This week on Creator Spotlight, Francis is joined by Geoff Sharpe, founder of Lookout Media — a network of local newsletters collectively generating almost $500K a year. Geoff shares how he built a profitable, subscription-first media business, why trust and real journalism still win, and the systems he’s using to scale local news across Canada.

Read the newsletter: https://www.creatorspotlight.com/p/geoff-sharpe

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Geoff Sharpe

Lookout Media: https://lookoutmediaco.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoffsharpe

Twitter/X: https://x.com/geoff_sharpe

Francis Zierer

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/francis-zierer/

Twitter/X: https://x.com/FZierer

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Timestamps

00:00 Introducing Geoff Sharpe

01:40 Making $500k+ with paid subscriptions

07:16 Don't listen to your audience

12:00 The merging of editorial and business

16:20 Running a media company sustainably

21:01 Building trust through food

27:06 How to get people to pay for your content

37:43 What do people not pay for?

40:44 Don't scale too quickly

43:41 The difficulties of local newsletter ad sales

49:11 How to grow a local newsletter

52:40 A bullish and bearish take on local media

57:50 Best advice for entrepreneurs