Almost 10x Growth for Ad Crucem News in One Year

A year down the road, Ad Crucem continues to grow and fill a micro news, commentary, and analysis niche.

Ad Crucem News was started in 2022, when the business side’s paid advertising channels began failing to generate customers or even browsing traffic. We A/B tested several concepts to build interest, but more importantly, to attract “sticky” readers who might have an affinity for Ad Crucem.

After eighteen months, the formula for success started became clear. There is demand for strongly independent LCMS-anchored news, commentary, and analytics that fill a gap between the Synod’s organs (Witness & Reporter), Christian News, Issues Etc., Gottesblog, The Lutheran Clarion, and Brothers of John the Steadfast. The niche attracted readers as well as new customers that our paid and partner channels were stalling out on. While filling the sales gap has been helpful, it has been rewarding to see that the initial customer development angle was not as crucial as providing independent news and opinion that meet demand and interest from the LCMS, especially among the laity.

By the end of 2024, the publishing model had been cemented. At the start of 2025, a decision was made to halt all paid social media advertising as homegrown customer conversions increased. Instead, we channeled resources to reward followers who shared our product posts by holding a monthly draw on Facebook and X. Remarkably, the cold-turkey quit of paid advertising has not had any negative impact, as Substack has taken up all the slack and more.

Ad Crucem News, without any paid promotion and through word of mouth alone, has achieved an 819% increase in views over the last 12 months, with +300,000 views and +50,000 unique readers (across all sources, but with just ~1,700 free subscribers and ~2,100 followers). Accounting for reprints and untracked forwards, views are closer to an annualized 400,000. At the current run rate of ~40,000 views per month, 500,000 annual views is in reach next year.

To be sure, 300,000 annual views and 2,100 followers are far from setting any media records—it’s a very modest publication by any standard—but it is growing in size, reach, and influence given its micro niche.

Third party submissions are publishing, although we don’t guarantee publishing everything we receive. Feel free to mail the editors if you would like to submit an article.

We appreciate all who read, comment on, and share Ad Crucem News, providing both an outlet to address timely issues for the Synod and another means for us to focus on creating and delivering products that confess Christ’s atoning sacrifice in ways that beautify our homes and worship spaces.

To say thank you to our substack readers, we are offering a 20% discount on all complete Christmon sets (100 ornaments) in any of the three standard sizes (3.5” 4” or 6”) before next Monday.

Enter discount code at check-out: AdCrucemNews