Newsletter writer's monthly media budget on Sume: $2.40
Four weekly issues with a header image, an audio edition and a captioned quote clip cost $2.40 a month on Sume, $28.80 a year, plus $0.60 per extra issue.
A weekly newsletter writer can add a header image, an audio edition and a captioned quote clip to every issue for $0.60 an issue on Sume, $2.40 for a four-issue month and $28.80 for a year. November has Black Friday on Friday, November 27 and Cyber Monday on Monday, November 30, so a fifth send that month brings the bill to $3.00.
The numbers below are a ceiling for the basic version, not a quote. They assume 3,000 characters of audio script per issue, three header takes on Seedream 4.5 and one 30-second quote clip.
Per-issue line items
Header image: Seedream 4.5 is $0.05 per image on Sume; three takes are $0.15. Audio edition: text to speech is $0.0475 per 1,000 characters, so a 3,000-character summary is $0.1425 and bills as $0.15. Quote clip: take a 30-second section of that audio, put the header or a quote card behind it with a timeline render ($0.10, billed per output minute rounded up), and burn the quote as captions ($0.20 for a video up to 60 seconds).
The audio edition should be a summary, not the whole issue. A 3,000-character script is a short read, and a request that would run past 1,200 seconds fails, so a long essay needs to be cut into parts anyway. Reuse the same voice id every week so listeners hear one consistent host voice, and say at the top that the audio is generated.
| Item | Per issue | Four issues | Twelve months |
|---|---|---|---|
| Header, 3 Seedream 4.5 takes | $0.15 | $0.60 | $7.20 |
| Audio edition, 3,000 characters | $0.15 | $0.60 | $7.20 |
| Quote clip render | $0.10 | $0.40 | $4.80 |
| Quote clip captions | $0.20 | $0.80 | $9.60 |
| Total | $0.60 | $2.40 | $28.80 |
Where to save and where not to
The quote clip is half the cost, which makes it the first thing to cut or reduce. Skipping captions drops the issue to $0.40. Skipping the render and posting the quote card as an image drops it further. If your readers mostly listen, the audio edition is the part with the best value per cent.
Do not save by skipping a review. A voice reading a number wrongly or a header image with garbled text reaches every subscriber at once. Read the audio script aloud once for numbers, URLs and names before you generate, and check the image at full size.
One extra issue, such as a Black Friday special, adds $0.60 using the same recipe. Add a second quote clip and it adds $0.30 more. That is small beside what most newsletters pay for hosting, but it does add up across a year of weekly sends, which is why the annual figure above is worth putting in your own budget file.
Sources
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Written by Sume