sites to get a full picture of the biggest stories. Because of the inherent bias from most news sources, he often read stories twice—one version from each side of the political aisle.

He and Huelskamp bonded over this “fragmented” way of getting the news, and 1440 was born. The name comes from both the year the printing press was invented and the number of minutes in a day.

However, their launch didn’t seem like the blast-off point for a media giant, as their first newsletter send went out to just 78 friends and family. 

They experienced word-of-mouth growth in the early days, but their main goal was to dial in their product to perfectly suit their readers. Huelskamp has said that their news coverage is “an inch deep and a mile wide,” unlike today’s niche-fueled publications.

It worked, achieving around 65% open rates (an astonishing number for any newsletter, let alone a daily one). 

At that point, they were confident enough in their model to start using paid growth to accelerate, which is how they quickly grew to 500k subscribers. 

In 2024, they crossed 4 million subscribers, establishing their presence as one of the largest newsletters in the world. In 2025, they’ve reached 4.5 million.

How Does 1440 Make Money?

Of course, that growth only happens if there’s serious revenue driving increased advertising spend and hiring new employees. 

Their product? Selling ad placements via a few different media.

Newsletter Ad Placements

Each of their newsletters typically has a main sponsor found just below the email header:

Then, that same sponsor usually has a content block to themselves, located near the top:

That same brand will usually have another sponsored content section further down.

1440 then usually has a second sponsor who usually gets a single sponsored content section further down the content. 

Website Ad Placements

1440’s newsletter is their primary method of communication, but their website also has articles on a variety of topics. 

These articles have relevant ads placed mid-content. For example, their article on Bitcoin is sponsored by Fidelity:

YouTube Ads

While not as popular as their newsletter, 1440 has a YouTube channel with over 100k subscribers. These are high-quality videos, designed to educate visitors about topics without the spin.

These pages get traffic through organic search rankings, visitors to the 1440 website, and links from their newsletter.

How Much Money Does 1440 Make?

Tim Huelskamp has publicly stated that 1440 earns over $20 million per year. 

Here’s how that breaks down, according to Huelskamp on a recent interview:

• 1440 sends around 25 emails per month.
• The average subscriber opens 15.
• They earn $0.05 per open, which comes out to about $0.75 per subscriber per month.
• Acquire new leads for around $3.
• Payback period is around 4 months.
• Retention stays above 50%.
• Goal is a 3:1 LTV:CAC ratio (e.g., they spend $3 per lead and earn back $12 while that lead is subscribed).

CPM vs CPC Ad Model

1440 chooses to charge their sponsors on a CPM basis rather than CPC. This means they charge per ad view in their newsletter, rather than per click.

The main reason for that choice is that, generally speaking, CPM provides higher revenues than CPC (according to Huelskamp via email correspondence).

In addition, a CPM model is generally more consistent—especially if you're like 1440 and can predict almost exactly how many clicks you get on every email.

For example, let's say that they earn $100k per email. That comes out to $600k per week (they don’t send on Sundays). But the beauty is that they would earn almost exactly $600k every week!

If they were to adopt a CPC model (e.g., sponsors pay only for clicks), it would be much harder to predict revenue.

If they send out a few emails in a row where the ads perform poorly, perhaps they only earn $200k that week. The theory is that, in other weeks, they may earn $1 million, but the trade-off is consistency.

Knowing they have a consistent earnings figure, they can better plan how much they can spend to acquire new customers.

How is 1440 Scaling?

For a long while, 1440 focused on their primary newsletter offering as the driver for everything they do. Recently, they’ve begun expanding their media reach.

Topics Database

Perhaps their largest initiative since launching their original newsletter has been building out their “Topics.” Starting in October 2024, 1440 has been evolving from only news stories into a full “knowledge collective.”

When you visit this site, you can see it in full action. They have over 200 articles in the following categories:

• Business & Finance
• Science & Technology
• Health & Medicine
• World History
• Society & Culture

The result is an incredibly well-researched and user-friendly database of explainers on important topics.

They use a combination of their own research and writing, along with podcasts and videos from other journalists and media outlets. Essentially, they curate the best information (like their news stories) but on evergreen, general knowledge topics.

The result is a continually growing database that can generate SEO traffic, become a resource visitors return to often, and serve as a frequent link destination for their newsletters.

Also, these topics have led directly to the creation of more newsletters.

Niche Newsletters

Each of the main categories of topics from their general knowledge explainers on the site also has its own opt-in for newsletter content.

For example, here’s what that looks like on their Science & Technology page:

Rather than every day, these category newsletters are sent once per week. They start with a general knowledge topic, teaching with a combination of research from respected outlets and links to their own articles.

Farther down, they slip into a more familiar format: news curation related to the topic.

How 1440 Grows Their Niche Newsletters

The 1440 newsletter has a massive audience, and they effectively direct that traffic to both their website and opt-in forms to their other newsletters.

Often, their main newsletter has links to their niche newsletters. Here’s an example:

Surprisingly enough, 1440 isn’t all that interested in getting SEO traffic to their Topics pages (where their subscribe forms are). 

Huelskamp said this:

“We think over time, [Topics will] naturally go up in SEO, but we’re not relying on that because then you’re taking a back seat to the direct traffic. We’re leaning into [our] big audience.”

In other words, they know that enough people will visit their site directly (e.g., typing in “1440.com”) or click through from their daily newsletter. They don’t need to play the SEO game to have dramatic success in getting new subscribers.

YouTube Channel

As of the time of this writing, 1440’s YouTube channel has only 10 long-form videos, with seven published in the last four weeks. They also have 100+ short-form videos, which makes sense based on their business model and the more up-to-date nature of that format.

However, they have plenty of unlisted videos that you can only find on their website's Topics pages. 

Only recently have they begun to consider YouTube a possible source of traffic and a secondary audience. They’ve mainly used it to host videos for their site.

Podcast

Their podcast, 1440 Explores, launched in October 2025. It’s still new enough that it’s hard to know if it’s a successful venture for them, but it shows a commitment to delivering content through a different medium. 

Employees and Workflow

The owners of 1440 have said they have 22 people on staff, and they generate over $1 million in revenue per employee. 

However, for years, they operated with only a few employees, meaning that their daily editorial and sending process had to be lean and efficient.

Here’s an example of what that workflow could look like:

1. Efficient Curation - Writers scan 100+ trusted news sites. These sites are pre-vetted and added to an approved list, saving time by allowing the writers to only focus on these sources.
   
   
2. Fact Summary Writing - While the biggest stories of the day get longer write-ups, most curated stories require only 2-4 sentences. This quick-hit format allows for faster writing and quicker consumption by readers.
   
   
3. Section Structure - Below the main storylines, the sections are structured into the same template: Sports, Entertainment, & Culture →  Science & Technology → Business & Markets → Politics & World Affairs → In-Depth → Etcetera. Their workflow is significantly shortened by removing the need for daily structure planning.
   
   
4. Editing & Top-Line Check - Getting facts, grammar, and tone correct is the most important step, as this is where the brand and content quality are protected.
   
   
5. Scheduling & Send - The final version is loaded into their ESP (Mailchimp in the early days before migrating to PostUp) and scheduled to hit inboxes at the same time every day. Having a set schedule makes their workflow more predictable and improves opens as subscribers come to expect the newsletter at a certain time.

Efficient Workflow for Multiple Newsletters

Brands, like 1440, that manage multiple newsletters often find it challenging to expand workflows to keep up with increased output. Rather than driving revenue, many brands experience inefficiencies that sap resources and diminish quality.

While 1440 doesn’t use Letterhead, we’ve become the premier tool for growing multiple newsletters with less work. With better content workflows, increased dashboard visibility, and smarter monetization, we’ve helped brands grow hundreds of newsletters at the same time.

If that resonates with you, go ahead and schedule a time to chat about growing your media brand.