6AM City: A Startup Case Study – Energizing Local Communities Every Morning

6AM City

6AM City is a hyperlocal media startup specializing in daily newsletters that deliver positive local news to communities across multiple US markets. Their mission is to inform, engage, and connect residents through curated content, focusing on uplifting stories and local happenings.

Founding Year: 2016

Headquarters: Greenville, South Carolina, United States

Industry: Information

Status: Currently Active

Business Model

B2B, Two-sided, Product & Service

• Clients: Local Businesses – These businesses, ranging from retail stores and restaurants to service providers and cultural institutions, seek to reach a highly engaged local audience through targeted advertising.
• Suppliers: Advertisers – Primarily local and regional businesses that pay to reach 6AM City’s audience through various advertising options, including embedded content within newsletters.

It’s Like: The Morning Brew but Hyperlocal

6AM City adopts a similar approach to delivering news as The Morning Brew, providing concise, engaging, and easily digestible content via email newsletters. However, 6AM City differentiates itself by focusing exclusively on hyperlocal news, catering to the specific interests of residents within individual cities and regions.

With some differences, though:

• Hyperlocal Focus: While The Morning Brew targets a broad audience with business and general news, 6AM City concentrates solely on local happenings, events, and stories relevant to specific communities.
• Positive News Emphasis: Unlike traditional news outlets and some newsletters that may cover a broader range of topics, including crime and politics, 6AM City maintains a strict focus on positive and uplifting news, aiming to foster community pride and engagement.
• Community-Driven Approach: 6AM City actively encourages reader participation and interaction, aiming to spark conversations and connections among community members.  They achieve this through their conversational writing style and focus on local events and initiatives.

Challenges Addressed

• Information Overload: Residents often face an overwhelming influx of information from various sources, making it challenging to stay informed about relevant local happenings.
• Negative News Fatigue: Traditional news outlets often prioritize sensationalized or negative stories, leading to news fatigue and a sense of disengagement from local affairs.
• Lack of Community Connection: In a digital age, individuals may feel disconnected from their local communities, lacking awareness of events, initiatives, and opportunities to engage with their neighbors.
• Difficulty for Local Businesses to Reach Target Audiences: Local businesses often struggle to reach their desired customer base effectively, with traditional advertising methods becoming less impactful.

Proposed Solutions

• Curated Local News: 6AM City provides subscribers with a concise and easily digestible daily digest of positive local news, events, and happenings, delivered directly to their inbox every morning.
• Community Building: By focusing on positive and uplifting stories, 6AM City aims to foster a sense of community pride and encourage engagement among residents.
• Local Business Advertising Platform: The platform offers local businesses a targeted and effective way to reach their desired customer base through advertising within their newsletters and other digital placements.
• Convenience and Accessibility: The email newsletter format allows readers to stay informed about their local communities conveniently, fitting seamlessly into their daily routines.

Founding Story

Problem Recognition: In 2016, Ryan Johnston, whose family owned the South Carolina-based media company Community Journals, identified a gap in positive, community-focused local news. He envisioned a scalable solution to deliver such content effectively.

Founders and Their Backgrounds: Ryan Johnston and Ryan Heafy co-founded 6AM City. Ryan Heafy’s background, with experience in process improvement (Six Sigma), likely contributed to their scalable growth strategy.

Solution: They decided to reinvent the traditional news model by delivering positive, local content through free digital newsletters. This approach aimed to cut down the high costs associated with traditional media production, printing, and distribution.

Early Traction: Starting in Greenville, South Carolina, they focused on building a subscriber base. Their hyper-local, positive news approach resonated with the community, gaining initial traction.

Challenges and Growth: While their Greenville newsletter took about two years to reach 50,000 subscribers, they refined their audience growth and market penetration strategies, leading to faster expansion in subsequent cities.

Innovation and Technology: 6AM City utilizes a proprietary publishing technology platform for efficient content aggregation, curation, and distribution across multiple markets. This platform, combined with their hyper-local content strategy, has been crucial to their scalable growth.

Team: Will Rothschild joined as an investor and key personnel, and Liam Whalen as VP of Marketing and Communications.

Key Growth Milestones

• 2016: Founded and launched the first 6AM City newsletter in Greenville, South Carolina.
• 2022: Named one of Fast Company’s 10 most innovative media companies, recognizing its impact on local journalism.
• 2024: Closed a Series A funding round of $16M led by TEGNA Inc., with participation from existing investors American Investment Holdings, VentureSouth, and Harbright Ventures

Market & Competition

Target Market

Geography: As of early 2024, 6AM City operates in 31 U.S. markets, including cities like Greenville, Charlotte, Austin, and Seattle.

Current Market:

• Readers: The company boasts over 1.4 million newsletter subscribers and a total audience exceeding 3 million, including social media followers.
  • Approximately 59% female and 41% male.
  • 84% of readers are college graduates, with 34% holding graduate degrees.
  • Homeowners (75%).
  • Interested in local news, events, and activities.
  • Age ranges:
    • 25-45 (professionals in technology, marketing, finance, and healthcare).
    • 35-54
    • 55+
• Advertisers: Local and regional businesses seeking to reach 6AM City’s engaged readership.
• E-commerce Partners: Local artists and brands selling through the “Six & Main” platform.

Potential New Markets: 

• Market Expansion: The company utilizes a “PickMyCity™” portal to assess community interest and identify potential new markets for expansion.
• Subscriber Growth: 6AM City targets a minimum of 50,000 subscribers per market to ensure profitability and sustainability.

Competitor Landscape

6AM City operates in a competitive digital media and newsletter market.

Key rivals include:

• Overstory Media Group: A venture capital-backed local news company based in Canada.
• The Hustle: Provides concise business and tech news through a free/paid newsletter and events.
• Workweek (Publishing): Offers business and tech insights with a focus on community building.
• theSkimm: Targets women with a daily news and lifestyle newsletter and subscription options.
• City Cast: Delivers city-specific local news through daily newsletters and podcasts.
• Morning Brew: Focuses on engaging and accessible business news with diverse newsletter offerings.
• 1440 Media: Curates unbiased news from multiple sources and presents it in a neutral daily newsletter format.
• Puck: Offers subscription-based newsletters with in-depth analysis from prominent journalists covering Hollywood, Wall Street, Washington, and Silicon Valley.
• The Newsette: Provides daily news and lifestyle content with a focus on shopping recommendations, lifestyle tips, and career advice.

Marketing & Sales

Main Positioning Values: Commitment to delivering positive, hyper-local content that fosters community engagement and pride.

Website & Socials

6amcity.com receives over 700,000 monthly visits. Most of the traffic comes from direct and organic sources, with the top country being the United States.

Social media contributes a small percentage overall, led by Reddit, Instagram, and Facebook.

Media Coverage

• Fast Company: 6AM City was named one of the “10 Most Innovative Media Companies of 2022” by Fast Company.
• Funding and Expansion: 6AM City’s Series A funding round, led by TEGNA Inc., was reported by various outlets, including Axios, Yahoo Finance, and FinSMEs. The investment aims to support the company’s expansion into new markets and enhance its collaboration with local broadcasters.
• Editorial Approach: The company’s strategy of avoiding coverage of politics and crime to focus on positive, community-driven content has been highlighted in publications like Press Gazette. Co-founder Ryan Heafy emphasized this approach as a key differentiator in the local news landscape.
• Workplace Environment: Employee reviews on Glassdoor have brought attention to internal challenges within 6AM City, including reports of management issues and concerns about workplace culture.

Marketing Strategies

• Hyper-Local Content Marketing: 6AM City focuses on creating highly localized content tailored to the specific interests of each city they operate in. They achieve this by employing local writers and curating news relevant to the community.
• Daily Email Newsletter: Their primary customer acquisition channel is their free daily email newsletter delivered at 6 AM. This consistent delivery time, coupled with concise and positive local news, aims to make it a part of the reader’s morning routine.
• Targeted Advertising: 6AM City’s revenue model heavily relies on advertising from local and regional businesses. They offer various advertising options, including embedded content within their newsletters, making it a direct channel for businesses to reach their target audience.
• Community Engagement: They actively engage with local communities through social media, partnerships with local organizations, and participation in events. This strategy helps increase brand visibility and attract new subscribers.
• Strategic Market Expansion: 6AM City strategically selects new markets based on factors like income levels, population trends, and retail activity. Their “PickMyCity™” portal allows communities to express interest, providing valuable data for expansion decisions.

Product & Innovation

Key Product Innovations

• Hyperlocal Focus: 6AM City’s laser focus on hyperlocal content, tailored to the specific interests of individual communities, distinguishes them from competitors with broader scopes.
• Positive News Only: Their deliberate editorial choice to exclusively feature positive and uplifting news creates a unique value proposition, setting them apart from traditional news outlets and attracting readers seeking a more optimistic perspective.
• Scalable Newsletter Model: Their proprietary publishing technology platform enables them to efficiently curate, manage, and distribute localized newsletters across numerous markets, facilitating rapid and sustainable growth.
• Community-Driven Approach: 6AM City actively fosters reader interaction and engagement, encouraging conversations and connections among community members through their content and social media presence.
• “PickMyCity” Portal: Their innovative “PickMyCity” portal allows communities to express interest in having 6AM City expand to their area, providing valuable market research data and driving organic growth.

Financials & Metrics

Revenue Sources

• Advertising Revenue: 6AM City’s primary revenue stream comes from selling advertising space within their daily email newsletters. This includes both local and regional businesses.
• E-commerce: The company launched “Six & Main,” an e-commerce platform featuring locally made goods, as an additional revenue channel.

Metrics

• Funding and Investments:
  • Total Raised: Prior to the Series A round, 6AM City had raised approximately $11.5 million, including $2.5 million from friends and family, a $1.5 million seed round, and $7.5 million in convertible and promissory notes.
  • Series A Funding: In February 2024, 6AM City closed a Series A funding round led by TEGNA Inc. The exact amount was not disclosed, but it was reported to be over $10 million.
• Employee Count: Estimates vary between 51-200

Structure & Culture

Structure

• Leadership: 
  • Ryan Johnston (Co-founder)
  • Ryan Heafy (Co-founder and COO)
• Other Positions:
  • Sales Executive
  • Newsletter Editor
• Values:
  • Responding with Agility: Embracing change and adapting quickly to meet the evolving needs of the community.
  • Leveraging Engagement to Achieve Synergy: Fostering collaboration and active participation to create a unified and dynamic community experience.
  • Listening with Intentional Curiosity: Actively seeking to understand and learn from the community to inform content and initiatives.
  • Acting Like an Owner: Taking responsibility and initiative to drive positive outcomes and uphold the company’s mission.
  • Having Fun Through Pride in Place: Celebrating local culture and fostering a sense of joy and connection within the community.

Impact & Success

Customer Feedback

6AM City has garnered positive feedback from both advertisers and employees, highlighting its effectiveness in community engagement and workplace culture.

Advertiser Testimonials:

• Ethanie, Greater Winston-Salem Inc., praised 6AM City for producing high-quality, relevant messaging that engages the community and keeps their brand top of mind.
• Jessica, South Carolina Aquarium, noted that advertising on multiple 6AM City platforms helped promote their brand to new audiences and drive success with events and admissions.
• Kelly, Labcorp stated that 6AM City continues to drive above-average engagement and ROI in their placements, making them an important part of their content marketing strategy.
• Cara, Aldo Leopold Nature Center appreciated 6AM City’s receptiveness to feedback and their assistance in managing marketing efforts, allowing the organization to focus on event details.

Employee Feedback:

• According to a survey by Great Place To Work®, 96% of 6AM City employees consider it a great place to work, compared to 57% at a typical U.S.-based company. Employees highlighted the company’s honest and ethical management, pride in accomplishments, adaptability to change, and excellent customer service.
• However, reviews on Glassdoor indicate areas for improvement, with an overall rating of 3.3 out of 5 stars. Some employees mentioned challenges related to management and workload.

Success Stories

6AM City’s innovative approach to local media has led to significant achievements and recognition:

• Rapid Expansion: The company successfully scaled from 8 to 24 markets within a year, demonstrating a replicable and efficient model for launching in new cities.
• Community Engagement: In a fundraising campaign, 6AM City rallied support from its seven-city network to raise over $40,000, showcasing its strong community ties and the value readers place on its content.

Growth & Future

Challenges and Risks

• Maintaining Content Quality and Relevance: Ensuring high-quality, locally relevant content across a growing number of diverse markets.
• Competition: The digital media and newsletter landscape is competitive, requiring ongoing innovation and differentiation.
• Dependence on Advertising Revenue: Vulnerability to economic fluctuations and changes in advertiser spending.

Future Plans

• Geographic Expansion: 6AM City aims to grow its subscriber base to over 2.5 million and expand into 100 additional markets across the US.
• Content Diversification: Exploring podcasts, videos, and other multimedia formats to further engage their audience.
• Revenue Diversification: Considering sponsored content and premium subscription options.
• Partnerships: Actively seeking collaborations to accelerate growth in specific communities.

Key Takeaways for Entrepreneurs

• Hyperlocal is the new global: Don’t underestimate the power of a laser focus. 6AM City’s success demonstrates that conquering a niche market can be more effective than chasing a broad, undefined audience. Sometimes, the smaller the pond, the bigger the fish.
• Repetition is the key to scalable simplicity: 6AM City’s model, much like early Facebook or Tinder, thrives on replicating a successful formula across different locations. Find your winning formula and then focus on scaling it through repetition, not reinvention.
• Turn information overload into a curated experience: In an age of content saturation, people crave curated, relevant information. 6AM City turned the problem of information overload into an opportunity by delivering a digestible dose of positive local news.
• Community building is the ultimate moat: 6AM City isn’t just a news source; it’s a community platform. Foster a sense of belonging and shared identity around your product or service. A strong community translates into loyal customers and passionate advocates.
• Don’t underestimate the power of familiarity: While influencer marketing gains traction, 6AM City proves that traditional advertising channels like newsletters still hold immense value. Offer familiar, reliable solutions that businesses understand and trust.
• Turn everyday routines into engagement opportunities: 6AM City cleverly integrates itself into users’ morning routines. Identify existing habits and behaviors within your target audience and find ways to weave your product or service into their daily lives seamlessly.