Latest / The Newsletter Podcast with Fexingo: Substack, Beehiiv, and Email Newsletter Business / How Newsletters Use Ghostwriters to Scale Without Burning Out
Transcript
- Lucas: If you run a newsletter that publishes more than twice a week, you've probably hit the wall. The wall where writing every edition yourself is no longer sustainable. You can't keep doing four-figure open rates on four hours of sleep. Luna: Right. And the obvious solution is to hire help. But a lot of people try it and the quality tanks. The voice goes away. Subscribers notice. Lucas: Exactly. So today I want to look at how newsletters actually use ghostwriters to scale — not the content mill approach where you lose your voice, but the model that worked for things like early Morning Brew and The Hustle before they were acquired. Luna: And I should say — if these marketing conversations have sparked something you've actually used in your own work, that's the whole point. If today's episode was worth a coffee to you, there's a link: buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Keeps the show ad-free and honest. Lucas: Appreciate that. So let's start with the economics. A good ghostwriter for a daily newsletter — someone who can research, draft, and handle basic editing — typically costs between five hundred and fifteen hundred dollars per week. That's for a five-day-a-week publication. Luna: And what do you get for that? I mean, that's not a trivial expense for a bootstrapped newsletter. Lucas: You get roughly twenty to thirty hours of your own time back per week. Time that you should be spending on partnerships, product development, ad sales — the high-leverage stuff that actually grows the business. The Hustle's founder Sam Parr has talked about this openly. He said once they got the ghostwriting system right, his job shifted from writing to editing and strategy. The newsletter grew faster because he was working on it, not just in it. Luna: But the fear is always losing the voice. How do you train someone to write like you? Lucas: Morning Brew had a specific process. They would have the ghostwriter draft an edition, then the lead writer — the voice — would do a heavy edit for the first few months. The ghostwriter would study the edits, learn the sentence structures, the jokes, the transitions. Over time, the edits got lighter. Eventually, the ghostwriter could produce a draft that needed only minor tweaks. Luna: So it's not just hiring a writer. It's an onboarding process. Lucas: Exactly. And the key is that the lead writer maintains final approval on everything. The ghostwriter is not autonomous. They are an extension. One thing I've seen fail repeatedly is when the founder hands over the entire writing process and then just publishes whatever comes back. That's when the newsletter becomes generic. The voice is the asset. You can't delegate the voice without delegating the relationship with your reader. Luna: Let me ask about the 'content mill' approach. I've seen newsletters that basically hire five freelancers, each writing one edition a week, and there's no central editorial voice. It ends up feeling like a blog, not a newsletter. Lucas: That's a different model entirely. That's more like a media company. And it can work if you brand it that way from the start. But if you built your audience on one person's voice and then suddenly switch to a team of people writing under that same name, readers feel it. Open rates drop. Unsubscribes go up. I've seen data from Beehiiv where newsletters that switch from a single-author to a multi-author model without proper voice continuity lose 15 to 20 percent of their open rate within a month. Luna: Ouch. So what's the alternative for someone who wants to scale but can't afford a full-time ghostwriter? Lucas: You can start with a part-time editor. Someone who takes your rough draft and polishes it. That frees up some time without risking voice because you're still the primary writer. Then, as revenue grows, you can move to the ghostwriter model. Or you can do what a lot of Substack writers do: publish three times a week yourself, and one 'curated' edition that a ghostwriter assembles from links and commentary. That way your voice is still dominant, but you get one day back. Luna: That makes sense. Ease into it. What about the actual recruiting? Where do newsletter operators find good ghostwriters? Lucas: The best source I've seen is other newsletters. Someone who writes a newsletter in a similar niche but smaller audience. You can offer them a paid gig and cross-promotion. They already understand the format. Another source is journalism school graduates who want to get into the creator economy. They have the research and writing skills but need guidance on voice. And there's always Upwork, but the hit rate is low. You have to vet carefully. Luna: And when you vet, what's the test? A writing sample relevant to your niche? Lucas: I'd go further. Give them a specific brief: 'Write the first two paragraphs of tomorrow's newsletter on.' See if they can mimic your style. Then give them feedback and see if they can incorporate it. The ability to take direction is as important as raw writing talent. One thing I've seen work is a paid trial week. Pay them their full rate for one week of work, and at the end, you both decide if it's a fit. It's a small investment to avoid a bad hire. Luna: How do you handle attribution? Do you credit the ghostwriter? Lucas: This is a personal choice. Some newsletters add a line at the bottom: 'Written by with editorial support from.' Others keep it anonymous. If you're transparent, it can actually build trust. The Hustle used to credit their writers by name in the footer. Morning Brew credits their whole team. I think transparency is better for long-term trust. But I understand why some founders don't want to signal that they're not writing every word. It depends on your brand. Luna: It's a trade-off. Let's talk about the actual process once you have a ghostwriter. What does a typical week look like? Lucas: Let's say you publish Monday through Friday. On Friday, you send the ghostwriter a list of topics and angles for the following week. Maybe links to articles you want covered. On Monday morning, they send you drafts for Monday and Tuesday. You edit Monday's edition by noon, publish. You edit Tuesday's by end of day. The ghostwriter then sends Wednesday and Thursday drafts on Tuesday afternoon, and Friday's draft on Thursday. You're always a day ahead. That buffer is critical. Luna: And what about breaking news? If something big happens, do you handle that yourself? Lucas: Usually yes. The ghostwriter handles the evergreen or planned content. Breaking news editions are where your voice matters most, and you want to be the one reacting in real time. Unless you've trained your ghostwriter to understand your exact take on certain topics. Some teams maintain a 'style guide' that includes how the newsletter typically approaches different types of news. Luna: A style guide — like, sentence-level rules? Lucas: Yes. Things like: always use contractions, never start a sentence with 'However,' keep paragraphs under three sentences, use bullet points for lists, embed one 'wow' stat per edition. The more specific, the easier it is for the ghostwriter to match. I know one newsletter operator who recorded a Loom video walking through five of his past editions, explaining why he made each editorial choice. That video became the ghostwriter's training manual. Luna: That's smart. So it's not just about writing skill — it's about systems. Lucas: Systems are everything. The newsletters that scale successfully treat ghostwriting as a process, not a hire. They invest time upfront in documentation and training, and they review metrics weekly. If open rates on ghostwritten editions start slipping, they jump in and write more themselves until the ghostwriter improves. Luna: What are the red flags that a ghostwriter isn't working out? Lucas: First, if you find yourself rewriting more than half of each draft after three months, it's not working. The ghostwriter should be learning your voice. Second, if they can't meet deadlines consistently because they're juggling too many clients. Third, if they push back on feedback or make the same mistakes repeatedly. A good ghostwriter is a partner, not just a typist. Luna: And what about the founder's ego? Some people just can't let go of the writing. Lucas: That's real. And honestly, if you love writing every edition and you're not burning out, you don't need a ghostwriter. But if your growth plateaus because you can't do the business development work, then hiring someone is the right move. The founders who succeed are the ones who see the newsletter as a business, not just a personal outlet. Luna: One last question: what's the ROI timeline? How long before the ghostwriter pays for itself? Lucas: If you're spending a thousand dollars a week on a ghostwriter, and that frees you up to close one ad deal or one sponsorship worth two thousand dollars per month, you've already covered the cost. But the bigger ROI is in growth. If you use that freed time to improve your acquisition channels, you can scale much faster. I've seen newsletters go from ten thousand to fifty thousand subscribers in six months after the founder stopped writing and started doing partnerships. Luna: That's a compelling argument. So ghostwriting isn't a shortcut — it's a strategic move. Lucas: Exactly. It's not about writing less. It's about writing the right things — and letting someone else handle the rest. Luna: Great angle. And for anyone thinking about it, start with a trial week, build a style guide, and measure everything. Lucas: Worth remembering that every major newsletter you read today — Morning Brew, The Hustle, Milk Road — they all started with one writer. They all hired eventually. The ones that did it well are the ones that treated their voice as a system to be taught, not a secret to be guarded.