What's new/newsy about newsletters?

by Nicole Zhu

What's a newsletter?

roundup of things in your inbox that you opt in to

WHY EMAIL?

"Nothing is certain but death and taxes (and email)."

- Benjamin Franklin, with my addition

  • finite
  • recognizable
  • pre-filtered
  • summarized
  • analyzed
  • less work

(related: David Carr's article from 2014 on newsletters)

"The age of insufficient information has ended. Our hunger now is for help in making sense of all the facts we have."

- Mitchell Stephens, Beyond News: The Future of Journalism

5 W's:

Who, What, When, Where, Why, How

5 I's:

Interesting, Intelligent, Insightful, Informed, Interpretive

"try to sell unique, high-quality ways of preparing food"

What's worth
paying attention to?

Let's dive into my inbox

ROUNDUPS

This. Nightly Newsletter

  • quality guaranteed - best of the best
  • rewards and builds community of reading and sharing

Nuzzel

  • makes your streams of info more manageable
  • staying in the know with your own network

More roundups within existing reading networks

NEWS

BuzzFeed News

  • branding (BuzzFeed news app)
  • highlights longform and investigative pieces
  • prioritization through subheadings and emoji

Quartz Daily Brief

  • unique sections like "obsession interlude" and "matters of debate"
  • non-news links get more clicks (Nieman Lab)

theSkimm

  • approachable voice and tone
  • explanatory and enjoyable
  • loyalty and community

EXPERIMENTAL

The Ann Friedman Weekly

  • trust in someone else's recommendations
  • experiments with multimedia (GIFspiration!)

Lenny Letter

  • creating safe spaces
  • mixture of essays, art, interviews

Jack Cheng's Sunday

  • reflective and meditative essays
  • personal and intimate

The Information

  • purely subscription-based and email-centric business
  • every article has a clearly articulated "takeaway"

Everything Changes

  • varies in format, length, time from week-to-week
  • interactive and involves readers

Writing your own newsletter

Tools

Managing your newsletters

Tools

Why newsletters?

trust and expertise
convenient and intimate
belonging to a community
new perspectives

Let's discuss!

  • What are your favorite newsletters and why?
  • What is a newsletter?
  • What could a newsletter be?

Questions? Comments?

Find me on Twitter @nicolelzhu or read some things I've written on Medium.