Morning Brew, Axios, Puck, The Free Press, Semafor, The Information. The newsletter economy is a multi-billion-dollar business news layer — here's the index of who owns business email and why.
2,900 U.S. newspapers closed since 2005, 200 counties with no local news, the LA Times losing $30M+ a year. The death narrative misses what actually replaced local news — newsletters, creators, owned audiences, and AI answer engines.
AOL launched Alto on October 18, 2012 \u2014 a web-based email client that organizes messages into stacks. The launch is a useful prompt to look at where the U.S. email economy stands at the end of 2012.
The 2026 media economy. Six surfaces — search, streaming, newsletters, podcasts, creator video, magazines. Substack, Spotify, Netflix, YouTube, NYT, Bloomberg, Morning Brew. The flagship Media Economy hub.