Inside Brazil’s Growing Indie Newsletter Economy

In the expanding world of Brazilian newsletters, one name has captured the attention of readers and industry insiders: Gaía Passarelli. A former MTV host and media personality, Passarelli has harnessed her existing popularity by tapping into the power of a growing medium. After the launch of her newsletter, Tá Todo Mundo Tentando (Everyone is Trying), in the midst of a nationwide lockdown, Passarelli emerged as a success story in the era of pandemic-born newsletter writers. 

As Brazil witnesses a surge in independent media and the power of social media engagement, Passarelli’s journey exemplifies the rise of newsletters in the country, where writers and journalists now forge direct connections with their audiences.

Brazil’s media landscape has grown more diverse and digital, and newsletters have emerged as a key way for writers, journalists, and organizations to engage with audiences. While traditional media outlets have faced financial constraints, massive layoffs, and struggled to adapt to digital platforms, independent journalists and writers have seized the opportunity to build direct relationships with their readers.

With Newsletters on the Rise, a Writer Stands Out

Substack’s growth is a phenomenon that Brazilians are well acquainted with. While platforms such as Mailchimp and TinyLetter had already gained popularity among independent writers, Substack became attractive for offering free usage and built-in monetization tools at a time when many other email platforms were making big changes to their free tiers. When you get paid in Brazilian reais and are charged in American dollars, every penny counts. 

Substack currently has more than 35 million active subscriptions globally, including 2 million paid subscriptions, with a network that now drives 40% of all subscriptions and 15% of paid subscriptions on the platform. That impact can be felt all the way down in Brazil, where its paid subscriber rise is up 150% year-over-year, according to Substack’s PR team.

In the midst of newsletters gaining more notoriety, Passarelli’s newsletter, TTMT, launched in 2021 and has so far garnered over 11,000 subscribers. At least 40% of them open the weekly email, which features personal essays, ad-supported content, and a curated list of events in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city. 

As newsletters gained notoriety as a platform for independent writers, early adopters such as Passarelli tested what worked best with Brazilian readers. Now, every edition of Tá Todo Mundo Tentando has an established format that includes a suggested soundtrack to accompany the reading, commissioned artwork by designer Tiago Lacerda and local guides to coffee shops, restaurants, theaters, and more — with Passarelli’s essays as the main course.

“It’s all about consistency. Commitment to writing is important to create the habit of both those who write and those who read,” Passarelli said. “TTMT’s growth is built from week to week. I follow metrics and try to analyze why a newsletter issue performed better or worse in terms of interest to readers. But TTMT is a personal writing newsletter. The main thing is to write and let people come.”

Passarelli has some experience in that realm. She has written for the internet since the early 2000s, eventually gaining recognition as an editor at BuzzFeed Brazil, as a published author (her book, a 2016 collection of travel essays, is in its third edition at Globo Livros), and as a VJ at MTV Brasil. When TTMT was first published, Passarelli had already made a name for herself and was an established author. What made the newsletter seem like an attractive space to explore?

“I wanted to write on a platform that was easy to use and where I owned my writing and my list,” she said. She imported a contacts list she had from a previous newsletter and got started. “I didn’t want to make videos, post pictures, showcase my little feet on OnlyFans. I wanted to go back to writing, to worrying about the issues I’ve always been worried about, doing my thing.” It’s been working so far, she said, “but I work a lot, not going to lie.”

These days she also works on the French-Brazilian newstech team at Headline Brasil, but when Tá Todo Mundo Tentando launched during the coronavirus lockdown, the newsletter became her only occupation. “It was in the middle of the pandemic and right after I resigned from a job that left me feeling dead inside,” Passarelli said. “I found myself with severance pay in the bank and the opportunity to think about what I would like to do. The only answer I found was to write.” 

Shortly afterward, Passarelli was selected for the Substack Local accelerator program, which resulted in Paulicéia, a newsletter dedicated to São Paulo’s nightlife and culture. The initiative provided a grant for the duration of the project, mentoring sessions with a professional designated by Substack, and conversations with the platform’s product team. Paulicéia is no longer active, but it lives on as a part of TTMT’s weekly guide of places and things to do in Brazil’s largest capital. And Passarelli continues to take part in initiatives such as Writers League, a Slack channel she shares with authors from around the world.

An Audience of Continental Proportions

Brazil still has major potential as a market for newsletter providers to invest in — despite Portuguese being only the ninth most-spoken language in the world. Brazil is the largest territory in South America, with 217 million people, the fifth-largest country by area and the seventh most populous. Over 84% of its population is currently online, which makes it no. 4 on the list of countries with the most internet users in the world. 

More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic helped boost the growth of newsletters locally. With many people spending more time at home and consuming more digital media, newsletters became a key way for readers to stay informed about news and events in the country. But even before the pandemic, Brazil had its fair share of newsletters to keep audiences informed. Although every major traditional media outlet had already joined this trend, independent publications were quickly catching up. 

One particular case stands out: Meio is a daily newsletter that features a rundown of news on topics such as politics, tech and culture, with a subscriber base of over 180,000, with 13,000 paid subscriptions — one of the most prominent examples that Brazilians are ready to pay for journalism and writing they believe in, as the country regains confidence after a tumultuous election and change in leadership.

According to Marcio Gonçalves, a university professor at Faculdades Integradas Hélio Alonso (FACHA) in Rio de Janeiro and an expert in business communication, journalism, and digital media, the resurgence of the newsletter format isn’t necessarily a shift.

“I prefer to call it adaptation. The public that trusts the information subscribes to a newsletter because they know that the content adds value to their knowledge. It’s not about an attractive format. We return to the need for a quality text to engage the reader,” said Gonçalves, who, with his students, runs a newsletter lab focused on data analysis. 

A Community of Writers

Brazilians are quick to catch up. These days, authors are looking to build readership and revenue, and a community is starting to develop.

Vanessa Guedes, a Brazilian programmer based in Stockholm, publishes fiction in literary publications and non-fiction in her newsletter, Segredos em Órbita (Secrets in Orbit). In 2021, she noticed a spike in the number of people reading and writing newsletters. She signed up for hundreds of them to keep up with writers’ styles, post formats, and other trends. A year later, Guedes started a Telegram group alongside the team that spearheaded the online event O Texto & O Tempo (The Text & The Time), a two-day seminar with writers who stood out in the Brazilian newsletter space. Now, the Telegram group has over 150 members and counting.

“With the growth of newsletters, I noticed that we were creating a community,” Guedes said. “I felt like getting closer and bringing people together — both the writer, who’s making things happen, and the reader, who keeps this community active.”

And the community’s expressed interest in more events. Organizers said they’re working on another O Texto & O Tempo event to serve Brazilian writers.

Developing a Voice

With more people joining the newsletter game, standing out has become harder. The best way to differentiate a newsletter is through strong writing. Passarelli suggested a “practice makes perfect” kind of approach. “Write and publish every week — there’s no way to get around it. You have to write, write, write,” she said. “Try ideas, read other newsletters, invent formats. Everything is valid.” While developing their own voice and niche, she said, writers must dedicate themselves to getting to know their readers and market. “It’s daily and constant work, which involves knowing how to ‘sell yourself’ — my biggest difficulty — while never stopping experimenting,” she said. 

Turning on paid subscriptions can be the next step for successful newsletter operators, but few independent writers in Brazil are earning a full-time living through this model. It takes time to build an audience loyal and large enough to turn a profit. For Passarelli, it was a whole year before she could say an important part of her income came from the newsletter.

“Today, the amount I get from TTMT supporters already makes a difference in my monthly budget,” she said. It is a stable source of income, but it is not her only one. Passarelli’s hope is that TTMT will be her primary source of revenue some time in 2024, “but I am aware that this process involves many factors that I do not control, such as the Brazilian economy.”

Potential for Further Growth 

Despite the newsletter boom in Brazil, the market remains relatively nascent compared to other countries. Many writers and journalists are still exploring the medium’s potential, and there is ample room for new voices and perspectives to emerge.

The key to unlocking the next step in the evolution of the newsletter format in Brazil may be found in academia. Journalism schools — and prestigious ones, such as ESPM in São Paulo and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, are slowly rolling out courses in copywriting, adding a new set of tools for the next classes of graduates. These programs, such as FACHA’s “Journalism 4.0,” combine a range of skills still associated with marketing and advertising but less-frequently shared with journalism students. The newsletter format was, until recently in Brazil, seen merely as a sales tool for publishers.

“In general, the Brazilian academy is still not that innovative, especially when thinking about journalism and advertising,” Gonçalves said. “The job market, on the other hand, has already understood that new positions have emerged to accompany a more modern communication professional seeking editorial analyst positions and who understands SEO techniques.”

As the media landscape in Brazil continues to evolve, newsletters are likely to play an increasingly important role in shaping public discourse and engaging with audiences. With their ability to build direct relationships with readers and foster meaningful conversations, newsletters have the potential to create a more vibrant and diverse media ecosystem in Brazil. And, following Passarelli’s example, there is a whole gang of writers already taking the lead.