Email newsletters for journalists: a guide

Interhacktives

Despite numerous technological innovations — from 360-degree video (http://bit.ly/2kS5VJe) to social media live-streaming (http://bit.ly/2kSfF63) to robot journalists (http://bit.ly/2kSfVSH) — the trusty old email seems to be increasing in importance in the newsroom. Quartz, for instance, has several journalists based across the world work on its daily newsletter (http://bit.ly/2kS7ers), which releases at about 6am across time zones in Asia, Europe/Africa and the Americas, every day. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. The email inbox is, for many people, the first app or webpage they open in the morning and one that they return to multiple times over the day. Amid the noise and barrage of social media posts, the email newsletter may be the easiest and quickest way to reach a reader directly (http://bit.ly/2kS5gYe). In the podcast, we compare our favourite email briefs, such as the Times Red Box (http://bit.ly/2kSdbox) and Politico Morning Media tipsheet (http://politi.co/2kS1Y78), and why we like them. We also discuss the ethics of email newslettering. If getting access to a reader’s email inbox is like gaining a private audience (http://bit.ly/2kSgqfx) with him or her, how much should publications use it for their own marketing or political purposes? If publications, political parties and companies alike use people’s information for political or marketing purposes, does this count as an abuse of big data and reader’s trust (http://bit.ly/2kSbnf2)? Listen to the podcast to find out. Don’t forget to sign up to Interhacktives’ newsletter, too: http://bit.ly/2kS6N0s