case study
The Flyover
Flyover is a newsletter about the “Flyover States,” the middle of America that tech and media tend to ignore. Great writing, strong subscriber base, zero video content.
They came to us wanting to turn their written reporting into a YouTube presence.
Why did they come to Content Forge?
Newsletters don't naturally translate to video. The writing style, the pacing, the depth. It all has to be rethought for a visual medium.
Flyover's team knew how to write, and we know how to produce video. Standing that up in-house would have taken bandwidth they were already spending on the newsletter, so they needed someone to build the bridge between their editorial voice and YouTube.
How We Helped
We built a newsletter-to-video pipeline. Each issue became source material: the editorial team would publish, and our team would identify which stories had visual potential and adapt them for short-form and long-form video.
We tested three distinct editorial styles to find what worked: straight news coverage, opinion-driven commentary, and investigative deep-dives.
The First 3 Months
The first month was mostly testing: which stories translate to video, how much of the written voice carries over, how long the videos should be.
We learned fast that opinion-driven content worked best. The newsletter's strongest asset was its point of view, so we put someone on camera actually taking a stance. Straight news recaps didn't move the needle. People watched Flyover for the take.
Our First Viral Video
The investigative-style content surprised us. A deep-dive into a story the mainstream media had mostly ignored picked up traction and outperformed the lighter content by a wide margin.
Turns out the audience wanted substance.
The Step Change
Between February and July 2026 the channel published 201 episodes and did 7.35 million views. Output was flat the whole way through, between 29 and 36 episodes a month, close to one a day. So whatever moved, it was not volume.
It moved in May. Monthly views went from around 0.9 million to around 1.55 million and have held there for three straight months. Average views per episode went from 27,800 across February to April to 44,800 across May to July, up about 60 percent on the same output.
| Month | Episodes | Views | Avg per episode |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 2026 | 29 | 892,000 | 30,759 |
| March 2026 | 35 | 964,100 | 27,546 |
| April 2026 | 33 | 839,900 | 25,452 |
| May 2026 | 36 | 1,563,600 | 43,433 |
| June 2026 | 34 | 1,563,000 | 45,971 |
| July 2026 | 34 | 1,528,000 | 44,941 |
Results
Volume
- 201 episodes published between February and July 2026, close to one a day.
- 7.35 million views across those episodes.
- Output held between 29 and 36 episodes a month for six straight months.
Performance
- Average views per episode up about 60 percent, from 27,800 to 44,800.
- Monthly views stepped from around 0.9 million to around 1.55 million in May, and held.
- Best month so far is June, at 46,000 average views per episode.
Content Strategy
- Newsletter-to-video pipeline built and repeatable.
- Three editorial styles tested, best performer identified.
What our clients have to say
“Really like the product and think y'all are on the right track!”
Guy Swann
The Flyover
