How to find sponsors for a newsletter

Start with the brands that bought newsletters like yours in the last few months. This guide builds that list using free pages on this site, and you can start it today.

1. Run your report

Go to the sponsor report and enter your newsletter's address. It's free. If we already track your newsletter, the report opens right away. If we don't, leave your email and we'll send it the next morning, once your archive has been read.

To see a full report first, open the TLDR AI sample. Every section below appears there with nothing held back.

2. See where you stand

Where you stand sets your numbers against the median for your topic. It shows how many newsletters on your topic you match or beat. Use it to decide how you describe yourself in a pitch, and which numbers to leave out.

This section needs a topic. If your newsletter is new to us, it may take a day to get one.

3. Work through Brands to pitch

This is the main list: brands that bought newsletters like yours in the last few months and have never bought yours. The likeliest come first, and the first five are free.

Each row shows how many similar newsletters the brand bought, which ones, and when its ad last ran. In the TLDR AI sample, HubSpot and Attio are on the list, with newsletters such as Superhuman AI and The Signal beside them. Look out for these labels:

• Renewed means the brand ran in the same newsletter in three or more separate weeks.
• New to newsletters marks a brand whose first newsletter ad we found in the last 60 days.
• Buys through names the ad network its placements were traced to, when we can tell.

Copy the five names into a spreadsheet with the newsletters beside each one. You'll want those when you write.

4. Check Former sponsors

Former sponsors buying elsewhere shows brands that once ran with you and are now in other newsletters, and when they last ran with you. They've bought from you before, so write to them first.

5. Widen the list by lane

Five names is a start. To add more, open Lanes and pick yours. AI newsletters shows who bought in that lane over the last 12 months: by company type, then the top companies, then the top outlets. The company types tell you which industries to chase.

Then try these, all free:

• Topic pages, such as AI, list first-time sponsors, the largest buyers and the most repeat sponsors on that topic.
• This week lists sponsors first seen in the current week, by newsletter.
• Top sponsors ranks brands by how many newsletters they ran in each month.
• Monthly reports show what each company type bought, and which companies appeared for the first time.

6. Study a newsletter you'd like to be

Open the page of a newsletter a bit ahead of yours, such as TLDR AI. The sponsor calendar shows who ran in which weeks. Where these sponsors also buy shows the other newsletters, podcasts and events its sponsors use.

A week marked “nothing read” means we don't know, not that it had no ads.

7. Add rivals

When a brand on your list has competitors, you can often add them too. Compare groups rival companies by area. CRM puts HubSpot next to Attio, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zoho and Clay, with where each ran by lane and quarter. HubSpot vs Attio shows the outlets both have used and the ones only one has.

8. Set a price and write

Your report shows what other newsletters on your topic or near your size charge, as each publisher states it. Newsletters to advertise in ranks each topic's newsletters by repeat sponsors, with links to their rates. Use these to check your own price.

We don't sell contact details. Find the person who buys newsletter ads at each brand, usually in growth, demand generation or partnerships.

In your note, name two or three newsletters the brand already bought. State your audience in numbers you can back up. Keep it short. If you want the rest of the brand list as a CSV, that's what Ad Seller is for. The steps above don't need it.