The 4 Newsletter Cadences Publishers Need to Know
Most publishers aren't emailing enough. Four newsletter cadences from weekly to multiple daily, plus how to automate higher frequency through WordPress without adding to your workload.
Episode Summary
- 99% of publishers are not sending newsletters frequently enough, costing them traffic, conversions, and retention
- Four cadence levels based on publisher type: weekly minimum, 2-3x per week, daily, and multiple times per day
- The 20-minute inbox rule: readers have a maximum 20 minutes of attention per email, so break large newsletters into more frequent sends
- Automation through WordPress category-based newsletters eliminates the extra workload of higher frequency
- Start with a free registration wall to build your list before optimizing cadence
The Playbook
One of the most common questions publishers ask is some version of: How often should I send my newsletter? Pete and Tyler break down the four newsletter cadences every publisher needs to understand, why almost every publisher is under-sending, and how to automate higher frequency without burning out your team.
The answer, bluntly, is that you should be sending more. Across hundreds of publishers that Paywall Project and Leaky Paywall have worked with, 99% are not emailing frequently enough. Many aren’t sending a newsletter at all.
That matters because every newsletter you don’t send is a missed opportunity to keep your brand in front of readers, drive traffic back to your website, and trigger the upgrade messaging that converts free readers into paid subscribers. The data is clear: more email frequency leads to more conversions, better retention, and stronger subscriber relationships.
Before You Pick a Cadence: Two Prerequisites
First, if you don’t have a free registration wall installed, stop here and go set one up. A registration wall captures email addresses by requiring readers to register for free access. It’s far more effective than a sidebar newsletter widget. Registration walls convert at 15-20%, compared to roughly 3% for traditional popups. That’s the foundation everything else builds on.
Second, watch out for the opposite problem: packing too many articles into a single email. There’s a 20-minute rule at play. That’s the maximum attention span readers have in their inbox. If you’re sending 20 article titles and excerpts in one newsletter, readers will scan, maybe read one article, and run out of time. The fix is simple: break that volume into more frequent, smaller sends instead.
Cadence 1: The Weekly Minimum
If you’re a niche publisher, a solopreneur, or someone who just hasn’t prioritized newsletters yet, one email per week is the absolute floor. Anything less than weekly, whether that’s twice a month or once a month, is too low to maintain brand presence with your audience.
For publishers who produce long-form content and struggle with volume, the solution is your archive. Most long-form content is evergreen, and most of your readers haven’t seen all of it. Small Boats Monthly sends a newsletter every week or two featuring two related articles pulled from their archives. It keeps the brand in front of readers and feels like fresh content to most of the audience.
Sending just one article per newsletter is perfectly fine. Small-town local news publishers do this whenever they have a story, and it works because they’re often the only source of community news. Send an image, write a longer excerpt, and if there’s extra space, find a sponsor to fill it.
Cadence 2: Two to Three Times Per Week
This is the sweet spot for enthusiast sites, hobby publications, magazines, and niche news publishers with a steady content flow. Think sports coverage, politics (Monday/Wednesday/Friday), food and culture publications, or city magazines.
If you’re currently at one email per week or two per month and you have the content to support it, stepping up to two or three times per week will noticeably increase traffic to your site and trigger more upgrade messaging for paid subscriptions. The formula is straightforward: more emails equals more site visits equals more conversions.
Pull from your archives to supplement if needed. Pair an older evergreen piece with a newer article, and you’ve got a send that adds value without requiring extra content production.
Cadence 3: Daily
If you’re a news publisher, whether local, regional, or national, daily is your minimum. News happens fast, and your readers expect it in their inbox.
Tyler’s experience with Paywall Project publishers confirms what the data shows: daily senders see significantly better performance in traffic, conversions, and retention compared to publishers sending once or twice per month. Retention is an underrated benefit here. When paid subscribers see your newsletter in their inbox every day, they’re reminded they’re getting their money’s worth. That feeling of value keeps them from cancelling.
Daily newsletters also shift your traffic strategy. Instead of relying on social media algorithms and SEO rankings, you’re driving your own audience directly to your site. Every free registered reader and every paid subscriber landing on your site sees upgrade messaging. The research suggests readers need to see that messaging around 13 to 14 times before they convert. Daily emails accelerate that cycle dramatically.
Cadence 4: Multiple Times Per Day
This might sound aggressive, but for certain publisher types, it’s exactly what readers want. High-volume news operations, breaking news publishers, sports publishers, and financial publishers all fall into this category.
Consider sports fans. If you’re tracking a team, you want every update the moment it happens. A Pittsburgh sports publisher that Paywall Project worked with was sending 11 to 12 push notifications per day about local sports teams, and his readers wanted more. Sports and finance audiences have an appetite for real-time information that justifies high-frequency sends.
The key to making multiple daily sends work is opt-ins. Give readers the ability to choose what categories of content they want. Mexico News Daily, for example, lets subscribers select specific regions of Mexico they’re interested in during checkout. When new content is posted to those categories, newsletters fire automatically. Readers get exactly what they asked for, and the publisher does zero extra work beyond posting and categorizing content.
Automate Everything
The objection most publishers raise is workload. Sending more frequently sounds like more work. But if you’re on WordPress, it doesn’t have to be.
Category-based automation handles the heavy lifting. Tools like Flowletter and Newsletter Glue (recently acquired by Paywall Project) let you set up automated newsletters triggered by new content in specific WordPress categories. Post your content, tag it with the right category, and the system sends it to the right audience segment automatically.
If you’re using MailChimp, RSS-to-email automation can accomplish something similar. It’s a more basic approach, but it works. The important thing is getting content into inboxes and driving traffic back to your site. Better tools with more design control and tighter WordPress integration exist, but don’t let the lack of a perfect tool stop you from automating what you can right now.
One Warning: Sponsored Emails
There’s one clear line where over-sending becomes a problem, and that’s sponsored emails. Sending promotional content that is purely promotional will damage your domain reputation with email service providers and drive unsubscribes faster than anything else.
The right approach to sponsored content is earning the trust first, then making sure any sponsored email adds genuine value to your readers and aligns with your brand. The Fisherman sends sponsored emails about fishing gear and boats, but their enthusiasm is authentic because they actually use and love the products they promote. That authenticity is the difference between a valuable recommendation and spam.
Key Takeaways
- The 20-minute inbox rule limits how much readers absorb per email. If you’re sending 15-20 articles in a single newsletter, break them into smaller, more frequent sends. Readers will engage with more of your content when it arrives in digestible portions.
- Archive content is an underused asset for increasing send frequency. Most readers haven’t seen your older articles. Resurface evergreen pieces to maintain higher cadence without producing new content. Archive articles often get higher engagement because readers assume resurfaced content must be important.
- Opt-in categories give you permission to send more. When readers choose what topics they want (by region, sport, content type), they’re explicitly telling you to email them more. Category-based opt-ins at checkout or on account pages reduce churn because readers control what they receive.
- Daily newsletters are a retention tool, not just an acquisition tool. Paid subscribers who see your brand in their inbox every day are reminded they’re getting value. That consistent presence reduces cancellations and increases lifetime value.
Try This Week
Look at your current newsletter frequency and move up one level. If you’re sending monthly, get to weekly. If you’re weekly, aim for two to three times. Pull from your archives to fill the gap. Pick two or three evergreen articles, pair them with a brief editor’s note, and schedule them for this week. Track the traffic increase to your site and the number of upgrade message impressions that result.
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