A 10-year Oakland resident currently living in Rockridge, Kolby Hatch launched his newsletter, Oaktown.co, in July of last year as an experiment—partly inspired by his professional work with media companies and partly by a gap he saw in his own community. “I was advising all these people across the country who were building local newsletters,” he explains, “and I realized—I didn’t have one myself.”
By day, he works at a media company where he runs all the marketing and operations — coaching publishers with subscriber bases ranging from five figures to millions. He joined The Hustle in 2017, a tech-focused newsletter, and helped it grow to 1.5 million subscribers before its acquisition by HubSpot. That experience shaped his understanding of how email can be a powerful, direct relationship platform—one that operates very differently from social media.
“On social, even if you have 10,000 followers, only a fraction will see your post,” he says. “But if you have 10,000 email subscribers, they all receive your email.” For local newsletters, he notes, open rates can exceed 50 percent—far higher than most digital channels.
Rather than trying to cover everything, Oaktown.co emphasizes quality over quantity. It filters through the overwhelming number of events and presents a short, curated list that appeals to a broad audience, but particularly young professionals and families looking for ways to engage with the city.
“The problem I’m solving is that there’s just too much information,” he says. “You try to find something to do on a Saturday night, and you fall down a rabbit hole.” His solution: Condense the noise into a concise five-minute read, delivered weekly.
The approach appears to be working. After gaining traction late last year, the newsletter has grown to more than 3,100 subscribers and is adding new readers every day—all based in Oakland. His goal is to reach 10,000 within a year.
Growth has come through a mix of strategies, including social media—particularly on emerging platforms like Threads—and old-school tactics like posting flyers at local playgrounds. “I thought about who my audience is,” he says, “people like me—late 20s to 40s, often with kids, looking for things to do.”
The newsletter also reflects a broader shift in how people consume local information. While legacy outlets like the Oakland Tribune and East Bay Times still exist, he argues their digital experience hasn’t kept pace—and younger audiences aren’t subscribing. “I don’t know anyone my age who reads a local newspaper,” he says, “but they do care deeply about local issues.”
Looking ahead, he hopes to expand into original reporting. But for now, the focus remains simple: helping Oakland residents discover what’s happening in their own backyard—one email at a time.
