Is Your Newsletter So Unique It Can’t Be Ignored?
Josh Spector offers 4 ways to create something unique in this article.
Clickthrough rates? Open rates? Is there a better measure? This Iterable article breaks it down.
Discovered via Really Good Emails.
The Newsletter Exit Strategy Dilemma
What’s the “right” way to quit? Delia Cai looks at how difficult it is to exit a newsletter in this Vanity Fair article.
Discovered via The Media Roundup.
Email Is Evolving (Not Dying); These Stacked Stats Tell The Story
This round up of statistics capture the changing role of email. Bookmark them to share with the next person who tells you email is dead.
Discovered via theCLIKK.
Newsletters, Platforms, & The Fate Of Journalism
This piece is not so much a newsletter tip as an opportunity to consider the genre’s current role in the balance shift between media companies, independent creators, and the tech platforms that profit from their content.
In this Wired article, Chris Stokel-Walker proposes that though Substack has created what cofounder Chris Best claims is a better alternative to the broken world of social media—especially for those like Alex Berenson who have been “deplatformed”—that it’s not really that different:
“Substack has managed to build an impressive business predicated on the idea that people will pay for good journalism—and prefer to support writers directly, rather than mediated through monolithic media organizations. But is what Best proposes all that revolutionary? Or is it just doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past in a zeitgeisty disguise?”
He includes remarks from Chris Best and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford.
“‘Every platform, large or small, whether long-established or new, whether very public like Twitter or much more private like email newsletters, will face questions about content moderation,’ says Nielsen. ‘We’re at the beginning of the discussion around how content moderation works in semiprivate spaces like email newsletters and podcasts.’ The question is where that discussion leads—and whether Substack’s approach can hold up to further scrutiny.”
A stat that surprised me (it’s a bit hidden in the article if you’re scanning): in the US, 22% of people get their news via email newsletter.
Discovered via American Press Institute.
How Front Office Sports Scaled From 25,000 To 500,000+ Subs In 18 Months
Front Office Sports grew its audience 20x in 18 months. Their team is sharing how here.
Discovered via Really Good Emails.
Good News: Newsletters Are STILL On The Rise
The Atlantic just announced nine newsletters (and more to come) for subscribers and this has people asking, “have we reached peak newsletter yet?” In this piece for Politico, Jack Shafer takes a hard stance: no, not even close.
Why?
Onward, newsletterers!
Discovered via American Press Institute.
Ann Handley’s Newsletter Growth Story
To say Total Annarchy, the newsletter by Ann Handley, has grown is an understatement. She’s sharing what worked, what didn’t, and the metrics she likes to watch in her 99th issue.
Note: if you missed my ode to Ann last week it’s here.
Time For A Check-Up: Where One Newsletter Stands
Extra Points, the college sports newsletter, is 18 months in and sharing their playbook.
The New York Times Is Launching Opinion Newsletters By Artists. Why?
Sara Guaglione with Digiday set out to discover why Kathleen Kingsbury is exploring this newsletter strategy here.
Discovered via American Press Institute.
