Audience Bridge [Insights]
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Audience Bridge Insights is a podcast for newsletter operators, marketers, and media founders who want to scale smarter. Each episode dives into real-world strategies, tools, and conversations with industry experts on email deliverability, list growth, monetization, and the evolving tech behind the inbox.
AI Is the Biggest Change to Email Since the iPhone w/ Dan Oshinsky
Email has only had two truly big moments: the AOL CD in 1998, and the rise of mobile. Dan Oshinsky says the third one is happening right now — and nobody, not even the Gmail team, knows what the inbox looks like on the other side.
Dan ran newsletters at BuzzFeed and The New Yorker before founding Inbox Collective, where he helps newsrooms, nonprofits, and independent newsletters get more readers and make money. I caught his AI talk at the Newsletter Conference in May — it was the conversation everyone kept having in the hallways afterward. So I brought him on t...
The List-Size Lie: What Advertisers Really Pay For in Newsletters
Most newsletter operators are pricing their inventory wrong — and most advertisers are buying it wrong.
In this episode, Jeff Eisenberg, co-founder of Media Intercept, breaks down how newsletter monetization actually works: why list size and open rate are vanity metrics, the real trade-offs between CPM, CPC, and CPA, and why treating newsletters as a pure bottom-of-funnel performance channel sets everyone up to be disappointed.
Jeff and Chris met at a newsletter conference where — surprisingly — almost nobody was talking about monetization. So they fixed that here.
From bot and VPN traffic to dedicated-send fatigue, AI ad...
Why MarketBeat Just Cut Their Email List in Half (On Purpose) w/ Matt Paulson
Matt Paulson, founder & CEO of MarketBeat, is just deleted 3 million "active" subscribers from his list — and he's doing it on purpose.
In this episode of Audience Bridge Insights, recorded at MarketBeat's brand new Sioux Falls studio, I sit down with Matt for round two (he was my very first guest on this show) to unpack what's actually happening inside one of financial publishing's biggest email operations in 2026.
We get into the engagement-only future of email, the 5-minute pixel rule that reclassified half their "opens" as automated, why MarketBeat now runs four parallel Beehiiv lists, the "Ma...
Co-Reg Isn’t Dead — You’re Just Doing It Wrong (w/ Tim Bourquin)
Co-reg has a bad reputation in the newsletter world—but most people are doing it wrong.
In this episode of Audience Bridge Insights, Chris Miquel sits down with Tim Bourquin (Co-Founder of AfterOffers) to break down what actually works in co-registration today, how to scale list growth without destroying deliverability, and why activation—not CPL—is the metric that matters most.
What You’ll Learn:
— What Is After Offers & How Co-Reg Works
— SMS Co-Reg: TCPA, Compliance & Double Opt-In
— Tim's Origin Story: From LA...
Your List Size Is Lying to You — with Armando Roggio (Quartz)
What if the thing quietly killing your email program had nothing to do with your content, your subject lines, or your list size?
In this episode, Chris sat down with Armando Roggio, VP of Audience Development at Quartz, to dig into the deliverability blind spot most media operators never see coming — until it's too late.
Armando shares what surprised him most when they started fixing Quartz's email infrastructure, how activation rates jumped from 10% to 40%, and why the industry's obsession with list size and CPMs is pointing publishers in exactly the wrong direction.
They...
How He 10x'd Revenue by Increasing Cost Per Lead (with Nathan May)
Most newsletter publishers obsess over cost per lead. Nathan May, founder of The Feed Media (the largest agency for newsletter growth), explains why that's the wrong metric—and how one of his clients 10x'd revenue by increasing their CPL by 30%.
In this episode of Audience Bridge Insights, Nathan breaks down:
Key st...
The Local Newsletter Founder Who Proved Everyone Wrong About "Small Markets"
Most publishers would look at the Catskills region of New York and say "too small to build a real business." Michael Kauffman proved them wrong.
In this episode of Audience Bridge Insights, I sit down with Michael Kauffman, founder of Catskill Crew, a local newsletter that's rewriting the playbook on community publishing.
Here's what makes his approach different:
42,000 subscribers in a "small" market~$0.30 average subscriber acquisition costSends once per week (not daily)Monetizes without becoming an ad billboardBuilt a real business that could be bought and soldBut the numbers aren't t...
Ryan Deiss on Why Email Still Wins
In this episode of Audience Bridge Insights, Chris Miquel sits down with Ryan Deiss, founder of DigitalMarketer and Traffic & Conversion Summit, to break down why email remains the most valuable channel in digital marketing — even as social platforms, SEO, and paid ads continue to change.
Ryan shares hard-earned lessons from two decades in digital marketing, including what happens when algorithms change overnight, why owning your audience matters more than ever, and how modern email strategy has evolved beyond long automations and generic broadcasts.
This conversation goes deep into em...
Holiday Deliverability Survival Guide: Expert Insights from Matt Vernhout
In this episode of Audience Bridge Insights, Chris Miquel sits down with one of the most respected deliverability experts in the world — Matt Vernhout, Principal Consultant at Email Industries, founder of EmailKarma, co-chair of the BIMI Working Group, and a 20-year veteran in email policy, authentication, and sender reputation.
We dive deep into what’s really happening inside Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft right now, how authentication is changing, and the new rules every sender needs to follow heading into Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the 2025 holiday season.
The 8 Hidden Infrastructure Issues Tanking Your Deliverability Right Now - with LB
In this episode, Chris Miquel sits down with LoriBeth “LB” Blair, a full-stack email solutions architect and one of the most respected deliverability experts in the industry.
LB has helped top newsletter operators, e-commerce brands, and major ESPs fix the toughest inboxing and deliverability challenges — saving clients millions in the process.
Together, we break down the real reasons your emails aren’t inboxing and what you can do today to fix them.
🔥 Topics Covered:
How Tyler Morin Built The Water Coolest — and Why Authentic Voice Still Wins in 2025
In this episode of Audience Bridge Insights, Chris Miquel sits down with Tyler Morin, founder of The Water Coolest and Leverage Letter, to unpack how he built, scaled, and reclaimed one of the most successful business newsletters in the game.
Tyler shares the behind-the-scenes story of selling The Water Coolest to Barstool Sports, buying it back, and building a new media model centered around authenticity, voice, and sustainable growth.
We dive into:
✅ The secret to creating a newsletter people actually look forward to
✅ How Barstool taught Tyler to scal...
The One Fix That Saves Your Inbox (and Revenue) — with Bryan Jenkins
In this episode of Audience Bridge Insights, I sit down with Bryan Jenkins, Director of Sales at Email Oversight, to dig into the unsexy but critical side of email: data quality and validation.
We cover why one bad email address can ruin a lot of good, how to validate at acquisition, when to re-clean your list, and what to do about bounces and complaints before they destroy your sender reputation.
If you send email at scale, this conversation is a must-watch.
What you’ll learn in this episode:...
Monetizing the Inbox: Jesse Watkins on Newsletter Sponsorships & Growth
In this episode of Audience Bridge Insights, I sat down with Jesse Watkins, founder of Who Sponsors Stuff and co-creator of The Newsletter Conference, to unpack the real mechanics of newsletter monetization.
We cover:
✅ Why sponsorships aren’t plug-and-play revenue
✅ The importance of aligning sponsors with your brand’s voice
✅ Why flat-fee pricing often beats CPM models
✅ Direct sales vs. ad networks — and which wins long term
✅ How to scale once your ad inventory is full
Whether you’re just starting to monetize your newsletter or you’re looking to optimi...
Email Deliverability Secrets with Kyle Renfrow (CEO of OptiPub)
Hitting the inbox is harder than ever. In this episode of the Audience Bridge Podcast, I sit down with Kyle Renfrow, CEO & CTO of ESP OptiPub, to talk about what really moves the needle for email deliverability in 2025.
We cover:
✅ How Yahoo & Gmail’s latest changes are impacting inbox placement
✅ Dedicated vs Shared IPs – and the hybrid model most marketers overlook
✅ The deliverability data your ESP isn’t showing you (and why it matters)
✅ Scaling to high volumes without destroying your sender reputation
✅ Actionable steps to protect and improve your domain repu...
Crushing Local Email at Scale – How 6AM City Sends Millions of Emails Daily (ft. Ryan Heafy)
How do you deliver 25+ local newsletters a day, scale to millions of subscribers, and maintain rock-solid inboxing while doing it?
In this episode, I sit down with Ryan Heafy, Co-founder and COO of 6AM City, to unpack the systems, strategy, and culture behind one of the largest local newsletter networks in the country.
We cover:
✅ How 6AM City manages high-volume daily sending without tanking deliverability
✅ Their editorial + data engine that drives local engagement
✅ What happens when you acquire a network of AI-powered newsletters (like Good Daily)
✅ Real-time email performa...
How Matt Paulson Built an 8-Figure Media Empire with Email
What does it take to grow from a personal finance blog to 5.4 million+ email subscribers and a business generating 8 figures in revenue?
In this premiere episode of Audience Bridge, we sit down with Matt Paulson, the founder of MarketBeat, who reveals how he scaled a newsletter-powered empire without relying on big tech, SEO gimmicks, or cookie-cutter tools.
🔥 What you’ll learn in this episode:
How MarketBeat got its first 500,000 subscribers organically
Why email is STILL their #1 revenue driver (even in 2025)
The exact infrastructure Matt uses to send millions of email...
How Tyler O’Shea Fixed His Deliverability and 2X’d His Open Rates
In this episode, I sit down with Tyler O’Shea, founder of The Underdog Newsletter, to break down how he turned around his declining open rates, overcame inbox placement issues, and built a smarter, more profitable email strategy using the Base Sending Segment method.
Whether you're a newsletter operator, email marketer, or media buyer—this conversation is packed with insights you can apply immediately.
🧠 What We Cover:
- The problem that nearly wrecked Tyler’s deliverability
- How Beehiiv flagged his list—and how he fixed it
- Why sending to your full l...
