Buy side · what advertisers pay
Newsletter advertising CPM
By Oliver Wakefield-Smith · updated July 2026
Benchmarks reviewed July 2026 · next review October 2026
The short answer
There is no industry-average newsletter CPM: rates are listed per publication on marketplaces like Paved, and the citable data is whichever listing you are looking at. The trap is the denominator. The same $500 placement on a 25,000-subscriber list with 10,000 opens is a $20 CPM by subscribers and a $50 CPM by opens.
Denominator discipline, worked
CPM = price ÷ denominator × 1,000
Per subscriber: $500 ÷ 25,000 × 1,000 = $20.00
Per open: $500 ÷ 10,000 × 1,000 = $50.00
Illustrative listing: $500 flat, 25,000 subscribers, 10,000 opens. Same money, 2.5x apart depending on the denominator.
Neither number is wrong; they answer different questions. Per-subscriber CPM prices the list, per-open CPM prices probable attention. When you compare a newsletter against Meta's $13.48 tracker average, remember Meta's denominator is served impressions, closer in spirit to opens than to list size. Comparing your per-subscriber CPM against a served-impression CPM flatters the newsletter by whatever the open rate hides.
Flat fee vs CPM pricing
Most small newsletters quote flat per-issue fees; CPM is how you compare them. Divide the flat fee by the audience measure you trust, times 1,000, and line the results up across your shortlist in the calculator. Marketplace listings give you the flat fees and audience claims to feed it; ask for open-rate screenshots on anything sizable.
Where to buy
Marketplaces (Paved and peers) list inventory with audience stats; ad networks bundle smaller letters; direct deals with writers price best for repeat runs. Niche beats size for response: the seller-side math your counterpart is running sits at newsletter sponsorship rates, and the audio equivalent of this trust-based pricing is podcast CPM. Full table: /rates.