How to sponsor an AI newsletter

Sponsoring an AI newsletter means paying to put your message in front of its readers — usually as a top placement, a mid-issue slot, or a classified link. The process is simple, but the information you need is often scattered. Here is the process that works.

1. Start with the audience, not the size

A million subscribers in the wrong role are worth less than 50,000 in the right one. Before you shortlist anything, write down who you need to reach: role (engineer, researcher, founder, marketer), industry, and geography. A newsletter's audience profile matters more than its headline subscriber count, and it is one of the fields our database records for every listing, sourced where the publication states it publicly.

2. Shortlist with verified fields, not roundup claims

For each candidate, check nine things: subscriber count plus its source, audience profile, sponsorship formats, price per issue plus its source, CPM, availability and booking lead time, and the contact channel — each with a verification status and a check date. If a listing cannot show you the source of its numbers, treat those numbers as unverified. Our comparison sheet shows all of these side by side, and where sources disagree, it shows every figure rather than averaging them away.

3. Expect inquiry-only pricing at the top

The biggest AI newsletters generally do not publish rates. The Rundown AI, Superhuman AI, and TLDR AI are all inquiry-only in our database: there is no public price to compare, so you have to ask. That is normal for this market, not a red flag — but it does mean you should never treat a third-party roundup's "price" for one of these publications as a quote. If a price is not verified on the publication's own page or in writing from the publication, it is not their price.

4. Contact the publication through its public channel

Use the sponsor page, contact form, or marketplace listing the publication itself publishes. For example, TLDR AI's verified contact channel is its public advertise form. Avoid scraping personal emails: publications that run on inquiry-only expect to be contacted through the channel they chose, and that is also where you will get a real answer about availability.

5. Ask four questions before you commit

1. What is the price per issue for the format I want, and is it a single issue or a bundle?
2. What dates are actually open, and how far ahead do I need to book? As one verified example, AI Weekly's own FAQ says its popular weeks book 2–3 weeks ahead.
3. What is the subscriber count, and where does that figure come from? Ask for the source and the date of the figure.
4. What exactly is included — placement, word count, links, and whether the publication writes the copy? TLDR AI, for instance, includes copywriting by its team and a dedicated contact for sponsors, as verified on its own sponsor page.

6. Confirm the price in writing, then pay

Do not pay against a benchmark range. Benchmark CPM ranges (for AI and tech newsletters, our database uses a $100–150 cross-publication benchmark range where a publication's own price is unverified) are planning aids, not quotes. The only price that counts is the one the publication confirms to you in writing for your format and date.

Disclaimer: this site is an independent database. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any publication listed here. Figures are shown with their source and verification status; where a figure is an estimate or a benchmark range, it is labeled as such and is not that publication's price.