From newsletter to global media brand with a headless frontend

Morning Brew is a collective of media brands that equips the modern business leader with the latest need-to-know content.

With Next.js at the helm of their frontend cloud and Sanity as their Composable Content Cloud, they grew from an email newsletter into a global media brand—expanding into new lines of business with mediums like YouTube, live events, and podcasts.

They generated $50 million in revenue in 2021, more than doubling 2020′s $20 million annual revenue, and were acquired by Insider Inc. (formerly Business Insider). Morning Brew now connects with 18M+ users monthly.

A headless stack optimized for content delivery

In 2021, Morning Brew started working with Vercel to boost a bespoke headless tech stack, focusing on content delivery for optimal UX, and prioritizing ads as their core revenue source. They also wanted to ensure a fantastic developer experience for their small-but-mighty team of engineers.

Before growing and scaling, Morning Brew needed to upgrade their infrastructure to align with their growth strategy. A key issue was rigidity in their content experience. They were storing HTML in SQL, which was restrictive and created roadblocks to collaboration, reducing the team’s efficiency. To meet their goals, they would need a more flexible and customizable frontend.