How to build a local newsletter people actually read ft. Tomo Chien

This week on Creator Spotlight we’re joined by Tomo Chien, the founder and editor of ‘Morning, Trojan’, a newsletter aimed at engaging USC students with local news. He highlights the competitive landscape of student publications, the importance of original reporting, and the strategies used to grow the audience.

Read the newsletter

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Tomo Chien

• Morning, Trojan

• LinkedIn

• Twitter/X

Francis Zierer

• LinkedIn

• Twitter/X

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Timestamps

00:00 Introducing Tomo Chien 

01:08 Disrupting the local media scene 

05:10 The freedom to be controversial 

08:57 The one change that brought 10k subscribers 

14:30 Finding the stories people want to read 

20:02 How long does aggregating content take? 

25:02 Tomo’s high school news project 

28:55 Why he’s shutting down the newsletter 

32:22 Future plans after the newsletter 

37:28 Defining creator journalism