Brad Wolverton on leading HubSpot’s 75M-reach media network

Editor’s note: The Fix is running the “What’s your media job” series where we look at different job positions and career trajectories in and around the news industry. For this edition, we spoke with Brad Wolverton, Editorial Director of HubSpot Media Network. 

Brad Wolverton has gone from freelance reporter to leading a major media operation. As Editorial Director of the HubSpot Media Network, he leads a team of 40 people that publishes a collection of blogs, newsletters, podcasts and YouTube channels reaching over 75 million people each month.

An American tech company that sells marketing and sales products, HubSpot has a market cap of $30 billion. Its media empire serves as a vehicle for attracting new customers, while producing free content that offers value to its audiences. 

We spoke with Wolverton about his approach to steering this network, his transition from reporter to team leader, and the trends he believes will shape the future of digital content.

The HubSpot Media Network that Wolverton helms encompasses four key verticals – blogs, newsletters, podcasts, and YouTube. They collectively reach about 75 million people each month in terms of impressions and engagement.

The blog network includes five properties covering topics like AI, marketing and sales. Together they attract 10-15 million unique views per month. On the newsletter side, the flagship product is The Hustle, a business and tech dispatch with about 3 million subscribers. A variety of other newsletters ladder up to the blog properties or cater to more niche audiences.

In podcasting, HubSpot has assembled a network of over 30 shows, primarily through licensing deals with independent creators. The company also produces several original shows, including the award-winning “My First Million” and a new AI-focused series hosted by YouTube star Matt Wolfe. YouTube is an area of focus as HubSpot looks to capture the platform’s growing share of audience attention, especially among younger demographics.

Rather than chasing traditional revenue streams like advertising or subscriptions, HubSpot Media’s primary goal is to support the company’s core software products by securing new clients.

“Our job as a media arm of HubSpot is to ensure that we produce content that is not only authentic and is helpful to our audiences, but that includes offers, things that people can download, like ebooks or reports that allow us to get their email addresses and then begin marketing to them so that we can interest them in signing up for our free software or potentially turning them into a paid customer for that software,” Wolverton explains.

Key metrics for success include leads, free signups, and the reach of the network. The team also closely tracks the company’s revenue that can be attributed to individual pieces of content.

Wolverton says his job as a leader is to empower his teams to do their best work. “My primary responsibility is not to be the person who is looking over their shoulders or necessarily editing their copy,” he says. “My main job is to clear the path for them to make sure that they don’t have obstacles in front of them and that they can do their best creative work possible.”

Another task on Wolverton’s plate – growing the network and his team. “I spend a lot of time recruiting people, thinking about how to bring talent onto our team, and then also how to retain talent,” he says.

Wolverton’s path from journalist to media executive has given him a perspective on what it takes to successfully navigate the transition from individual contributor to team leader.

He started his career as freelance writer at Bloomberg Businessweek, worked at The Chronicle of Higher Education and was an investigative reporter. Wolverton says he found himself getting more interested not just in creating content but in getting his reporting in front of the intended audience. This helped him get to the current position. 

How to be a successful media manager? The key, he says, is having an innate desire to help others succeed. “I come from a family of teachers. My mom was a teacher, my brother is a professor, and educators tend to want to help people. I feel like I have an empathetic side to want to help the teams and to help elevate the teams.”

At the same time, Wolverton acknowledges that the shift requires a certain degree of ego sublimation. “You also have to recognize that your work isn’t going to get the attention that it once may have as an individual contributor, as a reporter,” he says. “That was and still is challenging for me, to be perfectly honest, because I like creating the content”. (To scratch this itch, Wolverton launched his own newsletter called Newsletter Examples where he distils lessons from leading newsletters).

For those eyeing a similar path, he suggests taking on small-scale management opportunities before making a wholesale leap. “Take opportunities to mentor people and take opportunities to raise your hand when the team is going through strategic planning processes and participate… just test the waters.”

The idea is to get a taste of what it’s like to be responsible for the success of others, not just your own work. “Volunteer to do things that are helping less experienced reporters on the team. Just putting yourself in the position to see what it feels like to do that job before you actually do it full-time.”

Ultimately, while the transition from individual contributor to manager can be challenging, it can also be deeply rewarding for those wired to help others reach their potential.

“I think it's rewarding when you get to work with talented people and bring out the best in them,” he says. “And so that became almost more satisfying to me than pedalling really fast to constantly create something that people would notice.”

Source of the cover photo: Nick Werssaet via Unsplash