From newsletter to media business: How Matt Brown built Extra Points

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Matt Brown shares what worked, what didn’t and what every journalist-turned-creator should know

Like many journalists who have made the leap to independent media, Matt Brown didn’t start Extra Points with a grand plan. He didn’t map out a five-year strategy or study revenue models before launching. He started with a simple premise:

That first question was critical. Matt knew when he left SB Nation that if he was going to write about something every single day, it had to be a topic he genuinely loved. Passion alone doesn’t pay the bills, but without it, burnout is inevitable. If you don’t care deeply about your subject matter, no amount of business strategy will make up for the sheer volume of work required to sustain an independent media business.

On the second question, Matt thought the answer was obvious. He figured his newsletter about the business of college sports would attract the same audience he loved being part of – the fans who live and breathe conference realignment news, the ones who argue over NIL deals on Reddit and those who can’t get enough of the behind-the-scenes workings of college athletics.

He was right that there was interest. But he was wrong about who would actually pay for it.

An audience he didn’t expect

One of the first lessons Matt learned about building an independent journalism business is that your most engaged audience and your paying audience are not always the same. He quickly discovered that while hardcore college sports fans loved reading Extra Points, they weren’t necessarily willing to pay for it. Instead, the people who did see real value – and were willing to put money behind it – were the people inside the industry: athletic directors, conference officials, compliance officers and administrators at small and mid-sized colleges. They weren’t looking for inside gossip or hot takes. They needed solid, reliable, well-reported information about how decisions in college sports were being made and how those decisions might affect their jobs.

“The people who paid me weren’t necessarily the people I expected,” he said. “I thought it’d be fans. Turns out, it was people whose jobs depended on this information.”

Brown had a choice: double down on his original audience, or serve the one that was actually funding his work. He chose the latter, and it made all the difference.

A business, not a side hustle

Extra Points launched in 2020, and in the first nine months, Matt made $40,000. Not bad, but not nearly enough to be sustainable. Between juggling reporting, writing, sales and raising two small kids during a pandemic, he quickly realized that running this as a one-man show wasn’t going to work long-term. That’s when he made a move most independent journalists wouldn’t even consider: he sold Extra Points to another company.

D1 Ticker, a business-focused sports media company, saw value in what he was building and acquired it. For a while, this seemed like a perfect solution. The newsletter still ran under Matt’s editorial control, but he no longer had to handle the administrative and operational burdens of running a business.

Eighteen months later, the company sold Extra Points back to him. Not because it wasn’t successful, but because D1 Ticker realized it wasn’t a core part of their business model. Brown was suddenly back in charge, this time with a clearer sense of what worked, what didn’t, and what he needed to do next. He credits the team at D1 Ticker for sharing his values and recognizing the importance of keeping Extra Points in the hands of someone who deeply believed in its mission.

“There’s a huge difference between a partner that just sees you as a product and one that actually believes in the thing you’re trying to build,” he said.

That experience reinforced a critical lesson for him: partnering with people and companies who align with your values is key to long-term success.

Scaling up without burning out

Today, Extra Points is no longer a solo operation. Matt has two other full-time employees, plus a business partner, and has plans to hire additional staff this year. The business isn’t just a newsletter anymore – he’s diversified revenue streams, including a launching a college sports industry software product, as well as an educational computer game.

He credits that growth to a few key shifts in mindset:

• Serving the right audience, not just the loudest one. While he still writes for the college sports diehards, he makes sure his content delivers real business value to the industry professionals who are actually paying for it.

• Not trying to do everything alone. Many journalists who go independent try to hold onto every piece of their business – writing, editing, marketing, operations. Matt realized that letting go of the business side (even temporarily) gave him the breathing room to build something more sustainable.

• Being transparent with his audience. Readers don’t just subscribe to Extra Points for the content. They follow Matt’s journey, including his missteps. By being open about the struggles of running an independent media business, he’s built a deep well of trust with his audience.

Matt’s top lessons for the rest of us

Every creator-model journalist’s story is unique, but Matt’s offers a some important universal takeaways:

• If the people engaging with your work can’t or won’t pay for it, you need to think about who else might find value in what you do. That might mean shifting your focus or exploring different funding models, but sustainability depends on it.

• You don’t have to do everything yourself. Indie journalism doesn’t have to mean being a one-person shop forever. Brown’s success wasn’t just about what he built – it was about knowing when to ask for help, when to delegate and when to focus on the work he does best.

• You can’t be afraid to ask for money. Journalists love to talk about business models in the abstract, but at the end of the day, if you want your work to be financially viable, you have to treat it like a business, not just a passion project.

the latest

• OG TikTok newsie Dave Jorgenson is launching a new weekly series produced by his employer, The Washington Post, but published on his own personal TikTok channel. “Publishers should experiment with empowering their top talent to take their work direct to their personal audience first,” said audience futurist Ryan Kellett in a NiemanLab piece about the move.

• Six months in, former CNN newsletter writer turned indie journalist Oliver Darcy is announcing the expansion of his Status team to include fellow former CNN staffer Jon Passantino as executive editor. Darcy also says the newsletter has grown to 75K subscribers and is on track to hit $1M in annual revenue.

• In response to industry instability, journalists are increasingly establishing worker-owned cooperatives to gain editorial control and directly engage with their audiences, writes Angela Fu for Poynter.

• Meta is considering a spinoff of Reels from Instagram to more directly take on TikTok, which could still disappear from U.S. devices if a deal isn’t reached before the April 5 deadline.

• Per Google, YouTube is now racking up more than 1 billion (with a B) monthly viewers for its podcast content. If true, that eclipses Spotify’s 675 million monthly active users.

  

know things

• I’ve seen chatter around Meta’s announcement of a $50M creator fund last week. It’s not for us. Facebook is not making a move here to support independent media – instead the fund is targeted at developers building mobile and mixed reality (MR) experiences on its Horizon platform. A good reason to always read more - “creator” remains a squishy multiple-meaning word.

• Mastercard launched a new program – debit and credit cards designed for content creators. The credit giant says the deal includes specific financial tools to help entrepreneurs working in content creation. In a future feature post, we’ll get into the growing array of financial tools used by creators. Let us know what you’re using by popping an email to [email protected].

do something cool

• I met Christabel Nsiah-Buadi when she was a member of my Sulzberger cohort. Now the former Spotify powerhouse has launched her own newsletter and business to help aspiring independent podcasters along their journey. She’s hosting a free March 27 information session.

• I’ll be at ISOJ in Austin later this month talking about our favorite topic with Amy Mitchell, executive director of the Center for News, Technology & Innovation, Oliver Darcy, founder of media-industry newsletter Status, TikToker Carlos Eduardo Espina and Ben Reininga, current Nieman Berkman-Klein Fellow at Harvard University and former global head of editorial for Snapchat.

• Join me in Perugia at the International Journalism Festival for a micro-Going Solo workshop taught in possibly the best room ever (scroll down for the pix).

• Thanks to Journalism WTF for compiling this exhaustive list of 2025 journalism conferences.