· Sponsor The Valley Weekly ·
A Tuesday morning
your name on it.
A few hand-picked sponsors per issue. No banner ads, no twelve-tab sprawl. Your business sits inside the letter the way a good ad sits inside a good magazine.
11%
click rate · five times the newsletter average
99.8%
reader retention · they open it every Tuesday
1,700+
Valley readers · and more every week
Trailing 8-issue average (issues 008 to 016), not including this week. Updated automatically.
Short form. Neal replies within three business days.
· Why it works ·
Most newsletters are where ads go to die. Not this one.
Open rates look good everywhere these days, and a chunk of them are phones auto-opening mail rather than people reading it. So we don’t lead with opens. We lead with clicks, because a click is the one number nobody can inflate. Across the last 8 issues our readers clicked at 11 percent. The typical newsletter gets about 2.1. Measured against other newsletters specifically, where the average is about 4.1, we are still better than 2.7 times it. That’s the difference between an audience that receives your ad and an audience that acts on it.
And they stay. Out of every reader we’ve ever had, very few have unsubscribed. So your message doesn’t land in a list that’s quietly leaking. It lands in front of people who chose this, open it every Tuesday, and are still here next month.
The list grew from 50 readers to more than 1,700+ in about two months, and it climbs every week. Sponsor now and your audience is bigger by your last issue than it was on your first.
How it works.
- № 01
A handful, hand-picked.
Your message is never buried in a stack of banners. We take only a few sponsors per issue, each inside the letter, in its own bordered section, with the same care every other section gets.
- № 02
Written by us, with you.
We do not run banner ads. We write a short piece about your business in the voice of the letter, and you read and approve it before it ships. Done for you. No design work on your end.
- № 03
Clearly disclosed.
Every sponsored section is labeled at the top. Readers know, and they click anyway when the fit is right. That honesty is exactly why the clicks are real.
- № 04
You see the numbers.
After your issue ships, we send you reads, opens, and clicks from our own reporting. Straight performance, nothing inflated.
· See it in the letter ·
Here’s what each placement looks like.
Headline sponsor, section sponsor, sponsored item, or event placement. See exactly what each one looks like inside the actual Valley Weekly issue. No mockups.
See the placements →· What it costs ·
Founding sponsor rates, while they last.
We’re taking on a small group of founding sponsors before the list, and the rates, climb.
- Headline sponsor$1,020 a month (four issues), or $300 a single issue
- Section sponsor$510 a month, or $150 a single issue
- Inline sponsor$305 a month, or $90 a single issue
- Event or prime-date single issue$420. When your weekend is the weekend.
Done-for-you copy is included, not an upsell. The month is the better deal per issue. The single issue is the premium.
Why now
You’re not just buying today’s 1,700+readers. You’re buying a list that grows underneath you. Next Tuesday reaches more. The one after that, more again. All on the rate you lock today. In two months this costs more, and the founding spots are gone.
· What we need from you ·
You send notes. We write it.
Writing the copy is included, not an upsell. Send notes and we draft it in the letter's voice; you approve it before it runs.
Headline sponsor
A full bordered panel near the top of the letter, above the first section.
- Business nameThe name you want readers to see, which is not always the legal name on the invoice.
- What to promoteA few notes on what you want people to know this week. Bullet points, a forwarded email, or two minutes on the phone all work.
- LinkWhere the click should go. A campaign or landing page beats a homepage.
Nice to have: logo, one-line hook, photo. Send them if you have them; the placement is built to look right without any of them.
Section sponsor
A "Sponsored by" credit under a section heading (This Weekend, Kids Corner, Around Town, Restaurant Watch).
- Business nameThe name you want readers to see, which is not always the legal name on the invoice.
Nice to have: logo, link. Send them if you have them; the placement is built to look right without any of them.
Sponsored item
A marked card inside a section list, styled like an item but labelled Sponsored.
- Business nameThe name you want readers to see, which is not always the legal name on the invoice.
- What to promoteA few notes on what to feature. Bullet points are fine.
- LinkWhere the click should go. A campaign or landing page beats a homepage.
Nice to have: logo. Send them if you have them; the placement is built to look right without any of them.
· Audience ·
Pioneer Valley homeowners, parents, and food people. Readers in Northampton, Amherst, Easthampton, Florence, Greenfield, Hadley, South Hadley, Springfield, Chicopee, Holyoke, Agawam, Longmeadow, East Longmeadow, and everywhere in between. Every one of them opted in, and they open it to plan their week.
Real engagement, not vanity numbers: a 71% open rate, 11% clicks, and 99.8% retention across the last 8 issues. Full current figures in the sponsor kit, sent the day you ask.
Tell us about your business.
We read every note, and a real-business email gets a real-human reply within three days. Tell us who you are and what you’d want readers to know, and we’ll send the current numbers and the next open issue.
Claim a founding slot →A short form. Neal replies from his own inbox within three business days.