I’m not convinced about the ‘newsletters are the new blogs’ chat. But, at the risk of sounding out of touch and longing for the Olden Days, I definitely support anything that operates in a web browser instead of an app.
Claiming the internet back from walled gardens – Facebook, mainly – is good.
If everyone created their own personalised corner of the web, would make it harder for us to be marketed to (arguably a plus!), and give control and autonomy over our ideas and online operations back to us and our businesses.
And so, the good old newsletter relies on the simplest platform there is – email. There’s no algorithm involved, just the challenge of creating something interesting, that hopefully people will sign up for, enjoy, and recommend to their friends.
I’m keen to try – my new project is the Sport Review NZ newsletter. Sign up at sportreview.net.nz/newsletter.
The idea is to deliver the best New Zealand sport writing and content, along with a video, a gif and some surprises, to your inbox every Friday morning at 8am. I’m not sure where it’ll end up, but getting there is going to be fun.
For myself, I enjoy newsletters that have a personal voice, are a bit geeky, and tell me something I didn’t know before. And link to lots of interesting things to read.
The ones I read regularly include Dave Pell’s Next Draft, Ann Friedman’s weekly newsletter, the Dicks and Betties newsletter (it’s cleaner than it sounds), Anne Helen Peterson‘s newsletter.
Along similar lines is my all-time favourite website Kottke.org, which has been finding and sharing fascinating links for over 20 years (he’s just launched his own newsletter too), and Martin Belam’s occasional Friday Reading series.
Also, shout out to Inky’s rugby newsletter – most of what I know about rugby I stole from him.
Let’s see where it takes us – I’d love it if you could sign up, share it, and let me know what you think.
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