Editorial email newsletters: The medium is not the only message

An analysis of the content, business models, trends, advantages and limitations of the growing number of editorial email newsletters. The study, based on analysis and interviews with leading outlets, highlights email’s continued popularity for marketing and stresses its value in journalism. It offers a way to maintain a strong direct relationship with readers, a high degree of targeting, better showcasing of existing content and original analysis and commentary. Editorial emails provide short, simple, primarily text-based content “pushed” to readers in a way that is easily retrievable and quick to skim. The best ones have parallels in other forms of journalistic output: discovery, curation, serendipity and “finishability” in an ever-growing universe of digital content beyond the capacity of any individual to identify or absorb. While falling demand among younger users and more innovative digital platforms may ultimately supersede emails, these underlying characteristics will be ever more important and should be preserved