How To Build a Million-Subscriber Community With The Pour Over

The faith-based newsletter delivering calm, curated news to Christians—now powered by beehiiv

How To Build a Million-Subscriber Community With The Pour Over

Written by

Kanishka Kumawat

Published on

07 Apr 2025

Situation:

Jason Woodruff launched The Pour Over in 2018 to address the lack of politically neutral news for Christians. What began as informal summaries for friends turned into a full-fledged newsletter blending world news with Biblical perspective. The goal: help readers stay informed without anxiety and stay grounded in faith.

Challenge:

By early 2024, The Pour Over had nearly 600K subscribers but struggled with deliverability, platform scalability, and intuitive analytics. They needed an ESP that could support continued growth and deliver a clean, personalized reader experience.

Solution:

They migrated to beehiiv in April 2024. Key benefits included:

  • Simplified analytics dashboard for growth tracking
  • Subscriber quality scoring and lifetime value insights
  • Streamlined interface for operational clarity
  • Fast, attentive support from the beehiiv team

Results:

  • 930K newsletter subscribers and 133K podcast listeners as of December 2024
  • Projected to reach 1.7M total subscribers by year-end
  • Revenue from native ads, podcast sponsorships, and a “choose to pay” support model
  • Launched educational tools like a “News Health Checkup” and political content series

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