How Tsüri Reclaimed 5+ Hours Weekly Managing 4 Local Newsletters with Sponsy

Tsüri is an independent, community-driven local city magazine based in Zurich. It delivers high-quality local journalism and public-interest reporting focused on politics, urban development, and the vibrant facets of city life. Alongside its digital platform, Tsüri publishes four curated newsletters, including its flagship daily Züri Briefing, which reaches a highly engaged audience of 29,000+ subscribers across the city.

As its newsletter portfolio expanded, the team needed a clear and reliable way to manage sponsorship operations without increasing manual effort or operational risk.

From Spreadsheets to Scaling Complexity

Like many independent publishers, Tsüri began simply: a single newsletter with one ad product, bookings tracked in a spreadsheet, and assets collected via email. For a small operation, this worked.

As the organization grew and added newsletters, ad products, and dedicated sales staff, the simple spreadsheet system began to break down. Managing three newsletters — later expanding to four — meant more advertisers, more bookings, and far more complexity.

To cope, Elio built internal workarounds using tools like Typeform and Calendly to allow sponsors to self-book placements. While it worked initially, the system soon became fragile: assets arrived late or incomplete, follow-ups became increasingly manual, and there was growing room for error as bookings increased.

Finding a Scalable Solution

Tsüri's requirements were clear. The team needed a system that could reliably manage sponsorships across multiple newsletters — one that handled slot reservations, provided clear calendar visibility, streamlined asset collection, and reduced manual follow-ups.

There was also a longer-term consideration. Elio was preparing to step back from daily sponsorship operations and wanted to ensure responsibilities could be handed over cleanly.

After researching the market, most available solutions were either too complex or designed toward large-scale sponsors, not local publishers. Sponsy was the only platform that directly addressed Tsüri's needs.

There was only one thing that exactly addressed the issues we had — and it was Sponsy.

Centralized Sponsorship Operations with Sponsy

Since onboarding Sponsy, Tsüri has transformed how sponsorships are managed across all four newsletters. The platform now serves as the operational backbone for ad placements, providing a clear calendar view, structured asset collection via a customer portal, and automated reminders.

Even with multiple newsletters running in parallel, the workflow remains predictable and easy to manage.

Tsüri continues using Pipedrive as its CRM, while Sponsy handles the operational side of ad placement.

Why Calendar Visibility Made a Difference

The calendar view was one of the features that immediately improved day-to-day operations. It gives the team a single, comprehensive overview of booked and available slots — which is essential when managing multiple newsletters with multiple ad placements.

With all placements in one shared calendar, the team can quickly see what's booked, what's available, and what's coming up next. This reduces uncertainty, prevents double bookings, and makes it far easier for colleagues to step into sponsorship operations without relying on informal knowledge or manual checks.

Saving 5+ Hours Every Week

One of the most tangible benefits Tsüri experienced was time savings through automation. Before Sponsy, checking which advertisers had submitted assets, sending reminder emails, and tracking responses was a daily manual task.

With Sponsy, these processes are automated: advertisers receive reminders, missing assets are clearly visible, and the need for daily manual checking is significantly reduced.

Together, these automations reclaim an estimated five hours each week that were previously spent on manual checks and follow-ups.

A Better Experience for Sponsors

The improvements aren't limited to internal workflows. Sponsors now benefit from clear instructions, defined deadlines, and the ability to preview their ads before publication — thanks to Sponsy's structured asset collection portal and automated reminders. This gives sponsors clarity at every step and reduces back-and-forth emails.

Support That Feels Like a Partnership

Beyond the platform itself, Tsüri values the responsiveness of the Sponsy team. Fast feedback loops and quick fixes have helped build trust and ensure the platform continues to fit real-world publishing workflows.

Results and Ongoing Impact

After more than a year of using Sponsy, Tsüri now runs sponsorship operations with far greater structure and predictability. What was once a fragile, manual workflow has become a system the team can rely on — even as the number of newsletters and sponsors continues to grow.

Key outcomes include:

• 5+ hours saved per week through automation
• Significantly fewer daily checks for missing assets
• Smooth workflows across all four newsletters
• Easier handovers between team members
• Lower risk of errors and missed deadlines

As Elio summarises:

If I had developer skills, I would've built something like this. It has everything you need — not too much, not too complex.

With operational friction reduced, the team can focus less on chasing assets and fixing errors — and more on publishing high-quality civic journalism.

Client Perspective

Tsüri now approaches sponsorship operations with ease. What once required spreadsheets and constant follow-ups is now handled through a structured, reliable system — one that is easy to hand over to colleagues when needed.

That sense of reliability is why Tsüri now recommends Sponsy to other independent publishers managing newsletter sponsorships — and some of these publishers have already adopted the platform themselves.