Emailed on October 30th, 2020 in The Friday Forward

Yesterday, Insider Inc., parent of Business Insider, said it’s buying a controlling stake in digital media startup Morning Brew at a reported valuation of up to $75 million.

In a world where every media company is making some kind of pivot to video, podcasting, subscriptions, etc - Morning Brew stayed the course with a great product and it's paid off.

According to the Brew:

Why the Brew was attractive: Morning Brew expects to bring in $20+ million in revenue this year, has been consistently profitable, and has incredibly good-looking newsletter writers.

• Its products include a daily email with ~2.5 million readers, three industry-specific newsletters read by 500,000 subscribers, a new lifestyle newsletter, and a podcast, Business Casual, that’s notched 6 million downloads.

Why Insider was an attractive buyer: Morning Brew cofounders Alex Lieberman and Austin Rief said they were drawn to Insider’s “history of welcoming entrepreneurs with open arms and empowering them to build their businesses independently.”

• To that point, Insider’s not messing with the Brew’s popular brand and will keep it as an independent entity.

Zoom out: While the broader digital news media is struggling in a landscape dominated by tech behemoths, Morning Brew found success by building strong relationships in one of the most underappreciated places: the email inbox.