It’s hump day, my friends,
Sorry for the delay on today’s newsletter. I was waiting on a couple of components for the podcast.
So let’s get right to it.
If you’ve ever thought running one newsletter was tough… try running 500.
I just sat down with Ryan Heafy, the Co-founder and COO of 6AM City, to talk about how they scaled one of the largest local newsletter networks in the country—without burning their sender reputation to the ground.
This one's a masterclass in operational scale, inbox protection, and the tech behind keeping 500+ local editions healthy, profitable, and growing.
Smart Delivery
Smart Delivery boosts inbox placement by solving list decay, reputation, and engagement drop-off.
💡 Highlights from Our Conversation:
✅ Local at Scale
6AM City started in Greenville, SC and now runs 31 staffed markets with hundreds more on auto-pilot. Every city has its own sending domain. It’s not just smart—it’s protective.
✅ Deliverability Landmines
From oops sends to the wrong city… to accidentally blasting unengaged subs… Ryan gets candid about the mistakes they made—and what they learned about list health and engagement thresholds.
✅ ESP Consolidation? Maybe.
They’ve run on Sailthru, SendGrid, and even Klaviyo (yep). Now they’re deciding whether to consolidate… or go custom with full control of their sending infrastructure.
✅ Their Sending Formula
Dedicated domains per city. Dedicated ESPs for cold sales. A core team of experts watching metrics like hawks. And never mixing marketing traffic with core newsletter sends.
✅ Audience Growth at Machine Speed
Post-acquisition of Good Daily, they’re planting seed files in hundreds of small cities, with the ability to add 100k–300k new subscribers per month. At that scale, list health is everything.
✅ List Health > List Size
They churn disengaged users aggressively, hitting 60–70% open rates in core markets. Advertisers notice—and renew.
✅ Self-Serve Ads Built on Shopify
Local brands can buy placements directly, submit creative, and get AI-assisted headlines. Fully automated. No friction. No sales team needed.
🎧 Listen to the full episode for practical insight on how to scale newsletter revenue and infrastructure without wrecking your inbox placement 👇
✅ Final Thought
Let me know what you think of the episode, and hit reply if you're struggling with any of the same challenges.
Chris Miquel
PS: Ryan dropped a great reminder: If your list makes you $1M/year and you blow your inbox placement, you've got a million-dollar problem. Deliverability is the business.
BEFORE YOU GO
Better Inbox Placement Starts Here
If your emails aren’t landing in the inbox, they’re not doing their job. I’ve seen too many brands struggle with deliverability issues without knowing why.
The truth is, a few key optimizations can make all the difference in getting your emails seen, opened, and clicked.
