---
aliases: ["Reach 85k Subscribers"]
Is A: Goal
Belongs to: "[[2025]]"
Status: Open
---
# Reach 85k Subscribers

Reaching 85,000 subscribers by end of 2025 is the primary growth target for the year. This represents roughly 60% growth over the 53k base from end of 2024 and would position Refactoring as one of the largest independent engineering newsletters globally. Audience scale is the engine that drives [[measure-sponsorship-mrr]], enables premium pricing for [[2025-reach-22k-mrr]], and provides the distribution base for any future product launches.

## Success criteria

- End 2025 with 85,000+ total newsletter subscribers
- Maintain net monthly growth of 2,500+ subscribers
- Keep unsubscribe rate below 1.3% per issue
- Maintain [[measure-open-rate]] above 43% at scale
- Diversify acquisition channels: no single channel should account for more than 40% of new subscribers

## Key milestones

- Launch [[25q1-newsletter-seo-sprint]] to build a long-term organic acquisition engine
- Launch [[25q1-referral-program]] to drive word-of-mouth growth
- Cross 65,000 by end of Q1 (strong start to the year)
- Reach 70,000 by mid-year through [[25q2-reach-70k]] push
- Hit 85,000 by December with sustained multi-channel growth through [[25q4-reach-85k]]

## Notes

- Currently at approximately 75,000 subscribers as of Q3. On track but the pace needs to hold through Q4.
- The [[25q1-referral-program]] has been the strongest new channel in 2025, accounting for ~20% of new subscribers. Referral subscribers also have higher engagement.
- SEO from the [[25q1-newsletter-seo-sprint]] is a slow burn. Articles are ranking but take 3-6 months to reach full traffic potential. Expect the biggest impact in Q4.
- Twitter/X remains the largest single channel at ~35%, close to the 40% cap. Need to continue diversifying.
- Key risk: list quality at scale. As the audience grows, maintaining [[measure-open-rate]] above 43% requires active list hygiene and consistently high content quality from [[responsibility-content-production]].
