The Morning News

What The Morning News does

The Morning News (TMN) is an independent webzine and daily email newsletter published on weekdays since 1999, founded and operated by Rosecrans Baldwin and Andrew Womack from Bentonville, Arkansas. The publication curates and links to interesting web content — spanning breaking news, slow-tempo analytical features, personal essays, investigative reporting, restaurant trivia, and cultural commentary — delivered each weekday morning as "TMN Headlines" to subscriber inboxes. Beyond the daily newsletter, TMN operates the annual Tournament of Books (a March Madness-style literary competition awarding a live rooster to the winning author) and the recurring Biblioracle book recommendation column.

The publication is built on Ghost 6.51, an open-source publishing platform, with content syndication via an XML RSS feed. The product surface is intentionally narrow: a website (themorningnews.org) hosting an archive of 14,309 issues dating to 1999, a daily email newsletter, and the Tournament of Books microsite at tournamentofbooks.com. There is no mobile app, no proprietary technology stack, and no third-party distribution partnerships. The editorial team comprises the two co-founders, two named editors (Emma Winsor Wood, an Iowa Writers' Workshop MFA candidate; Melissa Batchelor Warnke, a nonfiction writer and poet), and contributing writers including novelist John Warner and veteran freelance writer Giles Turnbull.

TMN generates revenue exclusively through a subscription model in which readers become "Sustaining Members" for an undisclosed monthly fee, unlocking access to paywalled links within the publication. The publication also accepts ad-hoc donations from supporters. Distribution is entirely organic — email signup, RSS, and word-of-mouth — with no paid acquisition channels or sales team. The company is privately held, founder-owned, bootstrapped (no external funding, no parent company, no subsidiaries), and operates with 1-10 employees. Customer base is a horizontal segment of general news consumers and literary-minded readers globally reachable through digital channels.

Name

The Morning News

Legal name

The Morning News

Website

https://themorningnews.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1999

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Morning News is an independent daily webzine and email newsletter, published weekdays since 1999 by co-founders Rosecrans Baldwin and Andrew Womack, delivering curated news links, essays, and cultural commentary to individual subscribers who pay a monthly Sustaining Member fee to unlock paywalled content.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Online News and Literary Publication

NAICS

Periodical Publishers (513120), Periodical Publishers (51312)

SIC

Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721)

akta.pro primary industry

Newsletters & Email-Based News Publishers (B2B/B2C) (MPAJADAJ)

Keywords

• Daily email newsletter
• Curated web journalism
• Independent online magazine
• Digital content subscription
• Literary news webzine

Headquarters

HQ city

Bentonville

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Subscription Memberships (Sustaining Members): The Morning News generates revenue through a subscription model where readers become 'Sustaining Members' for a monthly fee. Members receive the TMN Headlines email newsletter weekdays and unlock access to paywalled links within the publication. The publication also accepts donations from supporters, as evidenced by thank-you notes to anonymous supporters in the newsletter.

Pricing tiers

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

The Morning News is an independent, founder-operated webzine that publishes a curated mix of news headlines, essays, investigative reporting, and cultural commentary on weekdays. It distributes this content via a daily email newsletter (TMN Headlines) and its website, monetized through a recurring "Sustaining Member" subscription program that unlocks paywalled links. The publication also hosts the annual Tournament of Books, a March Madness-style literary competition crowning the previous year's best novel.

Product overview

The Morning News (TMN) is an independent webzine operating since 1999, published weekdays by Rosecrans Baldwin and Andrew Womack. The core product is a curated newsletter and website delivering headlines, breaking news analysis, slow-tempo features, personal essays, and investigative reporting. TMN also hosts the annual Tournament of Books literary prize and features recurring columns like The Biblioracle book recommendation service. Content is delivered via email subscription (TMN Headlines) and the Ghost-powered website, with an archive of over 14,000 issues dating back to 1999.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• The Morning News (TMN) Webzine Independent weekday webzine curated by Rosecrans Baldwin and Andrew Womack since 1999, delivering news headlines, essays, investigative reporting, and cultural commentary to general readers via a website (themorningnews.org) and email newsletter.
• TMN Headlines Email Newsletter Daily email newsletter delivered Monday through Friday mornings to subscribers, containing curated headlines and links to interesting web content; access to paywalled links is unlocked for Sustaining Members.
• Tournament of Books Annual literary prize hosted by The Morning News each March in which the previous year's finest novels compete in a four-week, March Madness-style contest, with the winning author awarded a live rooster; open to readers and literary audiences.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Market position

Strengths4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/themorningnews
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/morning-news

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Morning News