Subscription digital magazine Air Mail, which is aimed at US news consumers with coverage of the arts, politics, culture, fashion, and the environment, has raised $17m in a second funding round, to enable expansion into e-commerce, podcasting and book publishing.
Air Mail was founded by Graydon Carter (previously editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair magazine). The company had already raised launch funding of $19m in 2019. Carter’s project now claims 130k subscribers (including trialists) and has a staff of 50. It claims that 90% of people who trial Air Mail are converted to subscribers.
Carter says that e-commerce “wasn’t even in our original business plan,” but has shown strong growth, doubling in revenue mid-2020-21: “We expect it to double again by the end of the year.” The company has also begun experimenting with its own branded retail products, like Air Mail branded caps, jackets, tote bags, coffee, and sleepwear.
The company is expected to invest in new monthly specialist magazines (in digital) but will also invest in print projects including its book imprint in 2022.
