The Return Of The Editorial Newsletter

In an age of self-driving cars, cleaning robots and HoloLenses, it's quite surprising that ancient technological artifacts like newsletters are still around (the first mail was sent in 1971). Especially in journalism, newsletters are actually bigger than ever. In his Reuters Institute paper "Editorial Newsletters – The Medium Is Not The Only Message", Andrew Jack, chief curator at the Financial Times, took a closer look into the phenomenon.

The report is based on over a dozen interviews with industry experts from various countries and publications. It's a quick and very accessible read, covering reasons for the comeback (wide distribution, ideal for mobile consumption, finishability), various business models (subscription, donation, advertising, etc.) and factors of success (experimentation, delegation, technological expertise).

Jack's conclusion:

"Email is poorly suited to many of the innovations taking place in digital media, and may well wither in the future. But the practices it has helped pioneer, partly inspired by its constraints, around helping discovery, curation, serendipity and finishability are more perennial and can be usefully developed and transferred to other channels."

piqd by the way is also primarily used as a newsletter. Our Daily Digest mails make up for two thirds of the usage.

Bonus for the nerds:

In the appendix you will find 11 profiles of some of the most interesting/successful editorial newsletters.