Steal my media kit. This is the exact PDF I send businesses when they reach out about sponsoring Catskill Crew. It's closed deals from $500 to $80K — often before I even get on a call.
11 pages below — each with my notes on what it is, why it works, and what you should steal for your own kit. It’s all yours. Hope it gets your creative juices flowing and helps you close some deals.
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WHAT: A branded title page — visual identity BEFORE any data.
WHY: Most media kits open with a stat dump. A real cover signals sets the tone. A designed cover passes that test before they even read the first number. Skip it and you read like a freelancer pitching from Canva.
STEAL THIS: Invest in a cover. Even a simple one — your wordmark, a tagline, a single visual that captures what your brand FEELS like. Skip the templated SaaS look. Local brands should feel like a place. Lifestyle brands should feel like a vibe. Make it match your brands actual visual identity, not a pitch deck template. The cover is your handshake. Please don't show up in flip-flops and socks.
WHAT: Lead with the four numbers that matter most to your partners — for me that is audience size, engagement, reach, channel diversity.
WHY: Business owners are busy and we want to make this as easy as possible for them to decide. Numbers speak far louder than any sentence can. Putting them on page 1 (not buried later) signals confidence and respects their time.
STEAL THIS: Order matters. Subscribers first (the asset), open rate second (the engagement), impressions third (the reach), social last (the support). The brand statement underneath ("not just a newsletter") plants a flag that my brand does more than email — and sets up the story.
WHAT: Audience breakdown by type — in my case it is 50% locals, 30% weekenders, 20% vacationers.
WHY: Sponsors don't buy "42,000 subscribers." They buy a specific kind of attention. A bagel shop wants locals. A property manager wants weekenders. A hotel wants vacationers. Segmentation lets each sponsor see themselves in the audience.
STEAL THIS: Pick 3 audience segments that make sense for YOUR market. Doesn't have to be locals/weekenders/vacationers. Could be parents/professionals/retirees. Founders/operators/investors. Whatever maps to who your sponsors are trying to
reach.
WHAT: A line chart showing the subscriber climb over time.
WHY: Sponsors want to back winning horses. A chart going UP matters more than the absolute number on it. Momentum signals this isn't a one-time fluke.
STEAL THIS: Show your last 12–24 months. If you're newer, show 90 days. The shape matters more than the scale — even 200 → 2,000 looks great if the curve is steep. Pick the metric that's growing fastest (subs, opens, revenue). Never show flat or declining.
WHAT: A wall of logos from current sponsor partners. (In this version: blurred — categories listed instead.)
WHY: Trust transfers. If a sponsor sees a brand they recognize on this page, they assume it's working — because if it wasn't, that brand wouldn't be there. This page does more credibility lifting than any sentence.
STEAL THIS: You only need 4–5 recognizable logos to make it work. If you don't have them yet, get permission to display the first ones you sign — even if you discount the deal to get the logo. Logos are the social proof: every future sponsor sees them.
WHAT: The contrarian frame — why this newsletter outperforms social and print for sponsors.
WHY: Sponsors are exhausted by Meta CPM hikes and print ROI questions. Naming their pain BEFORE pitching your solution = classic problem-then-solution structure. Plus, "we only work with partners who are a genuine fit" is a power move — implies
scarcity and quality control (this tactic can also increase what you charge per partner)
STEAL THIS: Find your contrarian frame. What are sponsors tired of in your market? Position yourself as the answer to that exhaustion, not just another line item on the menu.
WHAT: Three packages laid out side by side with clear breakdown of cost and reach.
WHY: Three options shifts the buyer's question from "should I or shouldn't I?" to "which one?" The middle option gets anchored by the cheapest and the priciest — most sponsors will pick it. This is one of the highest-leverage moves in any sales conversation.
STEAL THIS: Over the years I have found that the best tactic is to always offer three. Always show prices at this stage. Don't make sponsors ask. The "Reach" line under each price ties the spend to a number they can justify internally to their team.
WHAT: One full page per package, each laying out exactly what's included.
WHY: In this case, each tier needs to feel categorically different in KIND, not just degree. If sponsors see "same thing for more money," they always pick the cheapest. The price gaps here are justified because each tier unlocks something the lower tier literally CAN'T deliver:
→ Tier 1 = native integration
→ Tier 2 = prime real estate
→ Tier 3 = real-world access
Three categorically different products under one brand — not three sizes of the same product.
STEAL THIS: Each tier should offer something the tier below CAN'T. Don't sell "more emails for more money." Sell different KINDS of access — native, premium, or experiential. A ladder of offerings, not a price hike. If your top tier is qualitatively different (an event, an exclusive, a custom asset), the price jump self-justifies. If it's just "bigger version of tier 2," the middle option always wins.
WHAT: Contact page to bring it all home. One named human with direct email. For me, that is Mayor.
WHY: Sponsors want to email or call a person, not a form. A branded title ("Mayor") reinforces the local-place identity — playful, specific, memorable. Stronger than "Founder."
STEAL THIS: Don’t overthink the close. Add your name, title, and phone number. Nothing fancy. If your brand has personality, give yourself a title that reflects it. Skip the contact form.
WHAT I DELIBERATELY LEFT OUT
Just as important as what's in here: what I left out.
This kit doesn't mention:
→ my sold-out merch and wholesale board game company
→ live events that aren't sponsorable
→ any press mentions or awards that don't move sponsors
→ other revenue lines or proof points I keep elsewhere
WHY: A media kit is for ONE buyer — the sponsor. Every line
in here helps them decide YES or NO on a specific package.
Adding merch sales, community proof, or unrelated businesses dilutes focus. Worse, it triggers the wrong question:
"is this person serious about sponsorship, or throwing things at the wall?"
STEAL THIS: Be brutal about what doesn't belong. If a sponsor can't buy it, it doesn't go in the kit — even if it makes you look impressive. Brand momentum proof lives elsewhere (newsletter, social, separate "About" page).
I find that the best media kits read like a branded and focused menu, not a portfolio.
That's the full kit.
P.S. If you want to know how I generate the inbound interest in the first place — the newsletter CTAs that bring sponsors to me, the warm/hot/lost lead sequence I run, and the close emails I send when they reach out — that's all the stuff we discuss The Newsletter Club.
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— Mike Kauffman