Explore every episode of the podcast Audience Bridge [Insights]
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Title
Pub. Date
Duration
The AI Standing Between You and Your Subscribers — with Chad S. White
30 Jul 2026
01:03:27
Your email can pass every authentication check, land in the inbox, and still never get seen the way you wrote it.
Chad S. White has written nearly 4,000 articles on email marketing. He's the author of Email Marketing Rules and GVP of CRM Strategy at Zeta Global. And he says we've entered a new age of deliverability — one where inbox providers rewrite your subject lines, summarize your content, and rank your emails before a single subscriber opens them.
For publishers who mail daily and monetize the send itself, that's not a feature update. That's existential.
We dig into where the standard deliverability playbook still holds for high-frequency senders — and where it breaks completely.
In this episode:
▪Why the 2024–2026 wave is the biggest structural shift email has ever had
What Apple Intelligence and Gemini are actually rewriting — and the "game of telephone" between you and your subscriber
The new reputation loop: getting penalized for engagement outcomes the AI shaped, not you
How to write subject lines and structure emails so the AI summarizes you accurately
Whether opens are finally dead as a metric — and what France's regulators just decided about open tracking
The Gmail Newsletters tab rumor, the Promotions tab evidence, and why "more opens = more clicks" is magical thinking
Where standard frequency guidance actively hurts daily senders
Why your most marginal subscribers can't be allowed to price your best subscribers out of the inbox
Sponsored sends in an AI-summarized inbox: why image-only ads are now invisible
Five years out: when your audience is half humans, half machines reading on their behalf
AI Is the Biggest Change to Email Since the iPhone w/ Dan Oshinsky
15 Jul 2026
01:10:27
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 the show.
We get into who you should actually be writing for (people, robots, or deliverability), why depth is the new moat, where AI genuinely earns its keep in a newsletter operation, and the one fear keeping publishers up at night: email's stability — the entire foundation of this industry — is being challenged for the first time.
The 8 Hidden Infrastructure Issues Tanking Your Deliverability Right Now - with LB
11 Nov 2025
00:55:31
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:
Why your content is getting filtered (and it’s not “spam words”)
Image compression, code bloat & secure links
DMARC, SPF, DKIM, and BIMI explained in plain English
How hackers use “list bombing” & how to protect your forms
Dedicated vs Shared IPs — which one’s right for you
When your deliverability crashes overnight (what to check first)
Google’s One-Click Unsubscribe enforcement
How LB saves brands millions on email infrastructure
What to audit before selling your media or newsletter business
Where to find LB & final thoughts
💡 Key Takeaways:
Bloated HTML and uncompressed images are killing your inbox placement.
DMARC is no longer optional. Start at p=none, collect data, then move to reject.
Shared IPs are fine for low senders, but serious senders need dedicated infrastructure.
Google now enforces one-click unsubscribes. Non-compliance = lower reputation.
Your deliverability = your revenue. Stop guessing, start measuring.
How Tyler Morin Built The Water Coolest — and Why Authentic Voice Still Wins in 2025
08 Oct 2025
00:55:50
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 scale with personality ✅ Paid vs. organic growth — what’s working in 2025 ✅ The power of voice, tone, and consistency in email ✅ How AI is changing content creation (and how to use it without losing your identity) ✅ Why engagement is the new deliverability metric ✅ What the next wave of newsletter media looks like
If you’re building, running, or scaling a newsletter — this is a must-watch episode.
The One Fix That Saves Your Inbox (and Revenue) — with Bryan Jenkins
09 Sep 2025
00:42:07
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:
✅ Why validating emails at acquisition is the cheapest way to protect your list ✅ How list decay works — and why re-cleaning isn’t optional ✅ The role complainers and bounces play in inbox placement ✅ Why trimming your list isn’t losing muscle, it’s cutting fat ✅ Pro tips for managing Yahoo/Gmail bounce codes the smart way
Listen now and learn how to keep your list clean, protect your reputation, and boost inbox placement.
Monetizing the Inbox: Jesse Watkins on Newsletter Sponsorships & Growth
26 Aug 2025
00:47:25
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 optimize and scale sponsorship revenue, this conversation is packed with actionable insights.
Email Deliverability Secrets with Kyle Renfrow (CEO of OptiPub)
12 Aug 2025
00:56:37
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 reputation
If you’re sending newsletters, campaigns, or high-volume email, this conversation is packed with strategies you can implement immediately.
Crushing Local Email at Scale – How 6AM City Sends Millions of Emails Daily (ft. Ryan Heafy)
31 Jul 2025
00:56:53
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 performance insights and how they optimize across cities ✅ The importance of internal alignment between ops, tech, and editorial
Whether you’re sending 1 newsletter or 100, this episode is packed with insights on scaling email the right way.
📩 Want more episodes like this?
Subscribe to the Audience Bridge Insights newsletter for weekly deliverability strategy, list growth tactics, and expert interviews:
How Tyler O’Shea Fixed His Deliverability and 2X’d His Open Rates
31 Jul 2025
00:27:55
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 list is a mistake (and what to do instead) - How to build your Base Sending Segment - Inbox recovery, smarter segmentation, and growth without risk
🎧 Listen, learn, and apply the exact tactics Tyler used to hit 55% open rates and scale without spammy tricks or cold blasts.
🔗 Subscribe for more episodes on email growth, deliverability, and newsletter strategy.
How Matt Paulson Built an 8-Figure Media Empire with Email
31 Jul 2025
00:40:31
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 emails daily
How they spend $1M/month on ads — and track ROI down to the source
Deliverability war stories: Yahoo blocks, Microsoft filters, and how to beat them
Why SMS (just 5% of their list) drives 40% of revenue
The ruthless list hygiene strategy that keeps their inbox rates sky-high
📬 Whether you're a media operator, newsletter founder, or marketer looking to build your own audience engine — this is the blueprint.
👉 Subscribe to the Audience Bridge podcast for more interviews with the minds behind the internet’s biggest and smartest audience machines.
The List-Size Lie: What Advertisers Really Pay For in Newsletters
02 Jun 2026
01:03:54
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 copy, and the case for industry-wide metric standardization, this is a working operator's guide to making your audience monetizable, not just big.
⏱️ CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro & meeting at the newsletter conference
01:33 Jeff's path: law → radio → video → newsletters
07:05 The models explained: CPM, CPC & CPA
08:16 The list-size lie & fake open rates
12:30 Why newsletters aren't bottom-of-funnel
21:03 Native vs. dedicated (pricing, churn, deliverability)
24:50 AI ad copy & the rise of newsletter slop
26:16 Bots, VPNs & validating traffic
37:28 Pricing your spot & ad frequency
43:00 Beehiiv, Kit, Substack & the standardization problem
51:28 Rapid fire: overrated, underrated & ready for sponsors
Why MarketBeat Just Cut Their Email List in Half (On Purpose) w/ Matt Paulson
28 Apr 2026
00:41:03
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 "Make Money Button" automation that Matt McGarry credits to Matt, ASN-level bot filtering, and the one metric Matt thinks every newsletter publisher should be obsessing over right now.
If you publish a newsletter — especially in finance, health, or any vertical ISPs treat as "high risk" — this one is required listening.
⏱️ CHAPTERS
00:00 Cold open
00:54 Welcome to the new MarketBeat studio
01:28 The Yahoo collapse, one year later
02:50 Apple is the new deliverability headache
04:42 The 5-minute pixel rule that reset every metric
05:50 Why MarketBeat is cutting their list from 6M to 3M
07:03 The Beehiiv diversification play
08:48 Inside the "Make Money Button"
10:59 AI's impact on email and the inbox
13:47 Inside the newsroom: Claude Code, Multi, and Victor
18:53 SMS at MarketBeat: 200K active, $9 RPU
23:15 YouTube and the new MarketBeat studio
29:27 The cohort data game
31:20 The bot war: ASN filtering and Cloudflare
34:10 Why Spark Loop didn't work (and Beehiiv ads do)
Co-Reg Isn’t Dead — You’re Just Doing It Wrong (w/ Tim Bourquin)
08 Apr 2026
00:59:55
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 LAPD to After Offers — Co-Reg Pricing: CPL Then vs. Now (Email & SMS) — Expanding Beyond FinPub & Why Topic Matching Is Everything — Building Both Sides of the Network (The Chicken-and-Egg Problem) — When to Use Co-Reg (and When NOT To) — Email Frequency, Nurture Strategy & Activation Tips — Tracking Performance & What Traffic Sources Are Converting Best — Offer Count, Compliance & the 4-Layer Email Validation Stack — Ramping Co-Reg Slowly & Welcome Email Best Practices — The Future of Co-Reg: SMS, AI Matching & Identity Graphs — The Future of Newsletters: Deliverability, Personal Branding & AI — Mindset, Habits, Book Recs & Where to Find Tim
About Tim Bourquin
Tim Bourquin is the Co-Founder of AfterOffers, a co-registration platform working with 350+ publishers and 80–100 advertisers across multiple verticals including finance, health, and tech.
Chris Miquel is the Co-Founder of Audience Bridge, helping newsletter publishers improve deliverability, optimize list growth, and scale revenue through smarter data and segmentation strategies.
Your List Size Is Lying to You — with Armando Roggio (Quartz)
04 Mar 2026
00:41:57
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 also get into the compounding nature of deliverability decay, why ISPs aren't exactly rushing to warn you when things go sideways, and the one question every publisher should be asking about their lead sources but almost nobody is.
Honest, specific, and packed with things you can act on — this one's worth a full listen.
How He 10x'd Revenue by Increasing Cost Per Lead (with Nathan May)
10 Feb 2026
00:50:58
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:
Why cost per lead is lying to you (and what to track instead)
How creative became more important than targeting on Facebook
The deliverability mistake that kills inbox placement
What smart operators do differently (and how they outbid competitors)
Key story: One newsletter increased their cost per lead by 30% and revenue went up 10x. Why? They stopped optimizing for "anyone who would sign up" and started optimizing for "people who would actually engage."
Topics covered:
Intro: The cost per lead trap
What's changed in paid media (Facebook evolution)
Optimizing for engagement vs. signups
The 10x revenue story (CPL up 30%)
Building proper revenue attribution
Scaling campaigns without losing quality
Defining quality traffic sources
The deliverability mistake killing newsletters
Why CPMs are the wrong metric
Why open rates are misleading
What smart operators do differently
The invite-only newsletter strategy
Rapid fire questions
Where to find Nathan
Perfect for:
Newsletter publishers, content creators, digital media operators, anyone running paid acquisition for email lists
The Local Newsletter Founder Who Proved Everyone Wrong About "Small Markets"
28 Jan 2026
00:56:42
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 cost
Sends once per week (not daily)
Monetizes without becoming an ad billboard
Built a real business that could be bought and sold
But the numbers aren't the story. It's HOW he thinks about newsletters that changes everything.
What we cover:
Why local newsletters have a built-in growth advantage
How Michael made ~$8K in one week with a simple "bulletin" section
Why he only sends once per week (and why it works better than daily)
Why events, products, and IRL experiences beat more email sends
How he's using snail mail as a premium subscription (yes, actual mail)
Why newsletters are becoming legitimate businesses you can buy and sell
The one mindset shift that separates winning publishers from dying media
Key quote:
"If you prioritize advertisers over subscribers, you're already losing."
Who this episode is for:
Local newsletter operators (or anyone thinking about starting one)
Publishers feeling pressure to send more often
Anyone looking to monetize without wrecking engagement
Founders building sustainable, community-driven businesses
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 email deliverability, list hygiene, segmentation, AI’s impact on education businesses, and why most brands are still measuring the wrong metrics.
If you run a newsletter, media company, or any business that depends on audience growth and monetization, this episode will change how you think about email.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
Why email was the first social network (and why it still wins)
How algorithm changes wiped out businesses overnight
The biggest mistakes marketers make with email today
Why long email sequences no longer work
How segmentation and list hygiene protect deliverability
The 3–6% rule of engagement
How AI is reshaping education, courses, and content
Why owning your audience is the ultimate leverage
If you run a newsletter or scale revenue through email, this episode will help you protect deliverability, grow smarter, and avoid the hidden mistakes that quietly destroy inbox reach.
Holiday Deliverability Survival Guide: Expert Insights from Matt Vernhout
19 Nov 2025
00:47:39
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.
Matt breaks down:
🔹 Why more emails are landing in Gmail Promotions (and why that’s not bad) 🔹 The #1 misconception newsletter operators have about deliverability 🔹 How authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) really affects inboxing 🔹 What DKIM2 and DMARC 2.0 (“DMARCbis”) mean for the future 🔹 How AI is changing filtering, classification, and spam detection 🔹 Why warmup services are failing — and when they might still help 🔹 How subdomains and sender domain strategy impact your reputation 🔹 How to prevent cross-contamination across teams, tools, and ESPs 🔹 The right way to run reactivation + winback campaigns 🔹 What every sender MUST do in the next 2 weeks before Black Friday 🔹 Why data hygiene, validation, and new-user segments matter more than ever 🔹 How to avoid destroying your domain reputation in Q4 🔹 What’s coming next in email protocols and global platform policy
If you run a newsletter, send marketing campaigns, or rely on email revenue — this episode is packed with strategic, tactical, and future-focused insights that will save you time, headaches, deliverability failures, and lost inbox reach.