Building a $500k+ local newsletter business ft. Geoff Sharpe

This week on Creator Spotlight, Francis is joined by Geoff Sharpe, founder of Lookout Media — a network of local newsletters collectively generating almost $500K a year. Geoff shares how he built a profitable, subscription-first media business, why trust and real journalism still win, and the systems he’s using to scale local news across Canada. Read the newsletter __ Tired of explaining the same thing over and over again to your coworkers? It’s time to let AI do the explaining for you. The Guidde extension is completely free. Go check it out at Guidde.com __ Geoff Sharpe Lookout Media LinkedIn Twitter/X Francis Zierer LinkedIn Twitter/X __ Timestamps 00:00 Introducing Geoff Sharpe 01:40 Making $500k+ with paid subscriptions 07:16 Don't listen to your audience 12:00 The merging of editorial and business 16:20 Running a media company sustainably 21:01 Building trust through food 27:06 How to get people to pay for your content 37:43 What do people not pay for? 40:44 Don't scale too quickly 43:41 The difficulties of local newsletter ad sales 49:11 How to grow a local newsletter 52:40 A bullish and bearish take on local media 57:50 Best advice for entrepreneurs