How Just Women’s Sports Drove a 75% Newsletter Growth Surge

Situation:

Founded in 2020 by former pro soccer player Haley Rosen, Just Women’s Sports (JWS) set out to put women’s sports front and center.

What began as a mission-driven media brand has evolved into a 5x-a-week newsletter that delivers women’s sports news “straight to your inbox” — game results, rivalries, key storylines, and culture.

Over time, the newsletter shifted from being just another channel to becoming the daily habit that:

• Anchors JWS’s editorial strategy
• Connects fans to the broader women’s sports ecosystem
• Supports brand partnerships and revenue across the business

To sustain this growth, JWS needed a platform that could keep pace with their ambitions and treat the newsletter as a core product, not a side asset.

Challenge:

As JWS scaled, three key challenges emerged:

1. They needed a dependable daily product.
   Fans expected a consistent, credible read that captured what happened and why it mattered — every morning.
2. They wanted to grow without relying on volatile social algorithms.
   Social reach could spike or vanish, but JWS needed an owned channel that wouldn’t be at the mercy of platform changes.
3. They had to turn attention into a sustainable business.
   With rising interest in women’s sports, JWS needed a clear path from audience → engagement → revenue, without juggling a complex tech stack.

To solve this, the team needed one platform that could support editorial operations, growth experiments, analytics, and monetization in a single place.

Solution:

JWS migrated to beehiiv and built a playbook around three pillars: editorial, growth, and monetization.

1. A daily editorial product readers rely on

Using beehiiv, JWS designed a repeatable daily format:

• A lead story that explains the biggest news in women’s sports and why it matters
• Quick hits: scores, standout performances, and must-know headlines
• A clean, skimmable template that makes the newsletter easy to read on any device

This turned the newsletter into a morning ritual for fans — a single, trusted source instead of fragmented scrolling.

2. Event-timed giveaways as a growth engine

Giveaways became one of JWS’s most effective acquisition levers, especially when paired with beehiiv’s growth tools.

Their approach:

• Event alignment: Giveaways tied to major moments like the Final Four, World Cup, or US Open
• Relevant prizes: JWS merch, event tickets, and athlete collaborations that attract true women’s sports fans
• Cross-channel promotion: Social, podcasts, and the JWS site all driving traffic into the newsletter funnel

The result: 96% of giveaway-acquired subscribers remain on the list a year later, proving the audience is both qualified and engaged.

beehiiv’s analytics let JWS track:

• Which campaigns brought in the highest-quality subscribers
• Open/click performance by acquisition source
• Where to double down and where to refine targeting

3. A monetization flywheel powered by owned media

With a growing, engaged audience and data-rich analytics, JWS turned the newsletter into a revenue engine:

• Advertising & Sponsorships: Premium placements for brands that want direct access to women’s sports fans
• Merchandise: Pride Collections, hoodies, and other JWS gear promoted in-email that consistently rank among top-clicked links
• Integrated ecosystem: The newsletter doesn’t just promote JWS content — it is a standalone product that feeds the entire business

beehiiv’s tooling (recommendations, referrals, and analytics) lets JWS treat the newsletter like a product: test, measure, iterate, and reinvest.

Results:

Since moving to beehiiv, JWS has:

• Grown newsletter readership by 75% in a single year
• Maintained exceptionally high retention on giveaway-acquired subscribers (96% still subscribed after 12 months)
• Turned the newsletter into a central asset for ad inventory, merch sales, and brand partnerships
• Built a durable media flywheel:
  Audience → Trust → Revenue → Reinvestment into women’s sports coverage

Most importantly, the JWS newsletter now acts as:

• A daily authority in women’s sports
• A community hub for fans
• A resilient, owned distribution channel in a landscape where algorithms change constantly

For creators and media operators, the takeaway is simple:
A well-built newsletter can evolve from “marketing channel” to full-stack media business- and beehiiv is the platform helping JWS do exactly that.