FirstPass Memo

Answers

What is a due diligence checklist for buying a newsletter?

Short answer: Screen-share the sending platform for 12 months of clicks per issue, ask how every subscriber opted in, match sponsor invoices and Stripe payouts to the bank, measure repeat sponsors and paid-subscriber churn, cost the writing and selling hours, and confirm the list, domain and payment account can move to you. Subscriber count alone proves little.

Updated 16 October 2026 · Figures checked against their sources on 16 October 2026 · By Joan Murphy (pen name) · How we check · Corrections

Free: the 33 red flags buyers miss, emailed to you, each with the question to send the seller, plus the 72-hour vetting plan and deal tracker.

One email with your links (they also open on the next page). No newsletter.

What should you check before buying a newsletter?

A newsletter is an audience, a habit and a set of revenue relationships. The 12 checks below test whether readers still engage, whether they agreed to receive it, whether the money is real and repeatable, and whether all of it moves to you. Do the platform and payment checks by live screen share or read-only access; Stripe offers a View Only role for exactly this.

How do you check a newsletter's audience?

  1. Clicks and unique opens per issue for 12 months, from the sending platform. Opens are inflated by privacy features in some mail apps, so weight clicks more.
  2. Growth sources: organic sign-ups, referrals, paid acquisition, cross-promotions or imports, by month.
  3. Consent: how every subscriber opted in. A bought or imported list can damage deliverability and break anti-spam law.
  4. Deliverability: bounce and spam complaint rates, and the sending domain's authentication.

How do you check a newsletter's revenue?

  1. Sponsor invoices by month, matched to bank deposits.
  2. Sponsor concentration and repeat rate: the share from the largest sponsor and how many bought again. Flippa's newsletter guide says buyers discount above 40% from one sponsor.
  3. Paid subscriptions: MRR and monthly cancellations from Stripe or the platform, not a quoted churn figure.
  4. Who sells the ads: a booking page and rate card transfer; the founder's personal network may not.

What costs and transfer steps should you check?

  1. Writing and editing hours, and what a replacement writer would cost.
  2. Platform costs at the current list size.
  3. Export: the full list with consent records exports cleanly.
  4. Payments: how the Stripe account or paid subscriptions move, which may mean a new account (Stripe transfers).

What does a sponsor newsletter look like through the checker?

We ran a composite HR newsletter asking $58,000 on $2,300 a month of profit through the red-flag checker. Payback is 25.2 months, but its largest sponsor is 35% of revenue and no churn or repeat figure is given, so check 6 is the first one to do.

Composite example, not a real listing

Weekly B2B newsletter for HR managers, sponsorships
Asking price: $58,000
Average monthly revenue: $2,600
Average monthly profit: $2,300
Top customer: largest sponsor is 35% of revenue
Business age: 3 years
Owner hours: 8 hours per week

Traffic sources typed in: Email 85%, Social 15%.

What the red-flag checker returns: a payback of 25.2 months (2.1× annual profit) on average monthly profit, and these flags:

  1. High Top customer is 35% of revenue

    If that customer leaves after the sale, a large part of the profit leaves with it.

    Ask: Is that customer under contract, and have they been told about the sale?

    How this rule works

  2. Medium Email is about 85% of traffic

    One channel carries most of the traffic, so the business depends on it staying as it is.

    Ask: What is behind the email traffic, and how durable is it?

    How this rule works

  3. Medium No churn figure for a recurring-revenue business

    Churn decides how much of today's revenue will still be there in a year. Without it, the price is a guess.

    Ask: What were monthly customer churn and revenue churn for each of the last 12 months?

    How this rule works

  4. Medium No connected data source mentioned

    The figures appear to be typed in by the seller. Nothing in the text says revenue or traffic is connected from Stripe, PayPal, analytics or a marketplace check.

    Ask: Can you give read-only access to the payment processor and analytics, or exports that match the P&L?

    How this rule works

Frequently asked questions

What is the most important check when buying a newsletter?

Engagement over time, measured as clicks per issue for 12 months, together with sponsor concentration. A large list with falling clicks and one dominant sponsor is a fragile business.

Can a newsletter's subscribers legally be transferred to a buyer?

Usually, when the newsletter itself is sold and readers keep receiving the same publication, but rules vary by country. Check how readers opted in and take legal advice for lists with EU or UK subscribers.

How do I verify newsletter sponsor revenue?

Ask for every sponsor invoice for 12 months and match them to bank deposits. Then ask which sponsors bought more than once and whether any are booked ahead.

Sources

  1. Flippa blog, Newsletter valuation multiples: how to evaluate a newsletter's worth, read 15 October 2026
  2. Stripe Docs, User roles, read 7 October 2026
  3. Stripe Support, Transfer a Stripe account to a different entity due to a business sale or acquisition, read 7 October 2026
  4. FirstPass Memo, red-flag checker rules, our own rules, published as /rules.json

Related

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No newsletter: we send one email with your links, and at most one more when online checkout opens. Reply "stop" to hello@firstpassmemo.com to be removed. Looking at a live listing priced $10k–150k? Get a full memo: $79, pay after delivery instead; its confirmation page has the same downloads.

Composite examples are invented and labelled. Figures from other sites are quoted with a link and the date we read them; FirstPass figures are asking prices and seller-stated profit, not sale prices. Informational screening only, not investment, legal or tax advice.