It's sad but it works: "Whether you personally love it or hate it, the truth is, sticking a big ole pop-up in their face can be one of the most effective ways to jolt their attention & grab their email for a return visit."

In Defense Of The Popup https://cxl.com/blog/popup-defense/ (yes, page has a popup).

I’m pretty sure the process works like this:

1. Someone makes a good newsletter and reports high engagement

2. Anecdotes circulate in the pre-alchemy world of marketing

3. Everyone tells their boss they’ll get great engagement if they launch a newsletter, omitting the “if we do the hard part of producing good content”

4. Nobody remembers that if they’d put good content on their website people would have read it there, too.