Brand media acquisitions, in date order
Owned Media Directory tracks 7 acquisitions of media properties by 6 operating companies, from Stripe buying Indie Hackers in April 2017 to OpenAI buying TBPN in April 2026. Only one came with a reported price: HubSpot paid about $27M for The Hustle, so the total disclosed value across every deal is $27M.
This is every channel in the directory with an Acquired origin, laid out as one table: when the deal happened, who bought what from whom, the format, the reported price with a link to where that number came from, and whether the property is still publishing under its new owner. Click a column heading to sort.
Acquisitions table
| Format | Source | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | TBPN from TBPN (John Coogan & Jordi Hays) OpenAI's first purchase of a media company. OpenAI did not disclose terms. | Undisclosed | Active | YouTubeSocial | OpenAI | |
| Robinhood | Chartr from Chartr Limited (David Crowther) Bought for Sherwood Media, Robinhood's newsroom. Chartr kept its own name. | Undisclosed | Active | Newsletter | Robinhood | |
| Zapier | Makerpad from Ben Tossell Zapier's first acquisition. Terms were not disclosed. | Undisclosed | On hiatus | Course | Zapier | |
| HubSpot | My First Million Came with The Hustle, not a separate deal. | Undisclosed | Active | Podcast | HubSpot | |
| HubSpot | The Hustle from The Hustle (Sam Parr) Axios reported roughly $27M. HubSpot's later 10-K recorded a $17.2M cash purchase price, net of cash acquired. | ~$27M | Active | Newsletter | Axios | |
| Mailchimp | Courier Media from Courier Media (Jeff Taylor) Mailchimp's first print title. Forbes: terms of the deal were not disclosed. | Undisclosed | On hiatus | PrintNewsletterPodcast | Forbes | |
| Robinhood | Snacks from MarketSnacks (Jack Kramer & Nick Martell) Robinhood's first acquisition. Rebranded Robinhood Snacks, now published as Snacks by Sherwood Media. | Undisclosed | Active | Newsletter | Robinhood | |
| Stripe | Indie Hackers from Courtland Allen Stripe sold Indie Hackers back to founders Courtland and Channing Allen in April 2023 and stayed on as an investor. The site still publishes independently. | Undisclosed | Sold back (April 2023) | CommunityNewsletter | TechCrunch |
Deal values are as reported by the linked source. Where the acquirer never gave a figure the cell says Undisclosed rather than repeating an estimate. A property that came bundled with another (My First Million arrived with The Hustle) is its own row but is not counted as a separate deal.
What the deals have in common
- Built in-house
- 27
- Founder-led
- 2
- Acquired
- 8
Acquisition is still the exception in this directory: 27 of the 37 channels were built in-house, 2 are founder-led, and 8 were bought. The buyers cluster in fintech (Robinhood, twice), marketing and automation software (HubSpot, Mailchimp, Zapier) and payments (Stripe), with OpenAI the first AI lab to join them in April 2026. Newsletter is the format that gets bought, appearing in 5 of 7 deals.
For several buyers the media property was a first: MarketSnacks was Robinhood's first acquisition of any kind in 2019, Makerpad was Zapier's in 2021, and TBPN was OpenAI's first purchase of a media company. Prices almost never surface: 1 of 7 deals carriesa reported figure, and the best-known one is contested, with Axios putting The Hustle at roughly $27M while HubSpot's own filing records $17.2M in cash. Buyers tend to keep the name and the voice, and the one deal that unwound, Stripe and Indie Hackers, ended with the founders buying the site back in April 2023 and Stripe staying on as an investor.
Questions this table answers
Which companies have acquired newsletters or podcasts?
Owned Media Directory lists 6 companies that have acquired a newsletter, podcast, community or other media property: Stripe (Indie Hackers), Robinhood (Snacks, Chartr), Mailchimp (Courier Media), HubSpot (The Hustle, My First Million), Zapier (Makerpad) and OpenAI (TBPN). The most common format acquired is Newsletter, in 5 of 7 deals.
How much did HubSpot pay for The Hustle?
HubSpot did not disclose what it paid for The Hustle when it agreed to acquire the newsletter and podcast business in February 2021. Axios, citing a source familiar with the terms, reported the deal at roughly $27 million. HubSpot's 10-K for 2022 later recorded a total cash purchase price of $17.2 million, net of cash acquired. The Owned Media Directory lists the deal at ~$27M, the figure most reports use.
Sources: Axios, 3 February 2021, HubSpot announcement, HubSpot Form 10-K for 2022.
Has an AI company bought a media property?
Yes. OpenAI acquired TBPN, the daily tech talk show hosted by John Coogan and Jordi Hays, on 2 April 2026. It was OpenAI's first purchase of a media company, and OpenAI did not disclose the terms. The show now sits inside OpenAI's strategy organisation. It is the only acquisition by an AI lab in the Owned Media Directory so far.
Sources: OpenAI, 2 April 2026, CNBC, TechCrunch.
Know a deal that is missing?
The table is only as complete as the directory behind it. If a company has bought a newsletter, podcast, community or publication that is not listed here, send it over with a link to the announcement and it will be added with its source.