The Business of Newsletters with Kendall Baker, “The Sports Newsletter Guy”

Kendall Baker currently leads Yahoo’s sports newsletter business. In 2017 he launched the first daily sports newsletter called Sports Internet, which he sold to Axios in 2019. Before Sports Internet, he convinced the founders of The Hustle to focus their online tech blog on a daily newsletter, which he wrote for a year and a half. And before The Hustle, he produced SportsCenter at ESPN. He’s spent nearly a decade at the intersection of daily news and sports, and this episode is packed with insights on both.
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Read the transcript here: www.thespl.it/p/the-business-...
In this episode, we discuss:
- The history of the newsletter industry
- Why the best writers delete more than they write
- How he got on ESPN SportsCenter
- A crash course on the sports media business
- How to write a daily newsletter
- The importance of experimenting
- How he got his first dollar of revenue
- Why Kendall spent $0 on growth
- Selling his “Sports Internet” newsletter to Axios
- Why Adam Silver, commissioner of the NBA, reads Kendall’s writing
- Why Yahoo’s the next rocketship
- The surging momentum in US soccer
- And the most underrated athletes (current and all-time)
Listen on:
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/0Amv...
Where to find Kendall:
Twitter: / kendallbaker
Where to find Turner:
Newsletter: www.thespl.it
Twitter: / turnernovak
Read the transcript here: www.thespl.it/p/the-business-...
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[@jorammwinamo]

What made this pod great for me is how much granular detail you went into about the newsletter industry and his experience. It was long but I stuck to the end because of how interesting it was.

[@ThePeelPod]

Thanks for listening!
And that’s great feedback. I’ve re-listened to it a few times, a few areas I could have pressed a little more, but it was great to hear Kendall go so deep and share so much.

[@sourabhsingh3617]

This helped, wonderful how this interview was so comprehensive!

[@ThePeelPod]

Glad it was helpful. Thanks for listening! 🙏

[@theMannyfresh1]

This was a great interview. I used to read Kendall's work when he was at The Hustle and Sports Internet.

[@ThePeelPod]

Same! He’s such a great writer

[@mattmcgarry9207]

Great pod! One of the best I've listened to on newsletters

[@ThePeelPod]

Thank you sir - high praise! 🙌

[@richvela706]

awesome information and transparent

[@alwayzsmarter]

this was my fav podcast i've listened to in a while. and i love mcdangles so even that aside was great

[@ThePeelPod]

Thank you! And he’s so underrated (as Kendall pointed out haha)

[@ChristianMillionaire]

Been there! lol
I used to work in television and run cameras. I think I tried the manual teleprompter also and ran...lol
Great interview Gentlemen!
- james

[@ThePeelPod]

Thank you! I’d imagine it’s one of the highest stress jobs in the world 😅

[@matts9728]

@21:03 We've kind of struggled with this as well. We'll typically maintain an open rate between 40-45%, but click-through rate often sits close to 1%. I provide all of the highly critical information inside of the newsletter, so our audience will only click through if they're looking for more info on something.

[@ThePeelPod]

Interesting problem to have!